Early 2011 13" Keep Lion? -and a couple issues

Hey guys, I have the early 2011 13". I upgraded to 8GB of RAM and a 500GB HDD. (I actually went SSD, but the thing broke (crucial M4) in less than 2 weeks so I returned it)

Anyways, I'm super happy this Mac. It's my first jump to Mac from a Windows PC. I find it way more stable than windows.

I have only 2 issues really. 1 is that sometimes my page out becomes high, like a few Gigs. i *think* this only happens when i download for a long time, not sure. With what i do on there, and the amount of RAM i have, it doesn't make sense that it should page out that much. I beach ball occasionally.

The other issue is more annoying. If I have been using the computer for awhile, and then I watch an HD Movie (MKV or otherwise) sometimes the display gets all blocky and messed up for a few seconds. However if I restart the computer, and then watch the HD Movie, this generally doesn't happen. At either time I don't run other programs while watching the movie.

So, other than these two issues, I'm happy with Lion and reluctant to upgrade to Mountain Lion. I don't care about iMessage on the mac, or any other new mountain lion features. I'm thinking the upgrade might be more trouble then it's worth. Any thoughts?

As for those 2 issues, perhaps the page outs will be fixed by ML? But I have my doubts that the HD Video issues will be fixed. Anyone have any thoughts on these issues? Maybe how to fix them if they are fixable. Thing is, one of the things I do the most on the mac is watch HD videos, so this problem is pretty annoying. I should also mention I have the MBP hooked up to my 40" HDTV when I watch movies.

 

I followed the how to test new RAM recommendations from Mac Rumors, and no problems where reported, the test seemed quite lengthy..

It's a Core i5, I ran HD video on my Windows XP computer with a Core2duo (1.8GHZ) and only 2 GB ram just fine.

I actually do run VMware (Windows XP) for one really old online game that i play, perhaps it is that for the page outs. I thought about going to the 16 GB, but I thought 8 GB was actually overkill for me. I only beachball very occasionally.

 

Ugh that's brutal. I've had this RAM too long to return it I'm sure. But at least if I know the problem that will be good. I'll try it out, thanks.

 

I'll give the RAM another test tonight. I'm confortable changing the RAM, but if I can avoid it i'd prefer it.

As for the brand, i think it was Crucial. I'll check when I get home. I bought it from a Store that sells ONLY mac products, they have been open for many years, and they are an authorized service centre. They wanted to charge me the insanly high Apple price, but they agreed to match Best Buy for their online only price.

 

okay, newb question. How do i get memtest to repeat or do several passes?

 

Thanks, I know all the old DOS command and toggles, but its all useless to me working on my MAC now. I feel like PC users that started after DOS

 

lol I got that part but thanks.

I'm just saying I'm used to being a wizard and last night i couldn't figure out how to make memtest repeat.