weighing the options for souping up a 13" core2duo

[ljova.com]

hi guys (any ladies here?),

I wanted to ask re weighing the options for souping up a new 13.3" MacBookPro.
Most of my work is in audio, but occasionally I also work with film. But mostly, uncompressed audio.

Given this, how would you weigh the importance of:
-- upgrading the RAM from 4GB to 8GB
vs.
-- upgrading the internal HD to 500GB, or
-- getting an SSD drive instead (even a 128GB one?)

If I run ProTools from an SSD drive, will it run that much faster? Are there any benchmarks for HD vs. SSD?

Lastly, I read a thread that the 8GB was not yet supported -- did anyone make it work?


Thank you so much!

P.S. Yes, I'd be buying a C2D machine and not Arrandale.. but the portability and battery life can not be undervalued. Let's hope for a brighter future without the dratted SuperDrive, which takes up half the space in a 13" body, which I use once every 6 months.

 

[johnnymg]

hi guys (any ladies here?),

I wanted to ask re weighing the options for souping up a new 13.3" MacBookPro.
Most of my work is in audio, but occasionally I also work with film. But mostly, uncompressed audio.

Given this, how would you weigh the importance of:
-- upgrading the RAM from 4GB to 8GB
vs.
-- upgrading the internal HD to 500GB, or
-- getting an SSD drive instead (even a 128GB one?)

If I run ProTools from an SSD drive, will it run that much faster? Are there any benchmarks for HD vs. SSD?

Lastly, I read a thread that the 8GB was not yet supported -- did anyone make it work?


Thank you so much!

P.S. Yes, I'd be buying a C2D machine and not Arrandale.. but the portability and battery life can not be undervalued. Let's hope for a brighter future without the dratted SuperDrive, which takes up half the space in a 13" body, which I use once every 6 months.

All MBP's from mid 2009 and on can use 8 GB of RAM.

Just a WAG but I doubt you need anything more than a C2D for audio editing. Heck, I'm editing video (FCP) on a C2D MBP with no "problems". Faster never hurts but it won't solve every problem.

cheers
JohnG

 

[Thiol]

If I run ProTools from an SSD drive, will it run that much faster? Are there any benchmarks for HD vs. SSD?

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/SSD/65

 

[ljova.com]

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/SSD/65

I did't find a comparison of SSD vs HDD speeds on that page, did you?


thanks!

 

[oblong]

how would you weigh the importance of[/B]:
-- upgrading the RAM from 4GB to 8GB
vs.
-- upgrading the internal HD to 500GB, or
-- getting an SSD drive instead (even a 128GB one?)

I'm in pretty much the same boat, the portability of the 13" totally trumps Arrandale for my needs.

I can't see how upgrading the capacity of the HDD to 500GB would make any difference to performance, as they're both 5400rpm drives. On the other hand I'd be willing to bet switching to a 128GB SSD would make a real improvement in speed, though no idea by how much. Surely someone has bench tested a new 13" w/SSD?

And I'd imagine 8GB memory wouldn't hurt, but maybe not worth the (AU) $560 extra? 4GB is still quite a lot when you're only dealing with audio, and 3rd party memory is always much cheaper than Apple's, and dead easy to install yourself.

I am definitely no expert, just sharing what I've gleaned from the interwebs.