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chrissgs

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 10, 2010
19
0
Hello everybody, I have a very simple question, would buying an external hard drive improve my MacBooks speed? Or would I need to buy more ram ( 512 MBs in each slot:p):confused:
 
Hello everybody, I have a very simple question, would buying an external hard drive improve my MacBooks speed? Or would I need to buy more ram ( 512 MBs in each slot:p):confused:

An external drive would only give you more space to store stuff.
There is an argument that a drive with less stuff on it will be quicker but it's debatable as to if there's any real word improvement unless your drive is truly full.

In short, More RAM is where it's at for you.

What year/version is your system?
Increasing the RAM from 1GB to say 2GB will give you a good increase in speed over all but if your working on more intensive applications there should be a very good increase as long as the rest of your system is up to scratch.

--EDIT--
Sorry I missed your signature :p

Looks like yours could be one of two: a v2.1 or a v3.1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacBook#Model_specifications
Both use DDR2 at 667MHz but the 2.1 (Mid 2007) can only take up to 2GB where as the 3.1 (Late 2007) can take up to 4GB of RAM.

This post will show you how to find out what version you have.
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/7465591/
 
Thank you, and it does look like I need a little more ram. I do think it is a late 2007, but I do not remember where I found that out from. Do you know a good website to get ram from?
 
Thank you, and it does look like I need a little more ram. I do think it is a late 2007, but I do not remember where I found that out from. Do you know a good website to get ram from?
  1. Click on the Apple in the uper left corner of your screen.
  2. Click on "About This Mac"
  3. In the window that appears, click on "More Info"
  4. In the System Profiler, look for "Model Identifier:" in the right pane of the window.

My model identifier is MacBookPro6,2 which is the 15"/17" 2010 MBP.
 
  1. Click on the Apple in the uper left corner of your screen.
  2. Click on "About This Mac"
  3. In the window that appears, click on "More Info"
  4. In the System Profiler, look for "Model Identifier:" in the right pane of the window.

My model identifier is MacBookPro6,2 which is the 15"/17" 2010 MBP.

I tried this and mine is a 3,1. I will probably upgrade to a new mac in at least a year.
 
I tried this and mine is a 3,1. I will probably upgrade to a new mac in at least a year.
Your Macbook is from late 2007, so yes, you can upgrade your memory. If you're running even OS X 10.5 I'd say you'll want more than 1 GB of RAM for daily usage. What do you usually use the thing for?
 
Your Macbook is from late 2007, so yes, you can upgrade your memory. If you're running even OS X 10.5 I'd say you'll want more than 1 GB of RAM for daily usage. What do you usually use the thing for?

I use my mac for firefox, garageband, and imovie. I do plan to start doing some serious editing in the future.
 
It was the question of the external HD increasing speed.

You completely reminded my of my dad :D

Actually, it's not so funny because it's true. If you connect a 7200rpm external drive to an eSata port for data, it can speed things up over storing on a 5400 rpm drive. Additionally, Seagate just came out with a hybrid drive that is part SSD and HD (Momentus XT) that will speed up performance. And of course, there is the option of installing an (expensive) SSD drive that will definitely speed things up because the read/write is so fast. Add one of those and more ram and your computer will feel like a new machine.

So... what was so funny?
 
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