I'm sure everyone here knows about the updates on the 'books. Which got me to think that it's time to upgrade mine somehow. (Was thinking of just selling and maybe getting the new macbook though. ) I'd like to ask which one would give me a more noticeable performance gain? 4gb ram or a 16mb cache 7200 rpm hd? Capacity wise. I still have a good 40+gb so I'm not concerned about the capacity of the drive. Both upgrades will cost about the same so price isn't too much of an issue either. TIA.
I'd advice you to upgrade what you need right now. If you're using RAM intensive software and/or your Mac's starting to feel sluggish, go get the RAM. If you need more disk space, get the HDD. If you don't really *need* either, I'd go with the HDD. If your current use of your Mac doesn't require much RAM, it's unlikely you would need much in the future whereas your HDD shrinks everyday and 40GB isn't really a lot. Or, you could opt to just keep your money right now and get an upgrade when you really need to then, or save it for a new MB.
For immediate performance gains, get the RAM upgrade. With the HD Space, you said you still have a bit left. Plus you could always purge or offload stuff onto external/optical media to make more room. I upgraded my RAM before my HD. But now they're max'ed out na. (until I can find a 2.5" 500GB SATA Drive - I probably wont be getting the MB-Al for a year or more).
@ Cake: Just got mine last January so buying a new one just for the sake of upgrading isn't really an option. Maybe if I had a bad back or something, then I'll opt for selling my 15 to get a 13 (Although I'm tempted to right now.). But right now... Pro with matte screen ftw!
If you run a lot of programs at the same time, upgrade the RAM. If you have a lot of files to store (movies, music, pictures), upgrade the HD.
@ Sir carlos: I'm not too concerned about storage, still have half a time capsule left.. It's more on performance of the HD (ie. seek time, etc.). Just wanted to know the consensus here, and to check if there's someone who's of a different opinion. I think I will go with the ram and maybe by the time I've thought of upgrading my hd there'll be decent prices on SSD's by then.
I'd go for RAM. The difference between 5400 and 7200 RPM drives isn't that significant for most users (save perhaps for video editing), and besides, a 7200 RPM drive will drain your notebook's batteries faster than a 5400 RPM drive.
sorry, newbie here.. just wanna ask, if you upgrade your macbook's RAM would you lose all your stuff (data, apps, etc)? Or does that happen only when you upgrade your HD? Thanks!
A RAM upgrade won't affect any data on your HD. And there are simple ways to upgrade a Mac's HD without losing any data (e.g., using SuperDuper to clone the drive).
...on a totally unrelated note, isn't it astounding how cheap USB drives are these days? i just saw a 4GB at PMC for less than a thousand. i remember when i bought my first ever 256mb thumb drive, and it cost me over two grand! anyway, just to reinforce everyone else's input - get the RAM. makes you feel like a real man to install it yourself, too!
