# More RAM vs. SSD for improved performance?



## mitya (Jan 19, 2014)

Just as a matter of theory, which of the above, or both, is suggestable for music production, e.g. CueBase, Reason etc? i.e. reasonably intensive tasks.

If it was one or the other, disregarding the higher price of SSD, which would you go for?

Thanks in advance


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## Nosada (Jan 19, 2014)

Depends on the situation you're in right now. If you're short on memory (as in, the programs you're running are filling it up and require more) an SSD will not alleviate sluggishness. If you have memory to spare, adding more will do absolutely nothing and moving from HDD to SSD will be a huge boon for your performance.

But we need more data: How much memory do you have right now, what OS are you running, which programs, what type is your current OS and data disk?


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## micropage7 (Jan 19, 2014)

if you run many apps at the same time, more ram would help the system running better
ssd is for fast reading, fast loading aplication


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## mitya (Jan 19, 2014)

Thanks for the comebacks, guys.

More data: it's not a laptop I own yet, I'm just considering it. It's an A10 5757M, 6GB 1333MHz, 1TB HD, Windows 8 64bit. Programs, as I mentioned, would be the likes of CueBase, Reason, Ableton (though likely only two of these at once). Quite a few tabs in browsers open etc...


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## DRDNA (Jan 19, 2014)

I would say the SSD would probably be a more noticeable upgrade. Unless you are already noticing memory shortages.


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## Vario (Jan 19, 2014)

6gb ram with my moms i5 laptop (ivy bridge dual core ht model) seems fine.  Its a Dell Inspiron I think (the smaller business grade one) that was only about $600 off the dell outlet.  We put in an SSD to replace slow hd w/ only16mb cache and it sped it up a lot.  The SSD was a Seagate 600 240gb.  Her OS is Win 7, maybe home premium?


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## Eroticus (Jan 19, 2014)

ssd for sure !


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## Dent1 (Jan 19, 2014)

mitya said:


> Just as a matter of theory, which of the above, or both, is suggestable for music production, e.g. CueBase, Reason etc? i.e. reasonably intensive tasks.
> 
> If it was one or the other, disregarding the higher price of SSD, which would you go for?
> 
> Thanks in advance



It's impossible to answer objectively because hard disk drives and RAM do different functions.

An SSD would benefit in situations where you're transferring data from one location to another, or overwriting or saving or opening extremely big files. I don't know much about music production but I don't think those scenarios fit what you're doing.

More RAM would benefit if you're short of RAM, as long as you meet the requirements to run your music production software with a bit of excess memory left over you'll be fine. If you're running multiple music applications simultaneously the RAM requirement will increase. In those situations RAM would be better. Use software to monitor how much RAM is being used during your sessions that will give you a conclusive answer.


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## Eroticus (Jan 19, 2014)

Dent1 said:


> It's impossible to answer objectively because hard disk drives and RAM do different functions.
> 
> An SSD would benefit in situations where you're transferring data from one location to another, or overwriting or saving or opening extremely big files. I don't know much about music production but I don't think those scenarios fit what you're doing.
> 
> RAM would only benefit if you're short of RAM, as long as you meet the requirements to run your music production software with a bit of excess memory left over you'll be fine.



 6gb of ram almost perfect , but ssd  adds much more speed than hdd


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## Bo$$ (Jan 19, 2014)

SSD will really kickstart stuff.... ram looks fine even 4gb is fine for your use


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## jcgeny (Jan 19, 2014)

4 Go ram are cool for 32 bit os , 64 bit needs the double to 32 and 64 bit ...
12 Go are a minimum for win 7 or 8 x64 
a ssd of 60 Go starts to be enough for a win 8 x64 ; hitachi is good and cheap for ssd


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## Eroticus (Jan 19, 2014)

Take 1TB ssd .. i got 256gb and it's not enough ... always more fun when every game or app start faster ! =)

Samsung EVO 1TB or 750 / 500GB got nice prices & fast 


12 GB for os ? wtf you doing ? i got 16gb .. but never used over 8GB

only 7zip for compression


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## DRDNA (Jan 19, 2014)

jcgeny said:


> 4 Go ram are cool for 32 bit os , 64 bit needs the double to 32 and 64 bit ...
> 12 Go are a minimum for win 7 or 8 x64
> a ssd of 60 Go starts to be enough for a win 8 x64 ; hitachi is good and cheap for ssd


 Damn I wish I would have know this inside secret! SARCASM!


