Upgrade to SSD or buy M. Air?

bruleke · Dec 11, 2012

Hello everyone

Currently, I have this machine:

Macbook Pro 2010
15,4"
2.4ghz i5
500gb Scorpio Black 7,200 rpm (I only use 120gb since 2010)
8gb RAM
256gb Nvidia

What I use it for:
-Office;
-Internet;
-Stockbroker;
-Watch TV series and movies in 720p.

Good machine for what I need, right?

The thing is that I go everyday to the library and, on weekends, to girlfriend's house. So I am get that feeling that I have a heavy machine. Also, it would be good to have a faster computer.

This is why I am here. I am not asking that stupid question "should I buy this or that" because its my money and, if I want, I spend the whole damn thing in pizza ehehe.

The question, since I am not a computer expert, is: what's the best move to do: buy a SSD for my macbook Pro so it can run faster (although it supports the SATA II - 3gb/s - agains the SATA III - 6gb/s - in the macbook air) or buy the newest Macbook Air (256gb, 1.8 i5, 4gb ram)?

I am afraid that I could not get used to the 13,3" screen since I am used to the 15,4". Also, I am not so sure if its a step forward of a step backwards considering the specs of each machine.

Can you help me here?

Thanks in advance

Orlandoech · Dec 11, 2012

Tough call.

If you DO decide on the MBA, get 8GB RAM, don't get 4GB its not very "future proof".

A good SSD like a Samsung 840 or Crucial M4 will definitely improve speeds but the logic board will hinder the performance to SATA II Speeds and most/new SSDs support up to SATA III.

The MBA would overall be a faster and lighter machine but the Im not a fan of the Airs myself.

bruleke · Dec 11, 2012

Good point about the SATA speed. I edited my original post and wrote about that.
As I said, I am no computer expert, so, as you said, its a tough call for me =/

Orlandoech · Dec 11, 2012

Sell the MBP, get the Air w/ 8GB RAM.

bruleke · Dec 11, 2012

Orlandoech.com said:
Sell the MBA, get the Air w/ 8GB RAM.

You mean sell the Pro?
If you do, can you tell me why would you decide to buy the Air instead of upgrading my 2010 Pro? (I just want to understand

)

clyde2801 · Dec 11, 2012

Get thee to an Apple Store store, and check out the Air's screen.

Orlandoech · Dec 11, 2012

bruleke said:
You mean sell the Pro?
If you do, can you tell me why would you decide to buy the Air instead of upgrading my 2010 Pro? (I just want to understand )

Yea, sell the MBP and use the funds for a new 13" MBP or 13" MBA.

Just comes down to Specs vs Specs, with the 2012 being the dominate of the two.

Personally, if it were me I'd sell the current MBP and buy a base 2012 13" and user upgrade the RAM to 16GB and throw in a Samsung 840 SSD and have a beast of a machine.

smellalot · Dec 11, 2012

OK, my opinion: you wont notice the difference between SATA3 and SATA6.

Also, what do you do with your computer for which you HDD is too slow? From what you wrote it sounds to me like you can open all your apps and be happy with it. No need for a SSD anyway.

My recommendation: get any MBA with 4 GB RAM. Or 8 GB if you want to future proof. You'll love the size and weight! The only complaint I ever had with my MBA was the small SSD. But you might get by with 128 GB and a big SD card (on the 13").

clyde2801 · Dec 11, 2012

Orlandoech.com said:
Yea, sell the MBP and use the funds for a new 13" MBP or 13" MBA.

Just comes down to Specs vs Specs, with the 2012 being the dominate of the two.

Personally, if it were me I'd sell the current MBP and buy a base 2012 13" and user upgrade the RAM to 16GB and throw in a Samsung 840 SSD and have a beast of a machine.

Or soldier on with the 2010 using the SSD and get a bit more use out of it. You MAY be able to use it in newer machine and get full use out of it, depending on how long Apple keeps making classics. If not, you've got a pretty speedy & durable external drive ready to go.

Orlandoech · Dec 11, 2012

clyde2801 said:
Or soldier on with the 2010 using the SSD and get a bit more use out of it. You MAY be able to use it in newer machine and get full use out of it, depending on how long Apple keeps making classics. If not, you've got a pretty speedy & durable external drive ready to go.

There you go, you made your decision!

Essenar · Dec 11, 2012

This is more of a lateral upgrade.

What you gain slightly in processor performance is slightly neglected by the fact that it's an LV processor and you lose discrete graphics.

