Updating MacBook Pro

Well you can check how much RAM you use using activity monitor, load up what you would normally be doing look at your activity monitor and see what the graph looks like if it stays green you don't need ram if it goes yellow or red more wouldn't hurt.

An SSD is the best all round upgrade to any computer it will make it faster than new. As it's a 2010 you are restircted to SATA 2 speeds, although SATA 3 drives work fine, so don't spend too much on an SSD as you won't get the full performance. For that reason I recommend a crucial BX 100 drive as the best bang for your buck.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_s...eld-keywords=bx100+ssd&sprefix=BX100+,aps,399

 

Go with the SSD, as Samuelsan said. The faster that data can be delivered to and from your CPU is what makes the machine seem fast. RAM has very little to do with the perceived speed of a machine, unless you don't have enough. Adding more doesn't just make a machine faster.

 

As others have said, replacing the spinny platter drive with an SSD will have a huge noticeable impact on speed. RAM will only speed things up if you are RAM-constrained, so check Activity Monitor.

And even if you ARE RAM constrained, paging out to an SSD is way faster than paging out to an HDD, so even your pageouts will be tremendously faster.