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8GB Ram or Dual SSD's, $$$ Burning a hole in my Pocket.

D

dsa420

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 23, 2007
440
14
Feeling frivolous and want to continue my upgrade pursuit of my MBP. Currently I have 4GB or RAM (came stock with my 15" purchased a couple of weeks ago) and a 256GB SSD boot drive.

The 500GB hdd that came with the machine is in the optical bay. Which would be the bigger bang for the buck, upgrading to 8GB or RAM or an additional 256GB SSD?
 
Send the money to me. You have plenty of upgrades.

Additional RAM will only make your computer faster if you have used all your existing RAM.
Another SSD will only make your computer faster if you put it in RAID 0 with your other SSD.
 
I'd go with the second SSD and do RAID 0.

I haven't had a need to go above 4 GB for my needs. I don't know about your computing habits though.
 
I've posted it in numerous thread. I don't see a reason why people would RAID 0 SSD's as there is no way to get data in and out of the computer at such speed and the single SSD almost never tops. Seek times and latency doesn't reduce either.

If you want performance get a single SSD and save up/wait for more ram. The second SSD will just add storage but you can do that with a normal drive. Just not raid them.
 
So much for the dual SSD idea.... I sounds like there would be no gain in speed.
 
Gabriel GR said:
I've posted it in numerous thread. I don't see a reason why people would RAID 0 SSD's as there is no way to get data in and out of the computer at such speed and the single SSD almost never tops. Seek times and latency doesn't reduce either.

If you want performance get a single SSD and save up/wait for more ram. The second SSD will just add storage but you can do that with a normal drive. Just not raid them.
Click to expand...

It reduces the time from getting stuff from disk to ram
 
... so let's go back to my original suggestion! I can stop that money from burning a hole in your pocket.
 
If you find yourself using more than 4GB RAM, I'd suggest going with the RAM offerings. Otherwise, a RAID 0 set-up will help you boost speeds to insane levels in notebooks.
 
Gabriel GR said:
I've posted it in numerous thread. I don't see a reason why people would RAID 0 SSD's as there is no way to get data in and out of the computer at such speed and the single SSD almost never tops. Seek times and latency doesn't reduce either.

If you want performance get a single SSD and save up/wait for more ram. The second SSD will just add storage but you can do that with a normal drive. Just not raid them.
Click to expand...

IOPS
 
geoffreak said:
Send the money to me. You have plenty of upgrades.

Additional RAM will only make your computer faster if you have used all your existing RAM.
Another SSD will only make your computer faster if you put it in RAID 0 with your other SSD.
Click to expand...

Adding more ram to supplement used up ram won't make the computer run any faster, it will just prevent it from slowing down due to accessing the HDD for memory swapping.
Sheesh, a year ago 2GB of ram and a 5400rpm HDD was MORE than enough in a notebook for most people. Honestly, do you really need 8GB ram and a dual SSD or is the OP just bored and wants to brag that he has money to spend?:p
 
HLdan said:
Adding more ram to supplement used up ram won't make the computer run any faster, it will just prevent it from slowing down due to accessing the HDD for memory swapping.
Sheesh, a year ago 2GB of ram and a 5400rpm HDD was MORE than enough in a notebook for most people. Honestly, do you really need 8GB ram and a dual SSD or is the OP just bored and wants to brag that he has money to spend?:p
Click to expand...
I had 4 GB of RAM and a 320 GB hard drive back in 2007 in my MacBook. They were cheap when I got them.

Personally, savings account and get ready for layoffs.
 
I'd get niether. Unless you're actually using up all 4GB of your RAM then I would get the 8GB. But 1 SSD for a laptop is plenty fast in my opinion.

Want to buy me a 160GB (or 80GB) of the new Intels pretty please? :D
 
dsa420 said:
Feeling frivolous and want to continue my upgrade pursuit of my MBP. Currently I have 4GB or RAM (came stock with my 15" purchased a couple of weeks ago) and a 256GB SSD boot drive.

The 500GB HDD that came with the machine is in the optical bay. Which would be the bigger bang for the buck, upgrading to 8GB or RAM or an additional 256GB SSD?
Click to expand...
Unless you need rather than want 8GB of ram (e.g.huge photo files to process), go for the second SSD, and place all your data files there. In replacing the HDD, you will be accessing your files at SSD speed, your second storage area will be utterly silent, like your primary drive, and the files stored there will be much safer than on a HDD, in the event of a sudden impact. It is always much better to separate your OS and your stored files in separate media, and much better for both those media to be SSD's than a SSD and a HDD (e.g both are silent, not just one, which will make one being silent of little benefit - similarly, with heat levels, and demands on system fans) provided the 2nd SSD has sufficient storage space for your needs.
 
dsa420 said:
Which would be the bigger bang for the buck, upgrading to 8GB or RAM or an additional 256GB SSD?
Click to expand...

Depends on what you use your machine for. What are you usually do on it that is strenuous?

Eidorian said:
Personally, savings account and get ready for layoffs.
Click to expand...

Indeed.

applebook said:
What sort of monitor(s) do you have? Perhaps upgrade if you don't have the latest and best. I'm dying for a 120Hz LED LCD.
Click to expand...

As a computer monitor, no. While some intermediate frames might be beneficial on large televisions, not so on "small" computer monitors; furthermore, DVI/HDMI is still broadcasting at 60Hz, making the point somewhat moot.
 
Financial responsibility is good...personally my spare income is going to stocks, IRA, CD's, etc...new computer hardware is never a good investment.:rolleyes:
 
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