Fix or Replace.. Old Pro 15/Air 11 vs. New Pro 13

[jchris28]

Ok so simply i have 2 Macbooks and was wondering if i can upgrade one of them for good prices instead of buying a new one. I produce music, edit videos and edit photos so i do need a computer that can handle a lot of activity at once and still give me very smooth and powerful responses. I current have a Mid 2009 Macbook Pro 15inch with 4GB of ram something around a 2.3gHz Core2Duo (gHz off the top of my head) and its old 500GB HD. Then i have my... 2011 or 2012 Macbook Air 11inch with 4GB of ram and a 1.6gHz i5 with its stock hard drive. Now i was scheming on a new 13inch Pro non-retina (to save money) strapped with an i7 2.9gHz with a 3.6gHz boost and an 8GB of ram. Currently i was thinking my Air because its newer and has a better processor. Also my battery has deteriorated so bad that when it gets unplugged it turns off so that needs to be replaced as well. Now when i turn my computer on its SUPER laggy and heats up really quick but i figure that stems from my battery problem. I was wondering, if i strap say a Samsung 850 Pro SSD to either of my laptops and up the ram to 8+GB, and replace the battery if its my air, if i could get a powerful performance able enough to handle what i do. Appreciate any input, thank you!

 

[yjchua95]

Ok so simply i have 2 Macbooks and was wondering if i can upgrade one of them for good prices instead of buying a new one. I produce music, edit videos and edit photos so i do need a computer that can handle a lot of activity at once and still give me very smooth and powerful responses. I current have a Mid 2009 Macbook Pro 15inch with 4GB of ram something around a 2.3gHz Core2Duo (gHz off the top of my head) and its old 500GB HD. Then i have my... 2011 or 2012 Macbook Air 11inch with 4GB of ram and a 1.6gHz i5 with its stock hard drive. Now i was scheming on a new 13inch Pro non-retina (to save money) strapped with an i7 2.9gHz with a 3.6gHz boost and an 8GB of ram. Currently i was thinking my Air because its newer and has a better processor. Also my battery has deteriorated so bad that when it gets unplugged it turns off so that needs to be replaced as well. Now when i turn my computer on its SUPER laggy and heats up really quick but i figure that stems from my battery problem. I was wondering, if i strap say a Samsung 850 Pro SSD to either of my laptops and up the ram to 8+GB, and replace the battery if its my air, if i could get a powerful performance able enough to handle what i do. Appreciate any input, thank you!

The old 15" that you have won't benefit from the full performance of the 850 Pro, because your Mac can only support SATA2 speeds at most (300MB/s or so).

And as for your Air, nothing in it is upgradeable. I don't think anyone even makes the SSD for the pre-Ivy Bridge Airs like yours anymore. RAM is also soldered.

I'd highly suggest that you just sell off both and buy a refurb MBP. Don't bother getting an i7 on the 13" cMBP or rMBP; they're almost identical to the i5s.

 

[jchris28]

The old 15" that you have won't benefit from the full performance of the 850 Pro, because your Mac can only support SATA2 speeds at most (300MB/s or so).

And as for your Air, nothing in it is upgradeable. I don't think anyone even makes the SSD for the pre-Ivy Bridge Airs like yours anymore. RAM is also soldered.

I'd highly suggest that you just sell off both and buy a refurb MBP. Don't bother getting an i7 on the 13" cMBP or rMBP; they're almost identical to the i5s.

Appreciate the help! Also the other would be a 2.5 gHz i5 w/ 3.1 boost. One thing i never fully understood was the gHz count on processors but wouldnt that make the difference if not the lower processor?

 

[yjchua95]

Appreciate the help! Also the other would be a 2.5 gHz i5 w/ 3.1 boost. One thing i never fully understood was the gHz count on processors but wouldnt that make the difference if not the lower processor?

It wouldn't make much of a difference in real life.

In fact, if you compare the 2.8GHz i5 and 3.0GHz i7 in the rMBPs, the performance delta is around 5-10%.

 

[jchris28]

It wouldn't make much of a difference in real life.

In fact, if you compare the 2.8GHz i5 and 3.0GHz i7 in the rMBPs, the performance delta is around 5-10%.

