Hardware Upgrades on 2011 Mac Mini and 2010 MBP

Conanius

Conanius

Conanius

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
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Hi All,

We have a 2011 Mac Mini (i7 and Radeon) with 4GB Ram and the 500GB 5400RPM HDD. It does a bit of video processing, stores our iTunes and Photo Library, and is a media centre in the lounge.

We also have a Mid 2010 13" Macbook Pro, also with 4GB ram, 320GB 5400 RPM HDD. Just used for general stuff really.

I've noticed RAM appears to be incredibly cheap at the moment, and SSD's have come down in price a lot.

- Would there be much improvement swapping up to 16GB RAM in both machines with it being so cheap at the moment ?

- The next question is slightly more obvious, I think. SSD's seem to make a decent performance difference, but for the Mac Mini I'd ideally like to keep the 500GB internal drive, move what is on there onto whatever SSD we put in, and then I can get rid of the external 500GB drive with our photo's on. Is there a 'simple' way to put the SSD in, transition to that being the primary drive, and then having the other drive as a secondary?

- Will putting the 16GB RAM and an SSD in the MBP have any battery usage implications, up or down....
 
1) Not unless you need that much memory. Use Activity Monitor in Applications/Utilities to view page outs. If the number is significant and huge, then yes. However, from what you've said, I doubt both machines will need more memory. 16GB is overkill, 8GB is way more than necessary, 4GB is going to be about right.

2) It seems you know that the Mac mini has two internal bays. Going by what you're describing, however, there isn't really much point in putting an SSD into that system. I've got my iTunes Library on a Mac mini downstairs, and using iTunes on the iMac or MBP feels exactly the same as if it were stored locally. Even with video, to be honest the same applies.

3) No, battery life may be a tiny bit better due to the SSD, but certainly nothing significant. However, again, 16GB of memory for general usage is unnecessary.
 
sorry to bump this, but keen for further advice on this. I seem to run out of ram on the mini, and the MBP could do with being a bit snappier :)
 
My previous points in my last post still stand. Simple solutions to your problem (if you can verify that you need more memory in the mini), more memory, and an SSD :p

Grab either some 1333MHz or 1600MHz DDR3 for the Mac mini, depending on which proves to be best value, and a Crucial m4/Samsung 830, whichever is cheapest (though the 830 is the slightly better drive, and they are usually the same price). Solid choices that are competitively priced, and have a great track record. I'm doubting that the MBP will take 1600MHz memory though.

EDIT: As Howard mentioned it in the post below me, worth noting that I also have an m4 in my 2011 MBP 13". In terms of application loading and general speed in day-to-day tasks, it wipes the floor of my 2011 iMac with a traditional 7200RPM drive.
 
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I have a 2010 Macbook Pro 15" with 8GB of RAM and a Crucial M4 SSD. It's very fast as a result. Go for it. An SSD is the best single upgrade you can do to any machine :)
 
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