My vote? Buy the SSD and soldier on with the 15". Maybe carrying the 15" will assist slightly with putting on some muscle tone for the girlfriend.

The 15" isn't god awfully heavy and if you're going to downgrade real estate, my vote is also for the 13" Pro. I would pick a 13" Pro with self-upgraded 8GB DDR3 kit ($30 on Newegg) and optical drive hard-drive tray with an SSD. You get a light machine with exceptionally faster performance due to the full Core i5 plus you can set up a faux FusionDrive using the SSD and hard drive combination. I'm not a huge fan of the MacBook Air. Ever since it's release most people I know, including professionals in my field, consider the MacBook Air a 'secondary computer'.

Your 2010 15" Pro is good for another year or so and the new processors next year are going to be the bee's knees.

Krazy Bill · Dec 11, 2012

You ask the impossible question. On the one hand you want something lighter but are unwilling to go with a smaller display.

It seems to me, that once you decide what you want in that regard the choice will be clear.

bruleke · Dec 11, 2012

Essenar said:
This is more of a lateral upgrade.

What you gain slightly in processor performance is slightly neglected by the fact that it's an LV processor and you lose discrete graphics.

My vote? Buy the SSD and soldier on with the 15". Maybe carrying the 15" will assist slightly with putting on some muscle tone for the girlfriend.

The 15" isn't god awfully heavy and if you're going to downgrade real estate, my vote is also for the 13" Pro. I would pick a 13" Pro with self-upgraded 8GB DDR3 kit ($30 on Newegg) and optical drive hard-drive tray with an SSD. You get a light machine with exceptionally faster performance due to the full Core i5 plus you can set up a faux FusionDrive using the SSD and hard drive combination. I'm not a huge fan of the MacBook Air. Ever since it's release most people I know, including professionals in my field, consider the MacBook Air a 'secondary computer'.

Your 2010 15" Pro is good for another year or so and the new processors next year are going to be the bee's knees.

You've convinced me, sir.
I will keep my Pro. Less money to spend, also

Thanks everybody for the help!

Justinhub2003 · Dec 11, 2012

The SSD in the MacBook Air will make the Air "feel" faster than the MBP. And for what your doing with your machine, you should be completely fine.

Your machine benchmarks at: 5494 on Geekbench

The new MacBook Air benchmarks at: 6623

2010 15" Macbook Pro CPU Benchs at: 4592 interger/7892 Floating point

2012 13" Macbook Air CPU Benchs at: 5136 interger/8802 Floating point

So actually the macbook Air is faster in every way except maybe graphically.

my 2011 13" MBP benches higher also than the 2010 15 MBP.

The Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge CPU's were really big jumps up from the 2010 CPU's.

So in terms of performance the MBA is a much better machine. And Im sure you could get used to the screen size. I personally love my 13" MBP and its lower res than the MBA.

bruleke · Dec 11, 2012

Justinhub2003 said:
So in terms of performance the MBA is a much better machine. And Im sure you could get used to the screen size. I personally love my 13" MBP and its lower res than the MBA.

But... have you ever had a 15,4" macbook to make the comparison? I'm just afraid to pay for "less", I mean, pay for higher specs but have a smaller screen. I dont want to get that feeling of having a Samsung Netbook hehe

Justinhub2003 · Dec 11, 2012

bruleke said:
But... have you ever had a 15,4" macbook to make the comparison? I'm just afraid to pay for "less", I mean, pay for higher specs but have a smaller screen. I dont want to get that feeling of having a Samsung Netbook hehe

That would be all in your head.

The MBA is faster in both technical terms and in real life speeds compared to your 15" MBP. My print production managers at work (graphic design/ color seps) use 13" MacBook Airs and they view and edit high res illustrator and PSD files all day. They also travel a ton so its the perfect option for them. And I work around 15" MBP's all the time. When I use one now, I feel Like I coud never lug that around because Im used to a 13" MBP and the MBA is much more portable than that.

Its all personal choice BUT the 13" is in no way a Netbook. In fact a poll on lifehacker found that 13.3" was the perferred screen size of their mostly nerdy reader base...not 15"

Even the 11" is 10x better than a netbook.

The 13" Air has a good resolution screen, up to 8gb of ram, a fast SSD, and an amazing CPU to push it.

PS have you considered the MacBook Pro 13" Retina?

bruleke · Dec 11, 2012

Justinhub2003 said:
In fact a poll on lifehacker found that 13.3" was the perferred screen size of their mostly nerdy reader base...not 15"

Really? That sounds very interesting! See, I have the 15,4" MBP, but I NEVER use ANY application in full screen mode.