So what exactly does gHz indicate? And would you recommend strapping a new SSD on a new Macbook just to start off strong? Does SSD make a giant speed difference or handling difference?

 

[matreya]

So what exactly does gHz indicate? And would you recommend strapping a new SSD on a new Macbook just to start off strong? Does SSD make a giant speed difference or handling difference?

SSDs make such a marked difference in the performance of computers, I won't buy a Mac without one... it really is that big a deal

 

[nirvanemesis]

So what exactly does gHz indicate? And would you recommend strapping a new SSD on a new Macbook just to start off strong? Does SSD make a giant speed difference or handling difference?

SSDs are on every new Macbook these days. gHz indicates the clock speed of the processor, so a higher gHz means that the processor can run faster, but in daily use you'll rarely require 100% of the CPU so it makes little difference. SSDs, on the other hand, are a big improvement from spinning hard disk drives (HDDs). You'll get faster performance, a smaller boot time, and less noise.

 

[yjchua95]

So what exactly does gHz indicate? And would you recommend strapping a new SSD on a new Macbook just to start off strong? Does SSD make a giant speed difference or handling difference?

It just indicates the clock speed, but not necessarily indicative of performance.

The number of cores and threads, along with processor instructions, are the ones that really define performance.

An SSD makes a giant difference (15 second startup, instant app launching...)

But I wouldn't throw an SSD into the 15", it's too old. The CPU and GPU are obsolete.

 

[jchris28]

It just indicates the clock speed, but not necessarily indicative of performance.

The number of cores and threads, along with processor instructions, are the ones that really define performance.

An SSD makes a giant difference (15 second startup, instant app launching...)

But I wouldn't throw an SSD into the 15", it's too old. The CPU and GPU are obsolete.

Yea i was thinking either 13" rMBP 2.6 Dual Core i5 8GB RAM 256GB Flash Storage OR 21.5' iMac 2.7 Quad Core i5 8GB RAM 256GB Flash Storage (The Quad Core would make a huge difference correct?)

 

[matreya]

Yea i was thinking either 13" rMBP 2.6 Dual Core i5 8GB RAM 256GB Flash Storage OR 21.5' iMac 2.7 Quad Core i5 8GB RAM 256GB Flash Storage (The Quad Core would make a huge difference correct?)

If you were to get either machine, I would recommend configuring the order to get 16GB of RAM, because you cannot upgrade the RAM later on

 

[jchris28]

If you were to get either machine, I would recommend configuring the order to get 16GB of RAM, because you cannot upgrade the RAM later on

Ah appreciate the heads up. I thought for at least a Macbook you could open it up and replace the RAM. I know you could do it with older models.

 

[matreya]

Ah appreciate the heads up. I thought for at least a Macbook you could open it up and replace the RAM. I know you could do it with older models.

One of the side effects of making MBPs slimmer is the RAM is soldered onto the motherboard..

 

[yjchua95]

Ah appreciate the heads up. I thought for at least a Macbook you could open it up and replace the RAM. I know you could do it with older models.

Not anymore.

In fact, no Apple portable (aside from the outdated mid-2012 13" non-retina MBP) has upgradeable parts.

They all have soldered RAM.

Although the SSD isn't soldered, no third party upgrades are available.

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Yea i was thinking either 13" rMBP 2.6 Dual Core i5 8GB RAM 256GB Flash Storage OR 21.5' iMac 2.7 Quad Core i5 8GB RAM 256GB Flash Storage (The Quad Core would make a huge difference correct?)

Given your needs, perhaps. But what you really need is a quad core i7, 16GB of RAM and an SSD. Audio production and video editing are heavily multithreaded, so the 8 threads in a quad core i7 will be really useful.

 

[maflynn]

Ah appreciate the heads up. I thought for at least a Macbook you could open it up and replace the RAM. I know you could do it with older models.

As others stated, you need to choose your ram requirements up front since you'll not be able to upgrade down the road. I'd shoot for more then you need today, so it will be fine down the road.

One of the side effects of making MBPs slimmer is the RAM is soldered onto the motherboard..

I think it was more along the lines of apple locking down the laptop then designing it 2 millimeters thinner.