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Best Upgrade to 13"?

D

dmbmar

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 21, 2010
10
0
I am about to buy a new 13" MBP. Leaning toward the low end. I use it heavily for all Office applications, plus Photoshop, iMovie, iPhoto etc. No gaming. I'll install VM to run Win 7 on occasion.

Where do I get the most bang for the buck to improve performance: upgrade RAM; SSD; or i7? If SSD is the best bet, what brand etc?

Thanks for the advice.
 
I'm running a stock 13" right now and the performance out of the box is quite good. To answer your question about which upgrade would be best is tough not knowing more about how you use it. For my uses I'm fine as is but word on the street is the SSD is a huge upgrade and probably the first for most users. Ram would be an easy second and I think I'd spring for the faster cpu last. Honestly, I'd probably get a base 15" first.
 
dmbmar said:
I am about to buy a new 13" MBP. Leaning toward the low end. I use it heavily for all Office applications, plus Photoshop, iMovie, iPhoto etc. No gaming. I'll install VM to run Win 7 on occasion.

Where do I get the most bang for the buck to improve performance: upgrade RAM; SSD; or i7? If SSD is the best bet, what brand etc?

Thanks for the advice.
Click to expand...

In my opinion, in order of what you might actually notice:

SSD
RAM
Faster CPU


SSD I would either 1) catch a good deal on a Vertex 2 or 2) wait for the Vertex 3 to come out this month and see what price it debuts at. Hands down though, this is the most noticeable upgrade you will do. Faster boots, faster / snappier application response, etc...

8 GB ram kits are going for anywhere as cheap as $63 (picked up a kit last week for New Egg).

The i7 might be worthwhile if you feel you are extremely CPU bound. However, if you are majorly CPU bound in the first place, I might suggest looking at the quad core 15". If you are coming from a C2D model MBP, even with the i5 you are getting a 2x performance increase in some cases.
 
dmbmar said:
I am about to buy a new 13" MBP. Leaning toward the low end. I use it heavily for all Office applications, plus Photoshop, iMovie, iPhoto etc. No gaming. I'll install VM to run Win 7 on occasion.

Where do I get the most bang for the buck to improve performance: upgrade RAM; SSD; or i7? If SSD is the best bet, what brand etc?

Thanks for the advice.
Click to expand...

I would say the SSD. The high end 13" is a total rip off compared to the low end IMO. Id recommend an OWC Mercury Extreme Pro or Crucial C300 drive.
 
melterx12 said:
I would say the SSD. The high end 13" is a total rip off compared to the low end IMO. Id recommend an OWC Mercury Extreme Pro or Crucial C300 drive.
Click to expand...
Agreed, there's very little added value with the i7 13".
 
All that makes sense. Thanks.

The 128 Gb SSD is $225 with the education discount, and the best price I see for any of the suggested drives online is $200-$250. Why wouldn't I buy the pre-installed one? Not much (if any savings) and I have the hassle of installing and rebuilding my brand new computer.

The RAM upgrade is a no brainer - +/- $80 at Newegg vs $180 from Steve, plus very easy to install.

Thoughts?
 
You can get the SSD from apple but most aftermarket SSD are faster then the apple ones. Also get the ram from new egg I picked up a 8gb kit for 72 shipped.
 
How difficult is the installation and rebuild? I've done this many times on PCs, but never a Mac, and never a laptop. I assume installing the OS is drop the disc in the DVD drive and launch?
 
dmbmar said:
How difficult is the installation and rebuild? I've done this many times on PCs, but never a Mac, and never a laptop. I assume installing the OS is drop the disc in the DVD drive and launch?
Click to expand...

Use super duper to clone the drive to the SSD and then you can just plug it in. I just did this on my 13 and the difference the SSD made was amazing. It was beating much "faster" machines in day to day tasks especially launching apps.

You have to take the bottom cover off anyway to do the ram and it's just one additional screw for the hard drive removal.

I used this to clone my drive http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812119152.

  1. Plug the drive into the usb port and boot the computer off the internal
  2. Use super duper to clone the internal to the new SSD connected via usb
  3. Test boot off the SSD (hold option while booting, will be slow off usb but at least you can test it)
  4. Open computer, remove HDD, insert SSD, done!
 
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That's very helpful. Thank you.

Is it possible to run the HDD alongside the SSD by dumping the optical?
 
Get the I7 its a beast and save up for an ssd and upgrade in a few months. You get the best of both worlds that way.

If it had to be one or the other though i would go with i7 as that can never be changed in the life of the laptop.
 
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