Justinhub2003 said:
The 13" Air has a good resolution screen, up to 8gb of ram, a fast SSD, and an amazing CPU to push it.

Yeah

Thats my problem. I dont live in USA, so this 'little' upgrade of the RAM cost me almost 3 times more than in USA.

Justinhub2003 said:
PS have you considered the MacBook Pro 13" Retina?

In fact, I did. But do you remember the first MBA? Remember the USB port that was hidden? Really ugly and not useful. I dont want to buy the "prototype" of the MB Retina, if you know what I mean.

Considering everything you've told me, I can say that now I dont know what to buy. What really keeps me hanging on the fence is that I will have to spend more money for... a better machine or not? Will the current MBA be a better machine to me, considering my needs (original post)?

Justinhub2003 · Dec 11, 2012

bruleke said:
Really? That sounds very interesting! See, I have the 15,4" MBP, but I NEVER use ANY application in full screen mode.

Yeah
Thats my problem. I dont live in USA, so this 'little' upgrade of the RAM cost me almost 3 times more than in USA.

In fact, I did. But do you remember the first MBA? Remember the USB port that was hidden? Really ugly and not useful. I dont want to buy the "prototype" of the MB Retina, if you know what I mean.

Considering everything you've told me, I can say that now I dont know what to buy. What really keeps me hanging on the fence is that I will have to spend more money for... a better machine or not? Will the current MBA be a better machine to me, considering my needs (original post)?

Dont get me wrong, if you spend a few hundred on an SSD it will make your computer fly.

BUT it seemed you were happy with its performance already and were more concerned about its weight and the MBA is a good option there.

but AN SSD is not a bad idea if you decide to keep the Pro

Essenar · Dec 11, 2012

bruleke said:
Really? That sounds very interesting! See, I have the 15,4" MBP, but I NEVER use ANY application in full screen mode.

Yeah
Thats my problem. I dont live in USA, so this 'little' upgrade of the RAM cost me almost 3 times more than in USA.

In fact, I did. But do you remember the first MBA? Remember the USB port that was hidden? Really ugly and not useful. I dont want to buy the "prototype" of the MB Retina, if you know what I mean.

Considering everything you've told me, I can say that now I dont know what to buy. What really keeps me hanging on the fence is that I will have to spend more money for... a better machine or not? Will the current MBA be a better machine to me, considering my needs (original post)?

Dude it honestly isn't. We're talking about maybe 1000 GeekBench points? You won't notice that performance difference unless you pull out a stop watch and time how long it takes your 15.4" to render a file versus the MacBook Air. You will notice the smaller screen size, less ports/expandability, lack of a DVD drive and the missing $700 from your bank account from selling your 2010 15" to recoup some of the loss of buying a new Air.

If you pop in an SSD to the 2010 15", you'll get reinvigorated life in your Pro, along with an SSD you can use in the next 'classic' sized Pro you buy or even a really fast external hard drive.

bruleke · Dec 11, 2012

Essenar said:
Dude it honestly isn't. We're talking about maybe 1000 GeekBench points? You won't notice that performance difference unless you pull out a stop watch and time how long it takes your 15.4" to render a file versus the MacBook Air. You will notice the smaller screen size, less ports/expandability, lack of a DVD drive and the missing $700 from your bank account from selling your 2010 15" to recoup some of the loss of buying a new Air.

If you pop in an SSD to the 2010 15", you'll get reinvigorated life in your Pro, along with an SSD you can use in the next 'classic' sized Pro you buy or even a really fast external hard drive.

I think that I am a person who gets convinced when you talk about saving money - maybe its something to do with the fact that I make money with stocks, so I know the value of each "cent" I earn.

Tomorrow I will buy a SSD.

Also, you've just said what I was only suspecting: lose money with the Air, because I will pay more for "less" or to a "lateral moving" as an user said before.

256gb SSD Vertex 4 will do the job (there isn't Samsung 840 here...)
Also, how about buying a new battery? My MBP has that battery that is not "replaceable". Can I buy a new battery on ebay?

Essenar · Dec 11, 2012

bruleke said:
I think that I a a person who gets convinced when you talk about saving money - maybe its something to do with the fact that I make money with stocks, so I know the value of each "cent" I earn.

Tomorrow I will buy a SSD.

Also, you've just said what I was only suspecting: lose money with the Air, because I will pay more for "less" or to a "lateral moving" as an user said before.

