Macbook upgrade advice

[Bold Seagull]

Oh ok. Well since I killed Flash there's nothing that's eating into resources massively.

I think I'm going to book it into the store to see if they can identify anything specific before I go down the route of a new OSX install. But assuming there is no crippling hardware issue I'm definitely going to get me a nice SSD.

There's life in the old girl yet!

A RAM upgrade would still be my first port of call though in upgrading the hardware. Should be able to get yourself 2 x 4GB modules from Crucial for £80.

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook/specs/macbook-core-2-duo-2.26-white-13-polycarbonate-unibody-late-2009-specs.html

 

[Colossal Squid]

A RAM upgrade would still be my first port of call though in upgrading the hardware. Should be able to get yourself 2 x 4GB modules from Crucial for £80.

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook/specs/macbook-core-2-duo-2.26-white-13-polycarbonate-unibody-late-2009-specs.html

I hadn't realised until today that the machine can actually support up to 8GB of RAM, despite what Apple say.

For 80 bob that would seem a good option. Might even get a few quid eBaying the RAM it replaces?

So if the SSD costs me about £120 then that and the memory should get the job done for £200. About £1,000 less than the cost of a new MacBook. Gotta be worth a go

 

[Horton's halftime iceberg]

We had a mac book that ran very slow for a year, it had some anti virus software downloaded that once removed reverted it back to proper mac speed. Worth checking.

 

[Bold Seagull]

I hadn't realised until today that the machine can actually support up to 8GB of RAM, despite what Apple say.

For 80 bob that would seem a good option. Might even get a few quid eBaying the RAM it replaces?

So if the SSD costs me about £120 then that and the memory should get the job done for £200. About £1,000 less than the cost of a new MacBook. Gotta be worth a go

I'm still running a Macbookpro from late 2006 with a 2.16GHz C2D processor, and whacked in 6GB Ram once I saw that upgrades website and it sill works a charm. I upgraded the HD but not to a SSD - not convinced that the speed of the HD holds up the processing power of the machine to be honest. I'd be inclined to upgrade the RAM first, see what you get, then think about the HD.

 

[RexCathedra]

We had a mac book that ran very slow for a year, it had some anti virus software downloaded that once removed reverted it back to proper mac speed. Worth checking.

ClamAV? An awful cycles hog. We have it on the school-issue MacBooks at work.

 

[RexCathedra]

I have a a fall vintage 2009 MacBook, and in addition to all the other good advice given about I have found that it is sensitive to the amount of free space on the disk. Anything less than about 15% of capacity free and it seems to respond adversely.

Chrome alsio has reported resource-hogging issues.

 

[Colossal Squid]

I don't have any of that anti virus nonsense or junk like Mackeeper.

The free space is pretty good. Got well over 100GB free so that shouldn't be an issue

 

[beorhthelm]

I'm still running a Macbookpro from late 2006 with a 2.16GHz C2D processor, and whacked in 6GB Ram once I saw that upgrades website and it sill works a charm. I upgraded the HD but not to a SSD - not convinced that the speed of the HD holds up the processing power of the machine to be honest. I'd be inclined to upgrade the RAM first, see what you get, then think about the HD.

you dont think that SSD increases processing, but you do think that RAM does?

Harddisks are easily the biggest bottleneck on computers, so an SSD will be by far the best way to improve performance for most people. adding RAM only helps if you are maxing out the amount the system has, using 4GB on a home desktop is a tall order even with todays profligate programs (queue tales of using Photoshop with 4MB). neither will help much if there is some rogue program or dodgy install, or just delay the the problem resurfacing.

So if the SSD costs me about £120 then that and the memory should get the job done for £200. About £1,000 less than the cost of a new MacBook. Gotta be worth a go

a nice upgrade, but wont address whats slowing the system unless you are installing everything from scratch. do a HD to SSD migration and you'll probably not see the full advatages.

 

[Colossal Squid]

a nice upgrade, but wont address whats slowing the system unless you are installing everything from scratch. do a HD to SSD migration and you'll probably not see the full advatages.

Well the plan is to do a clean install, on a fresh new SSD. I'm not going to do a migration. The media files I want are backed up and my Adobe Creative Suite and MS Office are on disc so can be reinstalled from scratch. Everything else is basically free and easily downloadable: Chrome, Firefox, Spotify, various cloud storage apps etc.

But I'm still going to take it to the Apple shop first, to ensure there's no serious underlying hardware issue

 

[Bold Seagull]

you dont think that SSD increases processing, but you do think that RAM does?

Harddisks are easily the biggest bottleneck on computers, so an SSD will be by far the best way to improve performance for most people. adding RAM only helps if you are maxing out the amount the system has, using 4GB on a home desktop is a tall order even with todays profligate programs (queue tales of using Photoshop with 4MB). neither will help much if there is some rogue program or dodgy install, or just delay the the problem resurfacing.



a nice upgrade, but wont address whats slowing the system unless you are installing everything from scratch. do a HD to SSD migration and you'll probably not see the full advatages.

No, I was referring to my machine and the OP's both being core2duo's where the RAM upgrade will boast the performance more than the HD. I upgraded the HD to a 7200rpm after the RAM which is probably as much as it needs. My machine is only SATA I so won't ever get up to the read/write's quoted on SSD speed tests anyway, so the cost v speed improvement is not worth it really.

Ram first up to 8GB every day of the week on the OP's machine. OSX Mountain Lion, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, it's a no brainer. Then consider the hard drive.

But agree identifying any underlying software problem is obviously the first port of call.

 

[beorhthelm]

Ram first up to 8GB every day of the week on the OP's machine. OSX Mountain Lion, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, it's a no brainer.

ah, see i didnt realise MacOS was so inefficient. in Windows land you dont need that sort of memory to edit a few photos and make a website.