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Opinions Everyone! *Upgrading MBP*

E

EddieMac

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 1, 2010
23
0
Here's the deal, I purchased a 13' 4gb ram, 250gb hd 2,4ghz MBP a couple of weeks ago. I upgraded from my old MBP 2008 model. My question: I am attending university 1st year this September and my program doesn't call for any editing software (photoshop, finalcut, grageband...) just word, ppt and sometimes excel. I plan on keeping/using this laptop for a while and am considering upgrading the ram and hd to 8gb and 500gb. The total price for both upgrades is about $310 at the OWC site. Should I A) wait some time or B) upgrade now because the price is good or C) leave it stock because its fine itself.

*Note* I plan on installing office 08 in a few days.

-Thanks
 
Definitely don't go with the RAM upgrade. Only up the HDD if you're planning on having a massive iTunes library, or something of the like.

My 250 GB HDD and 4 GB's of RAM have done me well through my first year of college. No worries.
 
saxon48 said:
Definitely don't go with the RAM upgrade. Only up the HDD if you're planning on having a massive iTunes library, or something of the like.

My 250 GB HDD and 4 GB's of RAM have done me well through my first year of college. No worries.
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Is there a big difference between 4-8 gb of ram. My guess is that it will run 2x faster... not too sure though.
 
EddieMac said:
Is there a big difference between 4-8 gb of ram. My guess is that it will run 2x faster... not too sure though.
Click to expand...

whoa whoa there. not at all. more ram does not equal faster speed.

its like this

every program (or app, or however you want to call it) utilizes a set amount of memory. chances are you will NOT be utilizing all 8GB. Even if you had 20 instances of a web browser open with multiple video editing suites/adobe, you're not going to reach full capacity of 8GB.

if you're gunning for speed, its best to just upgrade the CPU, 4GB is plenty good. You're only wasting money/time by adding up to 8GB. Now, if you're doing sysadmin work on your system (which i doubt) running 8 virtualization processes, chances are youre gonna need that 8GB real fast, heck, maybe 16GB.
 
EddieMac said:
Is there a big difference between 4-8 gb of ram. My guess is that it will run 2x faster... not too sure though.
Click to expand...

You would notice a significant speed gain in RAM intensive programs (Photoshop and the like) if you were to upgrade. Again, for what you'll be using your MBP for, 4 GB is perfectly fine.
 
leave it as is for now in a year or two then upgrade the ram and or hard drive if you need more space or memory. It will more than likely be cheaper then.
 
You want speed, go with an SSD. You barely notice any difference with more RAM, but with an SSD... holy crap! I hate using other computers now that have HDD's (especially 5400rpm ones.)
 
TZRaceR6 said:
You want speed, go with an SSD. You barely notice any difference with more RAM, but with an SSD... holy crap! I hate using other computers now that have HDD's (especially 5400rpm ones.)
Click to expand...

Stupid question here, Your MBP specs says 128SSD and 6GB ram, do you see a significant increase in speed b/c of your 6gb ram upgrade and is the 128SSD an internal modification?
 
jbrenn said:
leave it as is for now in a year or two then upgrade the ram and or hard drive if you need more space or memory. It will more than likely be cheaper then.
Click to expand...

Do you think the price wil be cheaper? the total upgrade 8gb ram and 500gb hdd is about $310?
 
you definetely do not require the upgrade!!! and if you are going to buy it buy it now, i spent the same 2 days ago on 2gb of ddr2 ram as i did in 2007 so it really seems to make no difference.
 
I don't by any means intend to hijack the thread..but, if you guys swear that the SSD upgrade will be a serious performance enhancer for a Macbook Pro..

can someone suggest a reputable brand/model, as well as a common size, etc.?

thanks so much in advance!
 
Agreeing with other posts here. You already have the 2010 13". It's cheaper and most of all more efficient to upgrade to a SSD. If you already have a decent non-iPhone and are just looking for something Apple to add to your collection: iPod! :D
 
RWil85 said:
I don't by any means intend to hijack the thread..but, if you guys swear that the SSD upgrade will be a serious performance enhancer for a Macbook Pro..

can someone suggest a reputable brand/model, as well as a common size, etc.?

thanks so much in advance!
Click to expand...

Intel makes them. Size is really dependent on your needs as the SSDs are pretty expensive. 80GB easily will set you back $200.
 
KirkL said:
Intel makes them. Size is really dependent on your needs as the SSDs are pretty expensive. 80GB easily will set you back $200.
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Yeah, haha..just saw a 480GB over at owc.com for $1600 :eek:

and still, the consensus is that the performance enhancement is worth that cost?
 
RWil85 said:
Yeah, haha..just saw a 480GB over at owc.com for $1600 :eek:

and still, the consensus is that the performance enhancement is worth that cost?
Click to expand...

Yeah :D

Check this out

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3762/...ly-2010-reviewed-shaking-the-cpugpu-balance/3

Anand Tech said:
Also pay attention to just how well the Late 2008 MacBook Air does in this test. That's thanks to its SSD. Add an SSD to any of these notebooks and you'll see a similarly awesome increase in performance.
Click to expand...
 
^yep. If you can do without an optical drive use an SSD with a larger HDD. I'm running an 80GB+500GB that I plan on upgrading to 80GB+1TB and I'm very happy with it.
 
RWil85 said:
thanks a bunch man for taking the time out to send me that link..

how big of an SSD is absolutely necessary to load Mac OS X and Apps onto it? (my understanding is that those are the essential items to put onto an SSD??)
Click to expand...

No problem :). You can probably make do with 80GB. Ya some people use SSD just for the Apps since using it for Storage would be so expensive.
 
Ssd Hybrid

Im really considering the Seagate Momentus Xt the hybrid ssd/hdd its pretty cheap and has plenty of storage room not to mention that it is also fast.

Opinions?
 
EddieMac said:
Im really considering the Seagate Momentus Xt the hybrid ssd/hdd its pretty cheap and has plenty of storage room not to mention that it is also fast.

Opinions?
Click to expand...

From what I have read, it's not all that fast. Certainly not comparable to a SSD.
 
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