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More RAM or new HDD to breathe life into this MBP?

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0186279

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Original poster
Nov 5, 2009
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I've got a mid 2010 13" and it runs fine but I'd like to get another two years out of it. Was wondering if I would be better off upping the ram from 4gb to 8gb or getting a better HDD? I currently have the stock 5400rpm 250gb HDD. If I could find an SSD for under $200 I would do that, but otherwise might have to opt for either a 7200rpm drive or a hybrid. At this point I'm thinking of just starting with the 8gb. I'm mostly looking to improve load times, especially with some games.

And on that note, what kind of RAM should I be looking for these days? Suggestions? Thanks!
 
SSD without a doubt if you can get one. Will make it feel like a new machine
 
Ssd. I upgraded mine to the crucial mx100 ssd 256 gb for 100. Huge improvement in my mid 2010 mbp. Did the ram after too but not as much of an improvement.
 
Mik3F said:
SSD without a doubt if you can get one. Will make it feel like a new machine
Click to expand...

It seems like prices are still outrageous for such little space. I am willing to get rid of my optical bay and have both drives but still...I'm not looking to spend over $200. Also I'm reading something about a TRIM issue with Yosemite?

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Bbafett said:
Ssd. I upgraded mine to the crucial mx100 ssd 256 gb for 100. Huge improvement in my mid 2010 mbp. Did the ram after too but not as much of an improvement.
Click to expand...

Dang, $100?
 
Well, this changes everything. I hadn't looked at SSD prices in a long time and the above mentioned is only $100 and has very good reviews on Amazon. Im thinking Ill just drop the optical, keep my other HDD in there and add this SSD, putting me at 500gb total, which is more than enough for me right now :)

Now, as far as the TRIM issue with Yosemite and SSD's, I don't really understand it. Could somebody put it in layman's terms for me?

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Meister said:
RAM won't improve load times, an ssd will.

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These days? :confused:
Click to expand...

Haha I mean I haven't really looked at computer upgrades in about 4 years or so :p
 
ozreth said:
Now, as far as the TRIM issue with Yosemite and SSD's, I don't really understand it. Could somebody put it in layman's terms for me?
Click to expand...

The process to enable TRIM on non-apple SSDs involves patching a storage driver. Yosemite enforces kext (driver) signing as a security measure so that the OS can determine if a driver has been modified or is not from a recognised source. If the OS detects a modified driver, it will refuse to load it.

The patch which enables TRIM breaks the driver signing and this results in the OS refusing to load the storage driver. This in turn means that your boot device will no longer boot. To get around this, a parameter needs to be passed to the kernel at boot time which disables this driver checking.

The problem is that under certain circumstances, this work around can get reset and your system will be non-bootable. The only means of recovery is booting off an installer disk and doing some command line stuff.
 
SlCKB0Y said:
The process to enable TRIM on non-apple SSDs involves patching a storage driver. Yosemite enforces kext (driver) signing as a security measure so that the OS can determine if a driver has been modified or is not from a recognised source. If the OS detects a modified driver, it will refuse to load it.

The patch which enables TRIM breaks the driver signing and this results in the OS refusing to load the storage driver. This in turn means that your boot device will no longer boot. To get around this, a parameter needs to be passed to the kernel at boot time which disables this driver checking.

The problem is that under certain circumstances, this work around can get reset and your system will be non-bootable. The only means of recovery is booting off an installer disk and doing some command line stuff.
Click to expand...

Not sure that was layman's terms, but it does sound scary!
 
ozreth said:
Not sure that was layman's terms, but it does sound scary!
Click to expand...

Usually, it is only a problem if one forgets to turn off the TRIM app before resetting SMC, PRAM settings, or doing system updates.

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You can get a Crucial MX 100 512 GB SSD for $199.00 It has slightly better read /write speeds than the 128 or 256 GB models.
 
Ok so I think I'm going to pull the plug on the above mentioned 256gb SSD. However, I'm not sure how to set this up the best although it seems like leaving at least half of the SSD storage free is a good idea? Also I'm assuming I should put my OS and apps on the SSD and store everything else on the other HDD?

Here is what I need:

- Bootcamp for Windows 7 (I'm assuming I put this on the SSD with OSX?)
- A few games on Windows 7
- OSX obviously
- All of my files

So do I simply make a time machine backup of my HDD and then install that onto the SSD, then proceed to run bootcamp in OSX on the SSD and install Windows 7 and then install my games like normal?

Thanks and sorry for all of the questions.
 
ozreth said:
Here is what I need:

- Bootcamp for Windows 7 (I'm assuming I put this on the SSD with OSX?)
- A few games on Windows 7
- OSX obviously
- All of my files
Click to expand...
You never mentioned that you run windows.
Check your memory usage under windows, too!
 
ozreth said:
It seems like prices are still outrageous for such little space. I am willing to get rid of my optical bay and have both drives but still...I'm not looking to spend over $200. Also I'm reading something about a TRIM issue with Yosemite?

Get a Crucial and you don't need to worry about TRIM as they have there own inbuilt solution
Click to expand...
 
ozreth said:
So do I simply make a time machine backup of my HDD and then install that onto the SSD, then proceed to run bootcamp in OSX on the SSD and install Windows 7 and then install my games like normal?

Thanks and sorry for all of the questions.
Click to expand...

Go and buy a copy of Winclone, this will backup your bootcamp partition and prevent you from going through the hassle of reinstalling the Windows and all the apps.
 
maflynn said:
Go and buy a copy of Winclone, this will backup your bootcamp partition and prevent you from going through the hassle of reinstalling the Windows and all the apps.
Click to expand...

Well, luckily there are only two games installed on there and nothing else, a reinstall doesn't bother me much :p

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Meister said:
You never mentioned that you run windows.
Check your memory usage under windows, too!
Click to expand...

I don't follow...
 
I just upgraded my mid-2010 MacBook Pro 13" with a 960GB Crucial SSD (macsales.com has them on sale for $348). My computer runs like new and is so much faster. I am running Yosemite and Windows 7 on the bootcamp partition, and have not had any problems at all. I installed Yosemite fresh, then migrated all of my data and settings. And for the Windows partition, I used WinClone to clone my previous bootcamp partition. Worked like a charm!
 
ozreth said:
Well, luckily there are only two games installed on there and nothing else, a reinstall doesn't bother me much :p
Click to expand...
I still think its worth it, because you have to re-add any and all tweaks/configurations and changes. Plus re-download all the updates. With winclone you avoid all that - just my $.02 :)
 
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