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## jcgeny (Jan 19, 2014)

you forget windows cache memory that is "transparent"
16 Go is not that much for 7 zip compression , reduce the number of cpu used to increase compression [ and time ...] if you are short in memory with it


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## W1zzard (Jan 19, 2014)

jcgeny said:


> 4 Go ram are cool for 32 bit os , 64 bit needs the double to 32 and 64 bit ...
> 12 Go are a minimum for win 7 or 8 x64
> a ssd of 60 Go starts to be enough for a win 8 x64 ; hitachi is good and cheap for ssd


64-bit does not need twice the amount of RAM, please don't give bad advice.

Most Windows 7 64-bit systems are fine with 4 GB. I'd say 6-8 GB is ideal for most users, rather spend the money on other upgrades like SSD or faster GPU (if you game).


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## studmark (Jan 19, 2014)

micropage7 said:


> if you run many apps at the same time, more ram would help the system running better
> ssd is for fast reading, fast loading aplication




very good answer! shes right!


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## newtekie1 (Jan 19, 2014)

mitya said:


> It's an A10 5757M, 6GB 1333MHz, 1TB HD, Windows 8 64bit. Programs, as I mentioned, would be the likes of CueBase, Reason, Ableton (though likely only two of these at once). Quite a few tabs in browsers open etc...



I'd go memory upgrade first, then SSD with that laptop.  The reason being is that with 6GB of RAM that means there is a 4GB stick and a 2GB stick in the laptop now, which means at worst single channel or at best asymmetric dual-channel.  Plus the memory in the laptop is only 1333MHz.  APU's love memory bandwidth, and the current configuration is really limiting the memory bandwidth.  So the first thing I would do is put in a 2x4GB 1600MHz memory kit in it.


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## Jetster (Jan 19, 2014)

Yep replace all your memory first to 1866 8Gb then the SSD. If you had 8 Gb 1600 the I would say the SSD no doubt. I say 8Gb because using 4Gb will utilize a swap file with Reason. And leave the Swap file on the SSD

The problem is goin to be the memory. APUs are picky about ram. You might have to try a couple of sets

Now you could just go with the SSD. You will see more of an improvement. But its not going to preform as well in the end.


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## satsol (Jan 19, 2014)

Dent1 said:


> It's impossible to answer objectively because hard disk drives and RAM do different functions.
> 
> An SSD would benefit in situations where you're transferring data from one location to another, or overwriting or saving or opening extremely big files. I don't know much about music production but I don't think those scenarios fit what you're doing.
> 
> More RAM would benefit if you're short of RAM, as long as you meet the requirements to run your music production software with a bit of excess memory left over you'll be fine. If you're running multiple music applications simultaneously the RAM requirement will increase. In those situations RAM would be better. Use software to monitor how much RAM is being used during your sessions that will give you a conclusive answer.


This is a great post which I agree with. I think more times than not, most people end up in situations where more ram is more beneficial. SSD's are nice, don't get me wrong, but they're not really required in my opinion unless you have the money to burn on one.


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## newtekie1 (Jan 19, 2014)

Jetster said:


> Yep replace all your memory first to 1866 8Gb then the SSD.



I was originally going to suggest 1866, but the A10-5757M only supports up to 1600, so to avoid compatibility issues I say just go with 1600.


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## Blue-Knight (Jan 19, 2014)

DRDNA said:


> Damn I wish I would have know this inside secret! SARCASM!


That's why I support the idea of sarcasm bbcode tag, it would make easier to understand those sarcastic posts.

And this will avoid misunderstandings. This happens a lot to me, people think I was sarcastic when I wasn't.

But you can still use [sarcasm]-[/sarcasm] while it is not officially supported.

Happy New Year!


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## mitya (Jan 20, 2014)

Wow, quite a debate I've started. Thanks for all the help, guys.

Re: replacing RAM, it actually has only one RAM slot according to the Acer data sheet. Someone mentioned in another thread that this probably meant there was a 4GB stick in there and the other 2GB was on the CPU, or something?

