RAM or SSD upgrade?

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I have a early 2011 Macbook Pro that is stock with no upgrades. I have recently got into a lot of photo and DVD editing, and have a big problem with performance!! I am trying to decide on more ram or SSD? Doing this on a big budget cause I have twins on the way!! But i need to be able to edit without taking forever to load and edit!!

I've looked at crucial memory upgrades:
-RAM 2x8 (16GB) for 131$ 2x4 (8GB) 75$
-SSD M500 120GB for 120$ and 240GB for 200$

so any help would be greatly appreciated!! ;D
 

pigoo3

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Doing this on a big budget cause I have twins on the way!!

I'm guessing there's a key word missing from this statement...the word "Not".;)

An SSD will help with:

- launching of apps.
- loading of files
- saving of files

Ram can help with:

- having more simultaneous apps open without any one app. "starved" for ram
- more ram available for individual applications
- overall can speed up tasks if...the computer currently doesn't have enough ram for all apps used

With photo & video editing...both a ram & an SSD can help with performance. But if I had to do just one upgrade...I would do the ram first.

Why?? You will notice SSD speed when you launch an app, load a file, or save a file. But once the application & files are open...the performance improvement is nonexistent (until you save the file). But the performance of more ram can help every second/every minute you are working on a project/file.

Since you probably have 4gig of ram currently...I would do the ram upgrade first. If you already had 8gig of ram...then I might suggest the SSD.

HTH,

- Nick
 

pigoo3

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Thread moved to "Notebook" section.

- Nick
 
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As suggested go with the memory for starters and how much free space is available on your current hard drive? Many recommend for doing such intensive editing work you do need to keep about 25% free space.
 
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Memory will always cost about the same price, while SSD prices will drop. I would say go for a good memory upgrade, and wait for the SSD prices to drop more. They've already been dropping like a rock from just a year ago. Even going from the stock 5400rpm hdd to a Western Digital 7200rpm will be noticeable.
 
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We been saying that about SSD prices falling for three years. Think they are about as low as they will go as the demand is very high and that is what drives the market and determines the price.
 
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I have a early 2011 Macbook Pro that is stock with no upgrades. I have recently got into a lot of photo and DVD editing, and have a big problem with performance!! I am trying to decide on more ram or SSD? Doing this on a big budget cause I have twins on the way!! But i need to be able to edit without taking forever to load and edit!!

I've looked at crucial memory upgrades:
-RAM 2x8 (16GB) for 131$ 2x4 (8GB) 75$
-SSD M500 120GB for 120$ and 240GB for 200$

so any help would be greatly appreciated!! ;D

How much RAM do you have currently? That's really the key question.

If you have 4 GB of RAM already, more RAM will likely not help.

Even if you have 2 GB of RAM, it's likely to be a marginal boost.

If you want to know for sure, fire up your video editor with a project, then start up Activity Monitor (in Utilities). Look at the amount of INACTIVE system memory. If it's significant, like > 1 GB, you don't need RAM. If it's low, like < 100 MB, then more RAM might help.

Personally, I would go with the SSD. It will make your video projects load a lot faster and it will also make the rest of your system FLY. Note also that many video editors do not just load all the clips for a project. They dynamically load and unload video as needed so a SSD will make a huge difference for that.

...do you people think you can drop 30 GB on a timeline and it's all loaded in RAM? hahahaha. No.

Yes, you should go with the 240 GB. 120 GB will fill up fast.
 

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