Academic Upgrading MBP

[techrobo]

I am an academic in the humanities and do most of my research and writing on my mid-2010 Macbook Pro (7.1). I mostly use web browsing and basic applications (word processing and basic media) on it and don't do anything crazy with it, but nonetheless it is working slower than it used to. I have reduced the amount of documents and media (mostly music) I store on it and this and other steps have helped a bit, but I am considering upgrading it in any case as I would like to get a few more years out of it before I have to replace it. I am considering upgrading two things:

1) Memory: I know this will speed it up. It currently has 4GB and I am thinking of upgrading to 8GB. I read that I technically can upgrade to 16GB, but I also read that it might not be worth it with the laptop's processor (2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo). Which is the case? Also, if possible would it even be worth upgrading to 16GB seeing as I am not using demanding applications?

2) Storage: I am considering increasing my storage space as well. I have read that switching to SSD would speed things up but again, would that be necessary for my purposes? I want to increase the memory to 1.0TB and doing so with an SSD would be prohibitively expensive for me so I am considering a hybrid HDD/SSD. Is this a good alternative for me? How much better performance is it likely to provide than a traditional hard drive?

Any answers or suggestions you could give me would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[Jazper]

16GB of RAM is an overkill to be honest, I suggest you get an app to watch how much RAM you use and see if you ever go over 4GB and whether the 8GB upgrade would be enough.

You could get a hybrid drive, but I feel that in a year or less you'll be wanting that SSD as it is significantly faster and definitely worth it. Might be worth waiting a bit as prices of SSD's are going down or even buying a used one, I know the EVO's have 2 year manufacture warranty.

 

[Hustler1337]

I agree with the above. Upgrade to 8GB of RAM as you're not particularly doing large amounts of multitasking.

In terms of speed, you'll notice a far bigger difference by upgrading your hard drive to an SSD, it' well worth the money. As a 1TB SSD is quite expensive, I'd recommend getting a 512GB SSD or lower and using an external hard drive if extra storage is required.

 

[techrobo]

Thank you both for the help. I'll look into how much RAM I actually use but I'm glad you confirmed that 8GB is all I'll likely need. I'll shop around for a good SSD and look at some used ones as well, and I guess I could always turn my old hard drive into an external for more storage.

Thanks again.

 

[cebseb]

Thank you both for the help. I'll look into how much RAM I actually use but I'm glad you confirmed that 8GB is all I'll likely need. I'll shop around for a good SSD and look at some used ones as well, and I guess I could always turn my old hard drive into an external for more storage.

Thanks again.

4gb may even be enough for you. If not, an upgrade is always available via third party routes.