8GB RAM 13" MBP 2.26 & Vertex 2E - Nice.

[cava83]

Hi,

Nothing major, just thought I would say that with these upgrades it really has revived my laptop.

I originally increased the RAM from 2GB to 4GB as I felt it was really laggy (using Snow Leopard).

Back in January 2011 I changed by 5400rpm disk to a Vertex 2E 120GB disk, didn't replace the optical. A lot of my storage is on a Netgear NVX or on an external USB drive when required. (incredible difference, clean install)

As I use a lot of VM's for messing around, the 4GB wasn't enough really, so I thought about upgrading to 8GB, considering prices last year were stupid I didn't bother.

Prices are a lot better now and bought the 8GB kit for £69.95 inc VAT compared to my 4GB last year which was £93.95, both from Crucial.

Purchased it on Thursday, got it through today, just installed it and so much better.

For those not needing Thunderbolt (not many people do) and just do normal browsing / general stuff, might be better to do similar upgrades like mine rather than just purchasing a new machine.

Each to their own, but pretty happy.

Thanks,

G.

 

[Ex-User (19928)]

Nice, I have a 2010 15" and REAAAALLLLY want to buy a Vertex for mine, but I'd want 240GB which is quite a lot of money, and the Vertex 3 has just come out too.... Hmmm

 

[cava83]

Yap, the 3 looks great. Specially as it has a '3' next to it

There was a huge difference between the 120gb and 240gb in price, hence getting the cheaper one. Most people sort this out my removing the optical drive and swapping it for a standard hard drive. I need mine, for cheap chinese movies from the market.

 

[wozzaa]

Nice, I have a 2010 15" and REAAAALLLLY want to buy a Vertex for mine, but I'd want 240GB which is quite a lot of money, and the Vertex 3 has just come out too.... Hmmm

Vertex 3 is pointless on a MBP. Unless you have a 2011 model and you need to replace the stock hard drive with a Vertex 3 drive to get the benefit. As only the main hard drive on the 2011 supports SATA3 6GB/s which is what the vertex 3 needs to hit its performance capabilities. If it was installed in place of the optical drive it would limit its peak performance to half of what it is capable of. As the optical bay is connected to a SATA 2 3GB/s.

Basically anything pre 2011 MBP Vertex 2 is the better option as you won't get a speed increase over a 2 so should instead spend it on more storage capacity.

 

[ChrisR]

Will be getting 8 gig for my 2011 13inch soon as like you I'm using vms on it and at the mo only using one at a time to avoid any problems. Runs great as it is but want to be able to spin up some more vms to test some stuff

Very tempted when my redundancy comes through to pickup a 240gig SSD of some description

 

[Liquid yellow 182]

I'm tempted to go for an 8gb ram since it's fairly cheap but it's something thats not needed but would like all the same. Think I need a good clear up of storage but don't want to leave all my data on one spare hard drive incase it brakes on me with all my data.

 

[Munson]

I've recently stopped using my 13". I regretted buying it pretty much from day one. Nasty screen. Belongs in 2003 IMO.

 

[ChrisR]

If you already have a 17 MBP then yeah it's a bit pointless getting the 13, may as well go for the air or even an 11inch Air for something ultra portable.

Love my 13 though, been used constantly since getting it and the price I paid made it a good buy (750 with Apple care).

 

[cava83]

You're right about the screen, should be a higher resolution just as in the MBA, it's even more so annoying that on the latest revision they have not added the high resolution.

However, I normally connect my monitor to a 30" ACD so the resolution only matters when on the train/sofa doing work.

I've recently stopped using my 13". I regretted buying it pretty much from day one. Nasty screen. Belongs in 2003 IMO.