Upgrading macbook pro to fullest potential?

Ok so I'm thinking of either selling my macbook and upgrading to a new one when they come out or just upgrading mine.

I have currently 500gb @7200 with 8gb of ram.

I was thinking up upgrading to either 12gb or 16gb of ram( which would be better, 12gb would be cheaper but it would be 8gb and a 4gb stick, would that not work with dual channel right? how would that affect performance?

Also thinking of getting an SSD drive- not sure what size to get, I'm planning on leaving the optical drive in. I have a 500gb and i have a 50gb partition for windows and have only used 85gb currently. Round that to 140gb, i think a 256 gb would be fine for me, i have external drives for other things, what do yo guys think?

Also which brand SSD is a good option? i have been reading but all seem to be decent, samsung, intel,OWC?

thanks guys!

What year and model MBP do you have? Memory capacity is different depending on the model you have. And yes, dual channel matched modules are better.

As far as SSD drives go, OWC is what I recommend as they have a wide stock and all are custom built by them. Stay away from Samsung.

sorry guys

its a 2011 mbp 15".

Are you currently running low on RAM while operating it in the first place? If not, you'll likely never notice the additional RAM while running. That said, I totally love the 16GB installed in mine, but really only when doing things like multiple image merges in photoshop (or dealing with multiple smart layers, etc).

Personally, I'd (and am planning on) getting an SSD for the OS and Apps ONLY, and using the rotational disk that came with this in the slot for the optical drive, with a data doubler to hold it.

Dysfunction said:

Are you currently running low on RAM while operating it in the first place? If not, you'll likely never notice the additional RAM while running. That said, I totally love the 16GB installed in mine, but really only when doing things like multiple image merges in photoshop (or dealing with multiple smart layers, etc).

Personally, I'd (and am planning on) getting an SSD for the OS and Apps ONLY, and using the rotational disk that came with this in the slot for the optical drive, with a data doubler to hold it.

Click to expand...

What he said.

Late 2011 i5 13", 8GB ram, 120 GB OWC SSD w/OS and Apps, larger Hitachi HDD in Optibay (OWC data doubler) containing Home folder and music/photos/movies.

I also use the USB 2.0 enclosure OWC sells for my Superdrive. Lion's provided software DVD player will not work with the Superdrive via USB (disable it from auto starting) and use VLC.

Happy with this set up and zero issues.

In regards to which SSD to purchase, I have had good experiences with Intel's 320 series and Kingston Hyperx series.

I love my intel 320series SSD i would recommend that my ram upgrade didn't make that big of a difference compared to the SSD.