Which to do for handling photos

[147798]

I have a 2009 MacBook Pro. It's a fine machine. No complaints. But I also now have a 2013 MacBook Air. In all things, I find I prefer the Air EXCEPT for storage. The 2009 has an SSD for the OS and a 750GB HDD for everything else. I store (but don't really edit) a lot of video. I do store 13K photos, and I edit them in lightroom.

I am trying to decide:

Do I just keep the 2009 MBP, somewhere on the side, and drag it out for when I work on photos

Do I drop the MBP for a mac mini, which takes up less footprint, and I might be able to sell this MBP for a mini, and end up with an upgraded processor

Do I just buy external thunderbolt storage, and keep my pics and movies on an external drive. Issue with the MBA is it's only 4GB RAM. LR is much happier on a system with 8GB.

I have no other needs other than web, mail, office docs and Lightroom. No gaming, no real video editing, etc.

 

[themumu]

If you don't edit your photos often, then external storage makes much more sense. If you find yourself not using the MBP much any more, it may be better to sell it now rather than later, to at least get something back.

Depending on the size of your SSD you may want to pull it and re-use in an external enclosure instead of selling with the laptop. It will be much faster than an HDD based external drive, and the amount a potential buyer would be willing to pay for the SSD when you sell the old computer would be rather negligible.

 

[Altemose]

I have a 2009 MacBook Pro. It's a fine machine. No complaints. But I also now have a 2013 MacBook Air. In all things, I find I prefer the Air EXCEPT for storage. The 2009 has an SSD for the OS and a 750GB HDD for everything else. I store (but don't really edit) a lot of video. I do store 13K photos, and I edit them in lightroom.

I am trying to decide:

Do I just keep the 2009 MBP, somewhere on the side, and drag it out for when I work on photos

Do I drop the MBP for a mac mini, which takes up less footprint, and I might be able to sell this MBP for a mini, and end up with an upgraded processor

Do I just buy external thunderbolt storage, and keep my pics and movies on an external drive. Issue with the MBA is it's only 4GB RAM. LR is much happier on a system with 8GB.

I have no other needs other than web, mail, office docs and Lightroom. No gaming, no real video editing, etc.

I always tell people to 8 GB on Airs at least. Sadly, you bought it already...

You could go with a Thunderbolt enclosure or a FireWire enclosure and a TB --> FW adapter. However, the RAM is the clincher here. I agree about LR needing 8 GB. I would not sell your Pro for a Mini however, but rather go iMac or something. The Mini is a 2012 cMBP shoved in a desktop form factor precisely.

 

[r0k]

I have a 15 in MBP. It came with a 750 GB 7200 RPM drive. An SSD doesn't make as much a difference on OSX as it does on Windows but it's still one of the nicest upgrades you can get. I put an SSD in mine 2 days ago and it's great. It runs quieter. The 3TB firewire enclosures sitting behind it on my desk make a lot of noise but those are for the photos and videos I work on. I'm really happy with it and in your situation, I believe you could live with TB enclosures (which are even faster than FW). Of course I also upgraded my RAM to 8 GB and I have 16 GB sitting on my desk to put in when I get a "round tuit." It's not so critical now that I'm running Mavericks which makes 8 GB behave as if it was 12 GB.

I love the rMBP and MBA. I really do. But unless I have the money to "load up" at time of purchase, I lean toward user upgradeable Mac gear...

In your situation, I would be tempted to get the Mac mini or a newer MBP. Why? Because it's user upgradeable. You can pop in 16 GB of RAM and a 1 TB SSD when they become cheap enough to become worth it.