Hi everybody!
I bought a brand new MacBook Pro 5,5 (13,3", 2.53GHz C2D, 4GB RAM, 250GB HD) from an iStore on December 2009. It was a Xmas present from me to myself. I use it mainly for music-video recording and editing with Logic Express, Final Cut X and Ampeg SVX; also have music and movies and other stuff, so I need the space AND memory. I'm not much of a gamer, but I do play some Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and Tales from Monkey Island occasionally. I like developing apps for iPod/iPhone with Xcode, but I do that very seldom.
I want do upgrade RAM and HD.
RAM:
I'm going all the way for 8GB (2x4GB). I've read that the fastest that my Mac can handle is DDR3 1066GHz, so there is no point in getting DDR3 1333GHz right?
I'm going for these modules ---> http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/8566DDR3S8GP/
Hard Drive:
I've filled up the factory 250GB drive. BTW, I have a 1TB Western Digital My Book Studio that I use for Time Machine and make a clone of my drive before any important upgrade just in case. I want to get a 500GB 7200RPM hard drive. So the question is which one of these three?:
Seagate Momentus XT ---> http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Seagate/YST9500562AS/
Seagate Momentus ---> http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Seagate/YST9500420AS/
Western Digital Scorpio Black ---> http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Western Digital/YWD5000BEKT/
I've heard that Western Digital makes the best hard drives out there and comparing the Scorpio Black with the Momentus the $20 extra and the 3 additional years in warranty sound like a good deal to me, since they are both equivalent (500GB 16MB 7200RPM). Now, talking about the Hydrid one, 32MB is noticeable? and 4GB of NAND memory will act like more RAM or super cache memory, I guess... I've read that is good for three things:
1. Booting up: That'll be great, but since I rarely boot up more than once a day, is it necessary?
2. Load frequently used apps: Also great, but I load everything I need and keep it in another desktop while not in use. Again, necessary?
3. Better performance?: Now, that's grrreat! If that is true, then the 8GB RAM + 4GB NAND will make my Mac noticeably faster, right? Then I'll go for it.
The thing is, with non-hybrid drives I've read that all you have to do is install the OS, copy you stuff and you're good to go. On the other hand, I've read a lot of bad things about this hybrid XT drive, stuff like it's unstable, you have to install a Firmware (how do you do that before installing the drive?), and even some guy using a jumper wire (what is that) to limit the drive's speed from 3Gb/s to 1,5Gb/s!!! (how the hell do I do that? is it really necessary?) And also good things as well, that the booting time is a LOT faster and also it's very fast at loading apps.
Well, I hope you can help me!
Thank you for reading
Cheers.
Walter
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
MacBook Pro 5,5 (13,3") Mid 2009; 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor; 4GB (2x2GB) RAM; Factory 250GB 54000RPM HD; OS X Lion 1.7.2
iPod Touch 3rd Generation 32GB; iOS 5
I bought a brand new MacBook Pro 5,5 (13,3", 2.53GHz C2D, 4GB RAM, 250GB HD) from an iStore on December 2009. It was a Xmas present from me to myself. I use it mainly for music-video recording and editing with Logic Express, Final Cut X and Ampeg SVX; also have music and movies and other stuff, so I need the space AND memory. I'm not much of a gamer, but I do play some Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and Tales from Monkey Island occasionally. I like developing apps for iPod/iPhone with Xcode, but I do that very seldom.
I want do upgrade RAM and HD.
RAM:
I'm going all the way for 8GB (2x4GB). I've read that the fastest that my Mac can handle is DDR3 1066GHz, so there is no point in getting DDR3 1333GHz right?
I'm going for these modules ---> http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/8566DDR3S8GP/
Hard Drive:
I've filled up the factory 250GB drive. BTW, I have a 1TB Western Digital My Book Studio that I use for Time Machine and make a clone of my drive before any important upgrade just in case. I want to get a 500GB 7200RPM hard drive. So the question is which one of these three?:
Seagate Momentus XT ---> http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Seagate/YST9500562AS/
Seagate Momentus ---> http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Seagate/YST9500420AS/
Western Digital Scorpio Black ---> http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Western Digital/YWD5000BEKT/
I've heard that Western Digital makes the best hard drives out there and comparing the Scorpio Black with the Momentus the $20 extra and the 3 additional years in warranty sound like a good deal to me, since they are both equivalent (500GB 16MB 7200RPM). Now, talking about the Hydrid one, 32MB is noticeable? and 4GB of NAND memory will act like more RAM or super cache memory, I guess... I've read that is good for three things:
1. Booting up: That'll be great, but since I rarely boot up more than once a day, is it necessary?
2. Load frequently used apps: Also great, but I load everything I need and keep it in another desktop while not in use. Again, necessary?
3. Better performance?: Now, that's grrreat! If that is true, then the 8GB RAM + 4GB NAND will make my Mac noticeably faster, right? Then I'll go for it.
The thing is, with non-hybrid drives I've read that all you have to do is install the OS, copy you stuff and you're good to go. On the other hand, I've read a lot of bad things about this hybrid XT drive, stuff like it's unstable, you have to install a Firmware (how do you do that before installing the drive?), and even some guy using a jumper wire (what is that) to limit the drive's speed from 3Gb/s to 1,5Gb/s!!! (how the hell do I do that? is it really necessary?) And also good things as well, that the booting time is a LOT faster and also it's very fast at loading apps.
Well, I hope you can help me!
Thank you for reading
Cheers.
Walter
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
MacBook Pro 5,5 (13,3") Mid 2009; 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor; 4GB (2x2GB) RAM; Factory 250GB 54000RPM HD; OS X Lion 1.7.2
iPod Touch 3rd Generation 32GB; iOS 5