256gb SSD Vertex 4 will do the job (there isn't Samsung 840 here...)
Also, how about buying a new battery? My MBP has that battery that is not "replaceable". Can I buy a new battery on ebay?

Don't listen to what anyone says about Amazon/cheap brand batteries. If they have high ratings, they're legit. I am actually a PC technician and I fix computers for money to help me through school.

I've replaced about 10 Unibody MacBook Pro's (15 and 13) batteries with Amazon/Ebay knock off batteries and I've had absolutely zero complaints. They hold the same capacity as new, they're far cheaper and in some cases they're actually slightly lighter.

As for SSD, the Vertex 4 is amazing so don't worry about not getting an 840. In some tests, the Vertex 4 was as good or better so don't worry about that.

How much ram do you have in the 2010? Maybe you can upgrade the ram as well. These are far better investments. The 128GB Vertex 4, a new battery and ram will not cost much beyond $200 USD and you'll breathe some new life into your MacBook.

(Plus let's face it... The 15" MacBook Pro is a REAL MacBook Pro)

Justinhub2003 · Dec 11, 2012

Essenar said:
(Plus let's face it... The 15" MacBook Pro is a REAL MacBook Pro)

What does this mean?

My current 2011 Model 13" out performs a 2010 MBP in every case minus GPU (which Doesnt bother me). A 13" MBP is just as much a MBP as the 15" especially compared to the 2010 models pre Sandy/IVy bridge

bruleke · Dec 11, 2012

Essenar said:
Don't listen to what anyone says about Amazon/cheap brand batteries. If they have high ratings, they're legit. I am actually a PC technician and I fix computers for money to help me through school.

I've replaced about 10 Unibody MacBook Pro's (15 and 13) batteries with Amazon/Ebay knock off batteries and I've had absolutely zero complaints. They hold the same capacity as new, they're far cheaper and in some cases they're actually slightly lighter.

As for SSD, the Vertex 4 is amazing so don't worry about not getting an 840. In some tests, the Vertex 4 was as good or better so don't worry about that.

How much ram do you have in the 2010? Maybe you can upgrade the ram as well. These are far better investments. The 128GB Vertex 4, a new battery and ram will not cost much beyond $200 USD and you'll breathe some new life into your MacBook.

(Plus let's face it... The 15" MacBook Pro is a REAL MacBook Pro)

Haha! Nice talking to you! I feel that I dont need to spend thousands of dollars buying a new Macbook Air (as I said, I dont live in USA, so the basis Macbook Air costs about 3,200, not 1,499 as in USA).

So, can you send me the link for a new battery? (use the private message, its better).
Also, I already have the maximum RAM: 8gb.

I will buy the SSD tomorrow (256 Vertex 4) and the new battery today as soon as you send me the link.
I have the A1286 MC371BZ/A model (mid-2010 2.4ghz macbook Pro 15.4").

----------

Justinhub2003 said:
What does this mean?

My current 2011 Model 13" out performs a 2010 MBP in every case minus GPU (which Doesnt bother me). A 13" MBP is just as much a MBP as the 15" especially compared to the 2010 models pre Sandy/IVy bridge

I think he was talking about those old times when ONLY 15,4" models were Pros.
The 13,3" models are good, but they do not have dedicated graphics card. I believe he was referring to that when said "real macbook Pro"

Justinhub2003 · Dec 11, 2012

bruleke said:
I think he was talking about those old times when ONLY 15,4" models were Pros.
The 13,3" models are good, but they do not have dedicated graphics card. I believe he was referring to that when said "real macbook Pro"

yea but that was just marketing and thats not the way it is now. The 13" MBP is a MBP hands down.

There was only one model of 13" that was aluminum that was not a mbp but they added a few things and thought it worthy of the name.

Its old school thinking to say the 13" MBP is not a real MBP.

And as far as the GPU goes, unless your playing intense games (which im not) then a dedicated GPU is not needed especially with how far integrated GPU's have come. I use my 13 MBP for my work which deals with super big hi res .Ai and PSD files and it handles it without issues and also edits video in FCP great too as well as Aperture.

bruleke · Dec 11, 2012

Justinhub2003 said:
Its old school thinking to say the 13" MBP is not a real MBP.

How about the resolution?
The MBA has the same as the 15,4".
I mean... it should annoys you, doesnt it? Everything so small but not good quality...

I think I could consider buying a 13,3" MBP with high end specs (still cheaper than the MBA here in Brazil), but the resolution... I dont know...

Upgrade to SSD or buy M. Air?

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