If so, I could replace the 4GB with an 8GB for 10GB overall.

I will continue to look into SSD, though with this particular laptop it would have to be externally connected.


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## RCoon (Jan 20, 2014)

mitya said:


> Wow, quite a debate I've started. Thanks for all the help, guys.
> 
> Re: replacing RAM, it actually has only one RAM slot according to the Acer data sheet. Someone mentioned in another thread that this probably meant there was a 4GB stick in there and the other 2GB was on the CPU, or something?
> 
> ...


 
Still going for the AMD laptop I see? There will be two memory slots, one underneath the keyboard next to the CPU, and one on the underside of the laptop near the wireless card etc. The fact the CPU only supports 1600mhz RAM makes me feel like the purchase of slightly faster RAM would be futile. If the RAM slot underneath the keyboard is in fact not replacable and fused to the board, you'll be stuck on whatever operating speed that RAM is set at, regardless of however good your new RAM is. I recommend an SSD, they have a tendency to make generic crappy Core2Duo's run like quad cores, everything is just much more responsive. SSD's are a good baseline, and you can always use them in ANY other new system you may or may not buy. That RAM however is likely only going to be used once, in a system you'll likely replace sooner rather than later.

Doesn't need to be externally connected, tear the bottom open, replace the HDD, and then put that HDD into an external enclosure. If you need a hand, come down and see me, I'll sort you out.


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## mitya (Jan 20, 2014)

@RCoon - very kind offer of you - thanks a lot. Yeah still looking at the Acer - work didn't fancy a refurb, even though that one you linked to was pretty nice looking spec-wise.

I guess, from what you say, then, that the max speed is 1333, if the one fused to the board is running at that speed.

Good news is I'm/work are not in a rush so can keep researching.

Thanks again.

p.s. is it me or are forums like this the last bastion of real technical knowledge? I've posed questions to PC World's staff, and even to Acer directly, and they've not known the answer. A guy in PC World didn't get my question re: dedicated GPU memory, and just kept replying with answers re: main RAM memory. Nor could he say whether there was a PCIe slot. Acer couldn't confirm what the max speed RAM the model would take, and told me to go to Crucial.com to find out!


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## RCoon (Jan 20, 2014)

mitya said:


> @RCoon - very kind offer of you - thanks a lot. Yeah still looking at the Acer - work didn't fancy a refurb, even though that one you linked to was pretty nice looking spec-wise.
> 
> I guess, from what you say, then, that the max speed is 1333, if the one fused to the board is running at that speed.
> 
> ...


 
That's fair enough, businesses like warranty, I can attest to that, we get a lot of things that need to be replaced, and advanced RMA warranty is a godsend. I'll look for some decent non-refurbs during my lunch break and get back to you on your laptop thread. But I still stand by an SSD over memory in terms of the original topic at hand.

1st line support at PC World and places like Acer is not filled with technologically adept people. They're there to deal with customer's basic questions, they follow a script and get paid very little to do it. You won't get to anyone who knows anything until you get to 3rd line support, which is where all the techies are, and they don't like to employ too many of those guys, because they cost too much!


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## Dent1 (Jan 20, 2014)

mitya said:


> Wow, quite a debate I've started. Thanks for all the help, guys.
> 
> Re: replacing RAM, it actually has only one RAM slot according to the Acer data sheet. Someone mentioned in another thread that this probably meant there was a 4GB stick in there and the other 2GB was on the CPU, or something?
> 
> ...



I had a look at the data sheet, I believe this laptop has only 4GB of ram, can't see any evidence of an additional 2GB anywhere.

4GB of ram isn't a lot these days, I had a look at Cubase's website and 2GB is the minimum requirement. This is just to launch the app and use its basic operation without crashing and with a mediocre experience. I would think the recommended requirements  is about 4GB which would put your system at the threshold already. If you're using other music production applications simultaneously 4GB is nowhere near enough. I would recommend upgrading to 8GB minimum. The more RAM you can fit into that single slot the better.

The RAM upgrade is your main priority as it will decrease thrashing from the HDD, this by proxy would also improve HDD performance too.

