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SSD in Macbook Pro Overkill?

J

Jameson.Kusch

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 15, 2012
27
0
Hi,

I'm a college student with a macbook pro 13 inch, early 2011 model. All I use it for is microsoft word, itunes, and google chrome. (I know a MBP is overkill for these tasks). I noticed my hard drive is running a bit slow, takes a while to go past the spinning disco ball thing when loading a simple app such as a pdf book.

Would installing a ssd and taking out the original 320 gb hard drive be overkill for what I use the macbook pro for? Thanks.
 
Honestly the best update you can do. Speeds up your machine like you wouldn't believe.

Well you'll believe it when you see it. :)
 
Whether your whole MBP is overkill or not for the tasks you use it for, a SSD will make a lot of them drastically faster, especially if you're noticing loading times now. Most people don't even notice how much faster the SSD is until they've started using it.

Moving to an SSD is probably (one of) the biggest, most bang-for-your-buck upgrades you can do right now, especially considering how low prices have gone. It makes a huge difference to me, at least.
 
Sounds great! Thanks for the advice everyone. I'm going to buy a 128 gb crucial M4 ssd from Amazon and install it in my MBP. Hopefully I never see that spinning disco ball again.
 
Trust me, go for the SSD. I have a mid 2010 15 inch Mbp and I ordered the retina display. I canceled it and decided to wait till next year so I spent some money going double SSD on this via optibay etc...My goodness this thing feels new...incredibly FAST!:D
 
I have a late 2011 MBP 15". I had previously upgrade to 8GB of memory which suits me fine, but like you I got tired of waiting for programs to load plus I have a MBA so I know the beauty of a SSD.

I just put in a Crucial m4 256GB, and moved my 500GB spinny to the optibay. I have only ONE bad thing to say about it, and that is that now my MBA will only get used on trips now. It is fast, man. So freaking fast.

My wife knows nothing about computers, but is familiar with beasts like Office 2010 and Photoshop CS6.. and her jaw dropped. I can open Photoshop CS6 in like 2 seconds, fully loaded and ready to work. Office applications are even faster than that. Games load in seconds.

Full reboot in under 20 seconds I'd say, as I haven't actually timed it. Faster than you care to even bench it, imo.

In just two words, AMAZING upgrade.
 
tomtom2234 said:
I'd say try upgrading your ram first to 8gb then get a SSD. 4gb of ram is really low even for just what you use it for. Chrome is such a memory hog!
Click to expand...

8GB of memory is SO cheap these days, I'd guess that the OP can likely spare $50 for an 8GB kit with the SSD if he's got a MBP for surfing :) But who knows, you are right, 4GB is a bit low and why I upgrade RAM before HDD too. I had 8GB of RAM on order at the same time as the MBP.
 
For sure get an ssd! I even put a 64gb ssd in my PowerBook G4 867mhz from 2003 I am typing on right now (my rmbp needs to get here! ) and it made a huge difference.
 
P0stalTek said:
8GB of memory is SO cheap these days, I'd guess that the OP can likely spare $50 for an 8GB kit with the SSD if he's got a MBP for surfing :) But who knows, you are right, 4GB is a bit low and why I upgrade RAM before HDD too. I had 8GB of RAM on order at the same time as the MBP.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure how people survive with only 4gb of ram anymore. I'm barely getting by with 8gb. Chrome itself with flash can take up almost 4gb!
 
tomtom2234 said:
I'm not sure how people survive with only 4gb of ram anymore. I'm barely getting by with 8gb. Chrome itself with flash can take up almost 4gb!
Click to expand...

I am ashamed to admit I have been eyeballing a 16GB kit of the Corsair Vengeance for a bit now. :cool:
 
tomtom2234 said:
I'm not sure how people survive with only 4gb of ram anymore. I'm barely getting by with 8gb. Chrome itself with flash can take up almost 4gb!
Click to expand...

I'm the same way. I'm usually using about 6-10 gb depending on what I've got open. 16 gb is the deal to get.
 
SSD first then RAM.

Ram upgrade will page less to HDD but speed of loading/paging will be the same.

SSD upgrade will speed up loading/paging - so even if paging, it will happen much faster.
 
You know those little bits of time where you're waiting for your computer to respond to your fingers? With an SSD, those are completely gone. It's like going from black & white to color TV. You won't know how you went without for so long.
 
Pictures!!!

Maybe this will help you decide.

2012 MBP 13" with stock HDD
DiskSpeedTest.png

The same MBP now with a Samsung 830 512GB SSD. :) Saying this thing is fast is an understatement !!! Im VERY happy I did it.
SSD Installed.png
 
Last edited:
Thanks for all the continued advice. I just bought a 128gb ssd earlier today from amazon. It seems many people are suggesting to me to upgrade the ram. I looked at the ram prices on amazon and it seems 8gb ram goes for around 40ish, while 16 gb goes for around 100 (corsair). I don't think I will ever use 16gb of ram but am tempted on getting it since I might as well if I am upgrading the ram, in order to future proof computer even more. Would 16gb be too much for my needs (microsoft word, itunes, google chrome), or is 8gb ram more than enough? Thanks.
 
Jameson.Kusch said:
Thanks for all the continued advice. I just bought a 128gb ssd earlier today from amazon. It seems many people are suggesting to me to upgrade the ram. I looked at the ram prices on amazon and it seems 8gb ram goes for around 40ish, while 16 gb goes for around 100 (corsair). I don't think I will ever use 16gb of ram but am tempted on getting it since I might as well if I am upgrading the ram, in order to future proof computer even more. Would 16gb be too much for my needs (microsoft word, itunes, google chrome), or is 8gb ram more than enough? Thanks.
Click to expand...

I have no clue what SSD you purchased but I would advise getting a Corsair Force GT, Corsair Force 3, or Sandisk Extreme SSD for your options instead of Samsung 830s and Crucial M4s. They are the BEST performance per GB dollar on the market and around 550/520 Read/Write speeds.

As for the RAM modules, I suggest getting OWCs 1.35V 1600Mhz or Samsung's 1.35V 1600Mhz RAM instead of 1333s used in your MBP. It is compatible and will speed up your machine slightly and they are the same price points as 1333MHz speed modules. Get them from Amazon or OWC.
 
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