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Which to choose: 8GB ram or 256GB SSD?

L

LSS

macrumors member
Original poster
Hi all!

I'm thinking about ordering a 15" MBP.

Which do you think would give better performance for PS, Lightroom, Football Manager...
8GB RAM + 540GB 7200RPM HD
or
4GB RAM + 256GB SDD HD
?
 
I would first try with 4GB RAM and 500GB HD. Adobe apps can't utilize more than 3GB at the moment (CS5 will be 64-bit so it can) and as yellow said, SSDs are still pretty expensive and sooner than later they will be bigger, faster and a lot cheaper
 
Caveat... RAM is much easier to put in at a later date. However.. I just don't buy into the SSD craze. I hate to sacrifice size for fancy-pants and on the SSDs I support I haven't seen a speed boost or a power saving that makes me care.
 
It is totally depends on your usage. If you are only using light weight Apps like browsing, email, etc. you don't need 8GB. SSD will be more useful for you. But If you use photo or video editing and use virtual machine to use windows a lot, then 8GB would come in handy.

For my MBP, I chose 256 SSD over 8GB for the reason above.
 
I upgraded my 2007 MacBook with an Intel SSD and it felt like a new laptop. Definitely a great upgrade. Most will fell more of a speed boost of an SSD than of an upgrade from 4GB to 8GB of memory.
 
Neither of them, buy a "plain" macbook pro then upgrade it yourself. Also, IMHO, SSD is the better idea unless you have a special reason for 8GB RAM.
SSD = No more concern about shocking, better battery life, higher speed.
 
yellow said:
Caveat... RAM is much easier to put in at a later date. However.. I just don't buy into the SSD craze. I hate to sacrifice size for fancy-pants and on the SSDs I support I haven't seen a speed boost or a power saving that makes me care.
Click to expand...

How is installing a SSD any more difficult than installing RAM? They both involve you unscrewing the bottom, uninstalling the unwanted part, installing the new part, and reattaching the bottom. In fact I'd argue installing the SSD is a less dangerous operation than installing RAM since the HD/SSD carrier is in a corner and the RAM slots are closer to the middle of the machine.

Personally I've noticed a nice speed bump in my SSD MBP compared to my 7200RPM MBP. Boot time alone is near instantaneous. But I agree the $/GB is too high for serious storage use. RAM is a better bang for the buck.
 
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