I've bought myself the "basic" macbook pro and now I was thinking of upgrading the memory and its harddrive bymyself I figured out that I can buy the RAM and the SSD approximatly 100$ cheaper from online retailers like Newegg.com. So what I'm curious about is the effect of an Samsung ssd and the upgraded memory (from 2gb to 4gb and from 160gb hdd to 128 gb ssd) .. my special point of interest is regarding the battery runtime. The 6h is great but is there any improvement possible with the switch to ssd? Does it currently make sense to change or would it make sense to wait a bit longer before changing??
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
effects of 4gb ram and ssd
- Thread starter pharao111
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
SSD makes battery life a lot better because it consumes less energy. SSDs are developing all the time so it's hard to say when is the right time to buy. Within a year there may be 500GB SSDs for reasonable price but you can buy a new one then
Definitely get the ram, but wait with the SSD for at least a few months, that technology is evolving way too fast right now, so in a few months it will be cheaper and better.
Edit: For the record, I didn't wait, and though I "wasted" about 130ish bucks compared to recent prices, the performance is... wow...
Edit: For the record, I didn't wait, and though I "wasted" about 130ish bucks compared to recent prices, the performance is... wow...
100% yes on the RAM. Cheap and easy, no brainer.
THe SSD is the single best upgrade you can do. It is an absolute night and day difference in performance and usability.
The samsung's are pretty weak compared to others. If you can live with 80GBs, the intel SSD drives are the best and can be found for 250-275 bucks.
THe SSD is the single best upgrade you can do. It is an absolute night and day difference in performance and usability.
The samsung's are pretty weak compared to others. If you can live with 80GBs, the intel SSD drives are the best and can be found for 250-275 bucks.
I've seen several claim that battery life has decreased with SSD, so milage may vary.. (most SSDs are either on standby or on, it's not like HDs that spin up and down, power save mode etc)
More ram will make the computer access the HD less often, thus consume less energy.
4GB ram is te most cost effective upgrade you can do.
It's cheap, it doesn't cripple you storage capacity and you won't get four times as much for half the price next year