SDD would generally improve performance as well, boot times, application loading times general navigation snappiness when the OS and apps are installed directly onto the SSD. But productivity probably won't increase as music files are not very big. Where SSDs benefit most is in heavy read/write situations which isn't a normal scenario for music production. Although if money suffices I would recommend a SSD as a secondary priority.

PC World staff on the ground floor are sales people, they are not technicians, their job is to sell you computers to meet targets. Similarly a guy in a car showroom isn't a mechanic, he only knows enough to sell cars to meet a target. Technical support is ranked in priority in all sectors. If you phone BT they will pass you onto a sales person, if he can't help, you'll get to 1st line support, then 2nd line support, then 3rd line support. Then hopefully your issue gets solved.


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## mitya (Jan 20, 2014)

@Dent 1 - sorry, I managed to link to the wrong version of the laptop. Here's the correct data sheet - 6gb confirmed.

http://www.acer.co.uk/ac/en/GB/content/model-datasheet/NX.MD2EK.001

End music files are small, but not necessarily during the process of production when you're dealing with WAV files, instruments etc.

@RCoon - point taken (and @Dent1) re: PC World staff being salespeople, makes sense, really. Still, it does sort of leave you with no option but your own hard research when you want to know more technical details.

Continued thanks.


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## RCoon (Jan 20, 2014)

Sorry I didn't have chance to find you some laptops to consider, too busy trying to track down this Llama with serious substance abuse issues so I can shoot it and get on with my day.


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## mitya (Jan 20, 2014)

Surely, "get him a place at a rehab centre"?


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## RCoon (Jan 20, 2014)

mitya said:


> Surely, "get him a place at a rehab centre"?



Sorry, specifically there's a broken hand dryer mounted directly opposite the wall I sit at, my office is next to a set of toilets, and the hand dryer sounds horribly horribly broken (like a tortured al paca). I would go in there and blow(no pun intended) the thing to kingdom come, but it's a women's toilets.


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## jcgeny (Jan 21, 2014)

according to corsair you can use 8 Go sticks . you setup should be 2 Go + 4 Go , normaly you should go up to 16 Go . i wonder where they find some 12 Go stick ?

have a look at http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/listparts.aspx?model=Aspire V5-552P&Cat=RAM or http://www.crucial.com/eu/store/listparts.aspx?model=Aspire V5-552P&Cat=RAM

so 65 or 130 and 110 pounds for ram and ssd ;']


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## jcgeny (Jan 21, 2014)

W1zzard said:


> 64-bit does not need twice the amount of RAM, please don't give bad advice.
> 
> Most Windows 7 64-bit systems are fine with 4 GB. I'd say 6-8 GB is ideal for most users, rather spend the money on other upgrades like SSD or faster GPU (if you game).


c:\windows\system32 is 3.4 Go 
C:\Windows\SysWOW64 is 1.2 Go
C:\users is 1.3 Go
i am only surfing with tv-news in background and use 3 Go


















if i had only 4 Go then in fact i would have no ram in 32 bit because of rom and reserved space ; with 64 bit it would be nearly the same
while with 8 Go there is 4Go and can open a lot of apps and webpages


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## BiggieShady (Jan 21, 2014)

jcgeny said:


> c:\windows\system32 is 3.4 Go
> C:\Windows\SysWOW64 is 1.2 Go
> C:\users is 1.3 Go
> i am only surfing with tv-news in background and use 3 Go



The fact that 64 bit binary executable/DLL is larger than 32 bit one built from the same source code has almost nothing to do with application memory use in runtime.



jcgeny said:


> if i had only 4 Go then in fact i would have no ram in 32 bit because of rom and reserved space ; with 64 bit it would be nearly the same while with 8 Go there is 4Go and can open a lot of apps and webpages



How much more memory is 64 bit OS capable of addressing compared to 32 bit OS is completely different matter. 
The point is that extra memory is not required for 64 bit OS, only usable.


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## W1zzard (Jan 21, 2014)

jcgeny said:


>



why would you open 30 browser tabs at the same time? multi-monitor wall with porn streams?


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## mitya (Jan 22, 2014)

@RCoon - hopefully in the interests of decency the llama is also female, then.

