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Memory Upgrade: What Brand
- Thread starter jw3571
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8GB would probably be overkill for what you described. That being said OWC memory is well liked around the forums, I don't personally use it cause I don't live in the US and the cross-border fees like to bend you over a table - so I use Mushkin and am quite happy with their reliability.
Actually the previous poster isn't correct, you would see a nice performance jump. OWC as a company is very highly regarded in Mac communities, the specialize in Macs, have great service, prices, and they're stuff just works. Buy from them with confidence.
Honestly, a nice SSD would probably be about the same cost as the RAM upgrade, but will bring a much more noticeable performance increase.
If you're worried about too little hard drive space, you might want to look into something like the Optibay. It lets you replace the DVD drive with a regular 2.5'' SATA hard drive.
My Macbook Pro i7 has an 80 GB SSD and its original 500 GB hard drive in the optibay. I keep my home folder on the 500 GB drive and all of my apps (and the OS) on the SSD. It's a great combination of speed and storage space.
Here's a pretty good price on the SSD ($179):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...167031&cm_re=intel_ssd-_-20-167-031-_-Product
I can't remember the brand of the optibay-type device I got, but it cost me about $40. No need to spend more for the Optibay brand, if you can find a good alternative.
Admittedly, this isn't for everyone, especially those that aren't really comfortable working inside their computers. For your needs, 8 GB of RAM probably wouldn't make a huge difference. I have 4 GB and I almost never run up agains the limit, even though I'm a pretty heavy user - CS5, XCode, Safari tabs, iTunes, etc. Even if I start to use a bit of the swap, the SSD is so fast that I don't really notice.
Anyway, it's your money. Do what you feel is best.
If you're worried about too little hard drive space, you might want to look into something like the Optibay. It lets you replace the DVD drive with a regular 2.5'' SATA hard drive.
My Macbook Pro i7 has an 80 GB SSD and its original 500 GB hard drive in the optibay. I keep my home folder on the 500 GB drive and all of my apps (and the OS) on the SSD. It's a great combination of speed and storage space.
Here's a pretty good price on the SSD ($179):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...167031&cm_re=intel_ssd-_-20-167-031-_-Product
I can't remember the brand of the optibay-type device I got, but it cost me about $40. No need to spend more for the Optibay brand, if you can find a good alternative.
Admittedly, this isn't for everyone, especially those that aren't really comfortable working inside their computers. For your needs, 8 GB of RAM probably wouldn't make a huge difference. I have 4 GB and I almost never run up agains the limit, even though I'm a pretty heavy user - CS5, XCode, Safari tabs, iTunes, etc. Even if I start to use a bit of the swap, the SSD is so fast that I don't really notice.
Anyway, it's your money. Do what you feel is best.
Depends on what he's doing as well...
If he likes to keep a lot of apps open, then that kind of displaces the SSD in terms of application load up time... and for most users a 500GB vs. SSD isn't too different except in terms of boot up time and when you want to launch/load things fast - which isn't too different from the 500GB. Just my opinion.
If he likes to keep a lot of apps open, then that kind of displaces the SSD in terms of application load up time... and for most users a 500GB vs. SSD isn't too different except in terms of boot up time and when you want to launch/load things fast - which isn't too different from the 500GB. Just my opinion.
Lots of unhappy people lately with RAM from OWC, I would strongly recommend G.Skill.
this thread will show you what I am talking about
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1056998/
Seems like a lot o the people are having issues with it.
this thread will show you what I am talking about
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1056998/
Seems like a lot o the people are having issues with it.
I am seeing an 8GB PC3-8500 kit from Crucial (on their website) for $139. Is this a pretty good price for the upgrade?
View here: http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=DFA12F1EA5CA7304
I saw the OWC deal but saw lots of comments from buyers who had crashing apps, kernel panics, etc.
View here: http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=DFA12F1EA5CA7304
I saw the OWC deal but saw lots of comments from buyers who had crashing apps, kernel panics, etc.
Given that G.Skill is $100 delivered from Newegg, not really a good price. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231294
I picked up this Crucial RAM for $90 when JR had a deal at $100 less $10 coupon. Shows same specs as your link but different part #. Crucial is a solid brand. http://www.jr.com/crucial/pe/CRT_8G51264BCK#productTabDetails