Upgrade the Ram or SSD or both?

[mac98aop]

Hi folks

Me on this topic again!

I've been keeping an eye on Crucial prices and they've fallen 20% of late, so thinking I'll now buy.

I have a MacBook Pro with 4GB Ram and 320GB HD: so do I go for 16GB Ram or 240GB SSD or ideally both? I'm most interested in speed performance improvements, and recall Sam has said the SSD will give me the most noticeable impact. 

I'm not worried about boot time, but about day to day processing (opening iPhoto, Safari, Alfred etc...). 

If Ram will do that, that's my cheaper option. If SSD, I could stretch. If both needed, I could write to Santa. I don't want to do both if it's a negligible boost - I'd rather do one now, perhaps the other in 12 months?

Reviews suggest that bumping up the Ram makes things whizz along nicely, but again, I know Sam is an SSD advocate!?!

Other SSD questions, if I may:

1. How easy (skill and time) is it to install an SSD? (I have TimeMachine so do I merely install and plug that in and boot from that?)

2. How easy (skill and time) is it to install the Ram?

3. I have 180GB of 320GB free on my Mac after 2.5 years. So, would 240GB SSD be large enough (ie, is 140GB spare enough for it to run smoothly?!?)

As others have recently said, this forum is really invaluable for its wise, helpful and friendly input based on so much experience, so I'd be grateful for any further input on this one folks.

Thanks

Adam

[Sam - MacAmbulance]

Try the samsung ssd, it's usually cheaper than crucial models and sometimes faster. Personally I'd go for both, throw caution to the wind and get the most possible out of your mac

Regards

Sam

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[Adam Pymble]

Thought you'd say that Sam!

But if I could only pick one, SSD will make day to day performance snappier? Or Ram?

And SSD upgrade - simply plug in the TimeMachine and voila, pick up where I left off?!?! And 240GB sound ok?

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[Adam Pymble]

Sam - more reading/thinking and actually perhaps 16GB Ram is excessive - maybe 8GB Ram and a 240GB SSD is the way to go!

So, my only worry now is how to install the OS and my backup? Is TimeMachine able to do it all?!

AP

[Jason Davies]

SSD made a much much more noticeable difference to my machines than extra RAM. Onceyou have twice the min spec RAM for your OS (do that first) next step is SSD (then back to RAm).

Cheers,

Jason
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[Adam Pymble]

Thanks all - that's really helpful.

I'll go SSD, then RAM in that case.... 

Now, to work out where to source a compatible Samsung drive and how to make a bootable Mavericks disk?!?!

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[Sam - MacAmbulance]

Hi Adam

Your best bet is to get this : 

SSD : http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Series-256GB-Solid-State/dp/B009LI7CTY/

USB enclosure : http://www.amazon.co.uk/DIGIFLEX-Drive-Caddy-Enclosure-Laptop/dp/B002UZO07C/

Put the SSD into the enclosure, then use CarbonCopyCloner to clone your boot drive to the SSD, then swap the drives over. CCC’s Disk Centre will also allow you to clone over your recovery partition.

Regards

Sam

MacAmbulance Ltd. Providing Affordable Mac/PC Support and Web Development Sam Mullen ACMT +44 (0)7747778022 in...@macambulance.co.uk www.macambulance.co.uk MacAmbulance Ltd. is a registered company in England & Wales, registration number 8466597 This email is intended solely for the addressed recipients and may contain privileged or confidential information. If you have received this email in error please notify the sender and delete the email immediately.

[Graham Perrin]

On Saturday, 23 November 2013 08:24:49 UTC, mac98aop wrote:

 

…  do I go for 16GB Ram or 240GB SSD or ideally both? I'm most interested in speed performance improvements, and recall Sam has said the SSD will give me the most noticeable impact. 

I'm not worried about boot time, but about day to day processing (opening iPhoto, Safari, Alfred etc...). … 

If you're happy to habitually sleep the Mac (not shut down or restart), then the *greatest amount of memory* will allow the OS to make great use of the unified buffer cache (UBC). Second and subsequent launches of apps will be much faster than first launch. 

The benefits of the UBC go way beyond apps. Broadly speaking, expect *any* data that's read from permanent storage (hard, hybrid or solid state) to be cached in memory – unless the app/process reading the data uses F_NOCACHE for a file. 

Then (without wishing to complicate this topic): the money that you wish to spend on an SSD could be *much* more productively spent on an sshd. More storage your money. 

I have no idea about prices, sorry. 

[MacService]

Apologies if this reply is a bit late but we've been working abroad.

I have a late 2012 MacBook Pro. I installed a 240GB OWC Mercury Electra Pro 6G in the primary bay, then moved the original 750gb rotational drive into an OWC Data Doubler installed in the optical drive bay and also added 16gb of Kingston RAM sourced from Mr Memory in Worthing.

I have my User Data and Home folder on the rotational drive and everything else on the SSD.

From cold, the computer starts up to a usable desktop in just over 9 seconds. Photoshop CS6 Extended takes about 3 seconds; Quark 9.5.4 which always was a dog takes 11 seconds.

Do not forget to install TRIM Enabler - helps SSDs out a lot.

HOWEVER!!!! it is essential that you have contingency.

When an SSD fails, it is catastrophic and you get NO warning. 

I installed a 480gb Electra Pro 6G in the laptop of a Sussex based, best selling author of Crime Thrillers in February of this year. It turned its toes up last Monday. He was in London and I was in the South of France. That was one long, expensive trip and a sleepless night!

Chris Webb

MacService

[mac98aop]

Thanks everyone - all input helpful, not least of all Sam who kindly let me call to talk me through.

All done and dusted!

240gb Crucial SSD installed - really much easier than I ever imagined. I thought I'd see improvements but the speed improvement is incredible! Booted in 9 seconds, all apps running instantly, and iPhoto which was up to 30 seconds, is now 3.

So so pleased.

Thanks again Smuggers, so grateful!

Adam

[mac98aop]

But Trim Enabler won't install with an error that it's an internet download and not App store?!?! CCC worked just fine to be able to clone etc?!

AP

[Sam - MacAmbulance]

Right click trim enabler and go to open, that should bypass gatekeeper.

Regards

Sam

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Sam Mullen

07747778022

In...@macambulance.co.uk

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