Came across this 14":

http://shop.lenovo.com/gb/en/laptops/thinkpad/s-series/s440/?sb=:000000F0:000003B0:#customize

Yes it's £175 more than the Acer I'm considering, but is it £175 better? Seems quite nice. Key differences:

- A10 5757M vs. i5 4200U (old i5?)
- 6gb vs. 8gb (extra cost for 8gb)
- Radeon 8650G vs. Radeon 8670M 2gb

Lenovo seem a little lazy on more technical details, e.g.

- one RAM slot or two?
- HD transfer rate / cache?
- PCIe slot?


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## MxPhenom 216 (Jan 22, 2014)

Honestly depends on what you are doing. Id probably chose an SSD first, but having enough RAM for the tasks you do matters as well. SSD  can load things quickly, but if you don't have enough RAM to actually run those programs, what the hell is the point?


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## RCoon (Jan 22, 2014)

mitya said:


> @RCoon - hopefully in the interests of decency the llama is also female, then.
> 
> Came across this 14":
> 
> ...



i5 4200U is far more powerful than the A10 in terms of raw processing power. 8GB tells me it's definitely 2 memory slots, and the fact the i5 has a DEDICATED gpu is VERY VERY nice. Totally worth the £175 IMO.
Almost 90% of all laptop HDD's are 5400RPM, so i recommend buying an SSD or a Scorpio Black (7200RPM 2.5" HDD). Lenovos are also far better built than Acer's which in the UK are typically cheaply made.


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## mitya (Jan 23, 2014)

@RCoon - thanks. Does it being an older version of the i5 matter? Sites like PCSpecialist enforce major jumps in price if you go from, say, a last-gen i5 to a current one, so I guess the newer ones must be quite a bit better?

Another difference is faster RAM (1600 vs. 1333), though I'm told RAM speed differences (particularly as small as this difference) are not normally noticeable.

@MxPhenom 216 - thanks for the info.


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## RCoon (Jan 23, 2014)

mitya said:


> @RCoon - thanks. Does it being an older version of the i5 matter? Sites like PCSpecialist enforce major jumps in price if you go from, say, a last-gen i5 to a current one, so I guess the newer ones must be quite a bit better?
> 
> Another difference is faster RAM (1600 vs. 1333), though I'm told RAM speed differences (particularly as small as this difference) are not normally noticeable.
> 
> @MxPhenom 216 - thanks for the info.


 
performance difference between previous gen and current gen is anywhere between 5-15% in terms of identically placed processor in lineups (e.g. 3570K vs 4670K)
RAM makes all of 1-2% difference in gaming situtions, though other programs/apps may be more RAM orientated (photoshop for example, eats RAM alive). RAM speed doesn't make a whole lot of difference for Sibelius/Cubase/Reason. Processing power is everything, especially when compiling.


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## mitya (Jan 23, 2014)

Aha, thanks, got it. I see now why there's such a price jump between processor generations.

I note Game Debate ranks the two GPUs in question (Radeon 8650g vs. Radeon 8670m) the same, even though the latter has 2gb dedicated memory. This suggests to me the latter should be markedly better no!?

http://www.game-debate.com/gpu/inde...97&compare=radeon-hd-8650g-vs-radeon-hd-8670m

I think in the end I'll just buy an Etch-a-Sketch


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## RCoon (Jan 23, 2014)

mitya said:


> I'll just buy an Etch-a-Sketch



I cannot stress enough how much hassle this will save you, and how much happier your overall life experience will be.

As for dedicated GPU's, the 8650g I believe is an iGPU on the processor, whereas the 8670m is an actual dedicated GPU. the 2GB dediacted memory will be better than the iGPU option, as it's not stealing from your laptop memory like the 8650g is. In general the 8670m is faster in every situation, that game-debate website is not very good at comparing things it seems.


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## jcgeny (Jan 23, 2014)

W1zzard said:


> why would you open 30 browser tabs at the same time? multi-monitor wall with porn streams?


i read a lot but porn is not my kind : only fresh-meat for my playboy'$ mansions ;']


BiggieShady said:


> The fact that 64 bit binary executable/DLL is larger than 32 bit one built from the same source code has almost nothing to do with application memory use in runtime.
> How much more memory is 64 bit OS capable of addressing compared to 32 bit OS is completely different matter.
> The point is that extra memory is not required for 64 bit OS, only usable.


