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upgrade ram?

A

ame8199

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 30, 2011
267
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I have a Early 2011 Macbook pro 2.3 i5, 4g of RAM. Running 10.9.3

For a few days, Ive been getting the beach ball a lot. I can type and it stalls or I can click on something and it just spins a lot. Ive been researching and thought maybe my memory needs upgrading. According to my activity monitor, Im using 3.99 of my 4g of memory.

No idea if thats what may be causing it. Heres a screen shot
 

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ame8199 said:
I have a Early 2011 Macbook pro 2.3 i5, 4g of RAM. Running 10.9.3

For a few days, Ive been getting the beach ball a lot. I can type and it stalls or I can click on something and it just spins a lot. Ive been researching and thought maybe my memory needs upgrading. According to my activity monitor, Im using 3.99 of my 4g of memory.

No idea if thats what may be causing it. Heres a screen shot
Click to expand...

The memory pressure is high in the green. It is still ample, but you would see a benefit going to 8 GB. The biggest upgrade would be an SSD though...
 
Yea doing more research i thought my hard drive may be going....I don't think I want an SDD...may just get a larger hard drive.

Are those easy to replace in the early 2011s?
 
ame8199 said:
Yea doing more research i thought my hard drive may be going....I don't think I want an SDD...may just get a larger hard drive.

Are those easy to replace in the early 2011s?
Click to expand...

Very easy. However, an SSD is by far the best. If you need a lot of data on your machine, look at a hybrid drive. They have the space of hard drive with almost the speed of an SSD. You do lose some speed over an SSD due to the hard drive part, but it is way faster than a regular hard drive.
 
great, just seen a 1 TB hybrid on Ifixit.com for 149 which seems reasonable. Didn't know what a hybrid drive did...Might as well get the RAM while Im spending money.

Thanks a lot.
 
ame8199 said:
great, just seen a 1 TB hybrid on Ifixit.com for 149 which seems reasonable. Didn't know what a hybrid drive did...Might as well get the RAM while Im spending money.

Thanks a lot.
Click to expand...

Newegg is a great place for quality parts as well... Also what is that icon of the head in your Dock if you don't mind me asking?
 
ame8199 said:
Yea doing more research i thought my hard drive may be going....I don't think I want an SDD...may just get a larger hard drive.
Click to expand...

Just curious....why don't you want a SSD? I'd say it is the number one most noticeable upgrade you can do. They're absolutely worth every penny.

Are those easy to replace in the early 2011s?
Click to expand...

Yes. Checkout ifixit, they have tons of guides. The unibody MacBook Pros are pretty easy to work on.
 
Altemose said:
Newegg is a great place for quality parts as well... Also what is that icon of the head in your Dock if you don't mind me asking?
Click to expand...

Its called Boardmaker...it makes picture icons and cards. I work with kids with special needs, so I use it to make communication cards
 
ame8199 said:
Its called Boardmaker...it makes picture icons and cards. I work with kids with special needs, so I use it to make communication cards
Click to expand...

Ah. Yes. I have seen the cards in action. It is a remarkable piece of software. As more schools adopt iPads they are going Proloquo2Go.

How much space are you using currently on your hard drive? If it isn't much then by all means get the SSD!
 
T5BRICK said:
Just curious....why don't you want a SSD? I'd say it is the number one most noticeable upgrade you can do. They're absolutely worth every penny.

Id rather have the space and I can't afford a big SSD. I am only using 150 gigs of my 500 gig.



Will a 500 gig Hybrid drive make a difference? I guess if this one is failing, anything is better than this one.
Click to expand...
 
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ame8199 said:
T5BRICK said:
Just curious....why don't you want a SSD? I'd say it is the number one most noticeable upgrade you can do. They're absolutely worth every penny.
Id rather have the space and I can't afford a big SSD. I am only using 150 gigs of my 500 gig.
Click to expand...
you are only using 150gigs, but you rather have the space ... ;)
T5BRICK is right. Ssds are cheap now and ram is expensive.
Your memory pressure is low and you would see the greatest improvement from a ssd.
Click to expand...
 
I'm afraid of limiting myself with 256gb.... It's my only computer...so probably a. 500g would work fine. A 256 g would probably work as well.

So I'd be ok getting a ssd hard drive and keeping the memory for now?
 
ame8199 said:
I'm afraid of limiting myself with 256gb.... It's my only computer...so probably a. 500g would work fine. A 256 g would probably work as well.

So I'd be ok getting a ssd hard drive and keeping the memory for now?
Click to expand...

If you get a straight up SSD and not a hybrid then yes you should be fine. Upgrading the RAM in the future is a very easy and affordable way to get much more speed out of your system. As for the SSD, my personal recommendation is the Samsung 840 series whether it be the Pro, Evo, or regular 840. They also have a great warranty and run great under OS X.
 
Ok just ordered the drive recommended above plus some tools.

I've changed my hard drive in my previous Mac but it's been a while

I'm backing up everything now with an external drive though tine machine...probably will us carbon copy as well


Is there anything else I need to do?

How do I erase my old drive? Actually do not remember how to put my stuff on my new drive... Any how to on that?
 
ame8199 said:
Ok just ordered the drive recommended above plus some tools.

I've changed my hard drive in my previous Mac but it's been a while

I'm backing up everything now with an external drive though tine machine...probably will us carbon copy as well


Is there anything else I need to do?

How do I erase my old drive? Actually do not remember how to put my stuff on my new drive... Any how to on that?
Click to expand...

The Time Machine backup makes this easy. Just install the new drive then attach the TM disk and option key boot to it. You will see a recovery screen. Fro there start Disk Utility and go to the erase tab and format the new disk to Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Then quit Disk Utility and click restore and the OS and all your apps and data will be put back on the new disk and you will be all set.

After you reboot to the new drive make sure you go into System Prefs and in the Startup Disk pane select the new drive as the boot disk.

No need to download anything.
 
Hybrid drives are only ok for casual users who just use their computers for browsing and office-like stuff. They have only 8GB of flash memory, which is just tight for anything more on the "pro" side.
 
Weaselboy said:
The Time Machine backup makes this easy. Just install the new drive then attach the TM disk and option key boot to it. You will see a recovery screen. Fro there start Disk Utility and go to the erase tab and format the new disk to Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Then quit Disk Utility and click restore and the OS and all your apps and data will be put back on the new disk and you will be all set.



After you reboot to the new drive make sure you go into System Prefs and in the Startup Disk pane select the new drive as the boot disk.



No need to download anything.
Click to expand...


So would I erase my old drive the same way before installing the new drive?
 
Thank you everyone for your help. Ordered and installed the new ssd drive .... Made a noticeable difference!! No more lagging and stalling. Thank you
 
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