New (to me) Macbook, what to upgrade?

I got a last gen MacBook Pro 15in and I'm wondering what I should upgrade first.

SSD Drive
8GB of RAM (I do a lot of DB work and gaming)
Dual HDD's (twin 1TB Drives)
Dual drives (1SSD, 1TB)

 

First off, what are the current specs and what do you plan on doing with it?

 

2.53 c2d, 9600m gt, 4gb ram 320gb 5400rpm hdd.

Gaming, work(IT/webdev), and general use. I plan to use this and get rid of my desktop as I'm rarely at my desk to use it.

 

well the dual 1T' drives are out until the 9.5mm ones come around, all the current 1T drives are 12mm and will not fit in that model.

I would say a good SSD for primary and a 500 or 650 drive in the media bay.

4GB is fairly sufficient for most things unless you want to run alot of VM's

gaming .. 4GB is plenty unless you want to play some rather HUGE games in which the 9600m then becomes your weakest link

 

I've seen reviews and people on MacNN say that it will fit.

 

.. som seem to but VERY tight. I think I have the same model as you and could not get the 12's in without bending the baseplate somewhat, in the primary drive location, I have yet to try to mount one in the media bay to date

 

I have the same exact machine (which I'm about to sell in a couple weeks when i get my new 13"er up and running), and I'll tell you that the 9.5mm height drives are maxing the size in there... you cannot fit the 12.5 mm drives. I think they have some up to 750gb drives right now.

I took my 320gb and stuck it in an optibay, and put in the main drive as a 500gb WD scorpio blue.... very nice big and well performing drive.

I'd hold off on the 8GB of ram unless you just cannot live without it. Its already cheaper than it was a year ago by a large amount... it will be even cheaper next year.

Overall its a fantastic machine... I'm only getting rid of it cuz I want something smaller, and I rarely use the 9600gt... so the new 13" is going to give me just as good performance for what I do in a much smaller 10 hour battery life package. I'd keep it if I could, but I gotta have money to pay some tuition until my student loan for next year comes through.... going back to school full time makes me feel like a kid again, but its hard on the budget

 

8 GB of RAM would be a waste of your money. It really seems to be a trend but not a lot of people seem to understand that 4 GB of RAM is more than enough for even the most active of multitaskers today.

You would see the greatest performance increase with an SSD. Not sure if this is possible in OSX but in Windows you can install an SSD and a HDD in such a way that you can benefit from the read/write speeds of the SSD and the capacity of the HDD.

 

I don't agree with that at all.

Mac OS X is such a memory hug, 8gb and a ssd are probably the two best upgrades for macbook.

 

Well I'll start with the SSD I guess then the media bay, then the 8GB. I do use a few VM's for my testing.

 

that's the best approach.

 

If you want better gaming performance you're better off selling your MBP and getting the latest MBP.

Unless you meant you already have the latest version of course.

 

If I wanted better gaming performance I wouldn't have bought a Mac at all. Gaming is just a side thing.

 

OK got ya. You mentioned gaming first so I assumed it was important for you.

 

1st - SSD
2nd - RAM

 

Would upgrading to 1333 ram instead of 1066 make any difference?

 

That is not doable. The RAM slots on the MBP can only accept a specific type and it is 1066 DDR3.

 

Are you sure? only the type of ram (DDR3) should matter to the slot, not the speed of the chip. If the processor can support it, it should run at a faster rate.

 

It will make no noticeable difference whatsoever. Even in artificial benchmarks, you'll be hard pressed to see much improvement at all. A nice SSD is a far better use of your money.

 

8GB of RAM a necessity? ... Seriously?

If you are not maxing out your RAM in every day use there's really no point in making the jump from 4 to 8.

 

8 really helps with virtual machines... but other than that... people who use 8gb usually know they need 8gb and what exactly it does. If you aren't sure if you need it, and aren't using virtual machines... you probably don't need it.

 

8GB is either for VMs or for intensive CAD. There is no need to have such a high capacity at the current stage for nearly every user out there, especially considering the incredibly high price.

I mean, I'm still on 2GB of RAM. And that's in 64-bit Windows 7, where the minimum requirement is 2GB. I still run games without a problem.

Considering that, even in OS X, 4GB will be enough for years to come.

As another note, as the others have said, you'll see virtually no benefit from 1333MHz RAM over 1066MHz. Even in artificial benchmarking the differences are minute (in fact, lower speed, lower latency RAM appears to make a bigger difference in some) and the differences in every-day use are non existent.

Save the money, stick with 4GB of 1066MHz RAM. Get a good SSD, that really does make a HUGE difference, especially the faster ones. (And they're cheaper than 8GB of RAM)

 

There is no doubt a good SSD will provide the most tangible performance increase.

Now about RAM, a case could be made for a 6gb happy-medium between 4 and 8. I know I have considered it for help when running a VM at the office. Having an extra 2gb to give to the VM would be nice.

 

With OSX?, i would say that i need more than 8GB for my everyday use.

 

What on Earth are you doing that needs more than 8GB in your mind? My White Macbook can do a VM and jump between it and OS X/Browsers/Instant Messenger screens and not use up the 4GB in my machine.

Never noticed OS X to be a ram hog like you say.

 

BRRRRRRR wrong! all DDR3 laptop ram uses the same slot. Apple does not use any kind of "special slot."

 

I thought it was obvious he's referring to the speed of the RAM not the pins ...

 

I was talking about speed. Although I could be mistaken. In the manual that comes with the macbook it says that DDR3 1066MHz RAM should be used(I forget what model).