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Late 08 upgrade(s) - RAM, Momentus or SSD?

S

srexy

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 19, 2006
566
34
I've got a limited budget - say $200 tops and want to eke out some performance gains from my late 08 MBP 2.53ghz 4GB ram. I'm by no means a power user but am guilty of running too much stuff (read - too lazy to close *****). I typically will have the following open:

- Firefox* (for my work OWA)
- Billings* (an accounting program)
- Skype* for work IMs
- iCal*
- Mailplane* (for gmail)
- Safari for goofing off
- Adium for IMs
- Address book
- iTunes
- Mail

* = has to be running.


The thing that frustrates me most currently is the frequent beach-balling when I have to open up a ram hungry app like Parallels or Photoshop. I've got the stock 320gb 5400 rpm drive with 80gb left. I could easily clean out an additional 40gb or so if necessary so space isn't yet an issue. What does MR collectively think would be the best bang for the (limited) buck?

I'm beginning to think RAM might be the answer but then again - if I were just to be more conscious of closing stuff would I realize better gains across the board with an SSD/Momentus upgrade?

Thanks, Rex
 
If you're multitasking and getting a lot of paging (Activity Monitor -> System Memory, then look at Page In and Page Outs), RAM is obviously the answer. Getting a faster SSD will only allow you to start up those RAM-hungry applications faster. :D

I'm running 8GB and I absolutely love it. Zero page outs. I'll run photoshop, firefox, itunes, thunderbird, etc, simultaneously with no problems. I think that's going to be your best bang for the buck.

Here you go. $135 shipped. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231294
 
LoneWolf121188 said:
If you're multitasking and getting a lot of paging (Activity Monitor -> System Memory, then look at Page In and Page Outs), RAM is obviously the answer. Getting a faster SSD will only allow you to start up those RAM-hungry applications faster. :D

I'm running 8GB and I absolutely love it. Zero page outs. I'll run photoshop, firefox, itunes, thunderbird, etc, simultaneously with no problems. I think that's going to be your best bang for the buck.

Here you go. $135 shipped. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231294
Click to expand...

Thanks for your responses both of you. I'm one of those Unibody owners that probably can't use the 8gb upgrade due to firmware limitations. I think my safest bet is the 6gb upgrade set from OWC but I will research further!
 
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