*no but that explains 64 bit uses more ram compared to 32 bit
* i talk about 4Go total ram , windows 64 bit can use few hundred of Mo between 3 and 4 Go , it s the rom area for cards and ram aperture
with 32bit os not a Mo can be use , even when using 3Go/1Go scheme instead of 2x2Go

to get back in topic i found a review and your pc has 2 memory slots

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Acer-Aspire-V5-552PG-X809-Notebook.101315.0.html









16 G0 [or only 12 ...] of ram for 130 Pounds and may be a toshiba 512 Go for 330 Euros like at amazon : http://www.amazon.fr/Toshiba-HDTS251EZSTA-Disque-interne-Portable/dp/B00C29EY7M/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1390474998&sr=1-1&keywords=toshiba ssd 512

plus a box/station to plug your old hd [and may be an other one later] with usb2 or 3 and your done


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## Ricardo Picozzi (Sep 16, 2014)

Guys... I'm in the same situation. What should I do... install 16Gb of memory or install a SSD drive?
Today I have a MacBook Pro with rocessor  2.9 GHz Intel Core i7 / 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 / Running OS X 10.9.4 (latest).
This Mac is used basically to navigate o nteh WEB, Download movies, and monstly use iPhoto to make albuns and sent it to Apple to print them, plus some Word and PowerPoint editing. No more than that. I feel sometimes, the systems gets slow...so I relaly don't know if iPhoto demands more memory.. upgrade from 8Gb t o16gb or add an SSD, but as I understood, adding an SSD I will loose the optical drive. thanks for help/adivce.


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## OneMoar (Sep 16, 2014)

SDD no question about it


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## RealNeil (Sep 16, 2014)

Ricardo Picozzi said:


> Guys... I'm in the same situation. What should I do... install 16Gb of memory or install a SSD drive?
> Today I have a MacBook Pro with rocessor  2.9 GHz Intel Core i7 / 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 / Running OS X 10.9.4 (latest).
> This Mac is used basically to navigate o nteh WEB, Download movies, and monstly use iPhoto to make albuns and sent it to Apple to print them, plus some Word and PowerPoint editing. No more than that. I feel sometimes, the systems gets slow...so I relaly don't know if iPhoto demands more memory.. upgrade from 8Gb t o16gb or add an SSD, but as I understood, adding an SSD I will loose the optical drive. thanks for help/adivce.



SSD will boost that Mac faster than more RAM will. I installed a 480GB SSD into my son's Macbook Pro and removed the HDD entirely. The HDD that was inside is now in a portable case and the SSD went into the same place that the HDD was.

It speeded his machine up a lot.


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## Phillip.Phillip (Sep 16, 2014)

Buy a faster ssd. Will open word and iPhoto in like one second. Also iPhoto doesn't need more than 6 gb of ram


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## yehoudin (Oct 21, 2015)

hey
ssd loads applications fastser. hmm
i got a 2.4ghz core duo 4gb imac (mid2007). i swithced from osx 10.6.8. to 10.11
loading apps like mail was fast in 10.6.8, now i takes much longer. but the hdd is the same. why would my hdd slow down with new OS?


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## RealNeil (Oct 22, 2015)

yehoudin said:


> hey
> ssd loads applications fastser. hmm
> i got a 2.4ghz core duo 4gb imac (mid2007). i swithced from osx 10.6.8. to 10.11
> loading apps like mail was fast in 10.6.8, now i takes much longer. but the hdd is the same. why would my hdd slow down with new OS?



The new OS is using more of the PC's resources.


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## eidairaman1 (Oct 22, 2015)

RealNeil said:


> The new OS is using more of the PC's resources.



HDD could be running out of space. MacOS is prone to Other files


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## ASOT (Oct 22, 2015)

More ram doesn't improve performance but ssd does..so at least 8gb of ram is enough for gaming/editing,etc


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## Jborg (Oct 22, 2015)

yehoudin said:


> hey
> ssd loads applications fastser. hmm
> i got a 2.4ghz core duo 4gb imac (mid2007). i swithced from osx 10.6.8. to 10.11
> loading apps like mail was fast in 10.6.8, now i takes much longer. but the hdd is the same. why would my hdd slow down with new OS?


 

That 1 year necro


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