Should I upgrade- Advice needed

[iGTi]

I have a late 2011 Macbook Pro 13inch 2.4ghz 4gb. Never had any issues with it- really reliable laptop!

I'm going to have to buy new battery soon and charger, I was also thinking of upgrading some components, such as ram and hard-drive because its a lil outdated and could use the performance boost.

I use my laptop mostly for: Web Browsing, Netflix/movies, Downloading music/movies, Excel, Photoshop.

If I were to sell my Macbook I could get about 500 bucks give or take.

I don't think I would upgrade for anything with a flash drive because on occasion I like to do some photoshop, I've read that flash drives can't handle the demand those apps request.

I've been out of touch with latest tech... any advice would be appreciated. thanks

 

[T5BRICK]

I've been out of touch with latest tech... any advice would be appreciated. thanks

If it still does everything you need it to do, upgrade the RAM to 8GB and throw a SSD of the capacity you need in there. Crucial and Corsair make good RAM, and the Samsung 850 evo and Crucial MX200 are good SSD choices. Whoever told you that SSDs can't handle Photoshop is wrong.

 

[iGTi]

Whoever told you that SSDs can't handle Photoshop is wrong.

I forgot where I read it but yes, I read that if I do photoshop, macbook air is pretty much out of the question.

And yes I've been fortunate that this Macbook hasn't had any hiccups. It runs well, its starting to lag on rare occasions when handling multiple apps, i.e. Excel, Safari and of course photoshop. Thats why I am considering in upgrading RAM and SSD

 

[T5BRICK]

I forgot where I read it but yes, I read that if I do photoshop, macbook air is pretty much out of the question.

That's because the MBA has a poor screen, not because it has a SSD.

SSDs really only lag behind HDDs when it comes to price per GB.

And yes I've been fortunate that this Macbook hasn't had any hiccups. It runs well, its starting to lag on rare occasions when handling multiple apps, i.e. Excel, Safari and of course photoshop. Thats why I am considering in upgrading RAM and SSD

8GB RAM will probably do everything you need for the foreseeable future, but you can actually run 16GB if you feel like maxing out your Mac.

 

[iGTi]

That's because the MBA has a poor screen, not because it has a SSD.

SSDs really only lag behind HDDs when it comes to price per GB.

Ok, I think I understand what you're saying. I starting to read SSD's Buying Guide thread, I may have misunderstood why you can't use photoshop on macbook air

 

[andreyush]

That's because the MBA has a poor screen, not because it has a SSD.
.

Wait . Why MBA has a poor screen ?

 

[T5BRICK]

Wait . Why MBA has a poor screen ?

The MacBook Air screen has poor viewing angles and color reproduction compared to the retina MacBook Pro.

 

[andreyush]

He has 13" MBP non-retina. His screen has a lower resolution than a 13" MBA. And the color reproduction can be fixed with recalibration.
And don't compare retina with non-retina .. Of course retina it's better but it is not a fair comparison in this case.

 

[T5BRICK]

He has 13" MBP non-retina. His screen has a lower resolution than a 13" MBA. And the color reproduction can be fixed with recalibration.

My whole point was that the reason the MBA isn't recommended for Photoshop usage is due to the poor screen. It has absolutely nothing to do with the SSD.

Read the thread.