Upgrade existing or buy new?

Conanius

Conanius

Conanius

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
12,896
Hi All,

Currently got a MBP Mid 2010, 2.66ghz Penyrn (so, non i5) with 4GB Ram and a 320GB 5400 rpm drive.

It's ok, but its starting to show its age. Importantly, some Mountain Lion features don't work (airplay mirroring), so I'm aware it might miss some stuff from Sea Lion/Mavericks/Whatever its called and any other future OS releases.

I'm looking at replacing it with a MBA 13" i7 8GB and 256GB SSD.

I am tempted however to just put in the max ram I can (8GB?) and then a SSD.

What would you guys do? I don't want to risk missing other features, but equally, the MBA I've spec'd is a fair wedge. If I don't bother with the MBA, I'd also chuck 16GB Ram and an SSD in our 2011 i7 Radeon'd Mac Mini for a bit more go....

Decisions Decisions !!!

Please suggest what you guys would do :)
 
Conanius said:
Hi All,

Currently got a MBP Mid 2010, 2.66ghz Penyrn (so, non i5) with 4GB Ram and a 320GB 5400 rpm drive.

It's ok, but its starting to show its age. Importantly, some Mountain Lion features don't work (airplay mirroring), so I'm aware it might miss some stuff from Sea Lion/Mavericks/Whatever its called and any other future OS releases.

I'm looking at replacing it with a MBA 13" i7 8GB and 256GB SSD.
Click to expand...

Would the much lighter and thinner form factor help as well? I think it that is a yes too then it might be a good idea.

Also do you need airplay?

Conanius said:
I am tempted however to just put in the max ram I can (8GB?) and then a SSD.
Click to expand...

This could be a good idea, my friend has a 2012 model with 8GB ram and a SSD and its more or less as fast as a brand new machine.

Conanius said:
What would you guys do? I don't want to risk missing other features, but equally, the MBA I've spec'd is a fair wedge. If I don't bother with the MBA, I'd also chuck 16GB Ram and an SSD in our 2011 i7 Radeon'd Mac Mini for a bit more go....
Click to expand...

Could you replace the Mac Mini if you got a new Air?

I think the best idea would be too just update your MBP to 8GB and a SSD and just see how that goes before you spent a huge wedge for Airplay, that is if you don't need something like Airplay.
 
It's not that I need airplay, its that I need to know that I don't spend 3-400 (SSD dependant) on an upgrade and miss out on future updates that may come within the enhanced life of the laptop.
 
It wouldn't be a Penryn chip if it was a 2010. Penryn chips were in the late 2007/2008 pre-unibody MacBooks. Is this a 13" as 15" of the time had i5 chips and also 2.66GHz i7 chips.

If it's a Unibody MBP i would put 8GB RAM in and an SSD. Only get the MBA if you need the portability and battery life.

EDIT - Unless Apple used the Penryn all the way into 2010…think i remember at the time i was shocked that the 13" line was being left behind with Core 2 Duo...
 
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You should have the same machine as me, just upgrade the RAM and to an SSD. Mine was the bottom of the range MBP at the time, 2.4Ghz, 4G ram.

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I have a 512G in mine, you don't need to, just put in a 256G if you want to save some money. add Ram, you are looking at £200ish, and will last you another couple of years at least.
 
Conanius said:
It's not that I need airplay, its that I need to know that I don't spend 3-400 (SSD dependant) on an upgrade and miss out on future updates that may come within the enhanced life of the laptop.
Click to expand...

I doubt that there will be much new things that your machine won't be able to do.

If you want to save upgrade your current machine, if not get the Air.
 
Thanks for the reply guys.

Looks like for my MBP I wouldn't be doing badly if I went for:

8GB Ram - £59.99

240GB Samsung SSD - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-168-SA&groupid=701&catid=2104&subcat=2394

or

480GB OCZ SSD - Slower, but double the storage - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-127-OC&groupid=701&catid=2104&subcat=2394

And then for my Mac Mini,

16GB Ram - £104.39

and either of the above SSD's.

I'd imagine the MBP being on older hardware might not be able to take full benefit of the faster SSD drive, so with that having Bootcamp too, I'm temped to go for the OCZ drive on that one.

Do I need to get anything special to do the SSD upgrades in either? I won't be going dual drives, and these drives will replace the existing mechanical drives (should I get an external caddy to do a bit of carbon copying?)
 
The MBP is only sata2 so that is the bottleneck, but it'll still be quick. You will need torx screwdriver to remove the HDD. The whole process is easy, the longest part is probably backing up/cloning or reinstall the OS.
 
slight update.

Looking into upgrading the Mac Mini to 16GB and an SSD, but also realised that I could just get a large HDD to replace my external drives for iTunes.

I'm looking at an SSD of circa 250GB and then the biggest HDD I can get (2TB isn't it?)

Can anyone recommend a pairing that will definitely fit? sounds like it is tight in there, and I'm best to go for a really slim SSD like the Samsung 830
 
I've done a bit of research, and it looks like two drives will fit.

http://www.techdc.com/2011-mac-mini-hard-drive-upgrade-video/comment-page-1#comments

Suggests that if I go for the 2TB HDD that OCUK sell, as well as a Samsung 840 Evo I'll be reet for space. That with 16GB RAM should be a lovely upgrade.

If I swap out both drives, and use Time Capsule for the current 500GB drive, I presume I can just boot in, and use the recovery console to restore to the SSD ?
 
Me and my friend both used Carbon and it works just fine. For the 2TB HDD you could possible attach it to your Router if it supports it then use it as a wireless Drive. Works will to store media and use it on all your devices (Mac mini, Macbook) and so on, and some router support things like downloading without a PC on and so on which is really handy.

Also if the 830 is cheaper then you can get that, your MBP only offers Sata 2 so you won't see much of a difference.
 
Ordered !

Mac Mini in the lounge is being upgraded with the 840 Evo 250GB Drive and a 2TB WD drive to store my iTunes library on, and the RAM is being maxed out with 16GB. Nice Spec :)

MacBook Air 13" i7 with 8GB RAM and 256GB Storage also ordered.

Roll on the 20th when most of it turns up.... apart from the MBA which appears to be the end of the month :(
 
Conanius said:
Ordered !

Mac Mini in the lounge is being upgraded with the 840 Evo 250GB Drive and a 2TB WD drive to store my iTunes library on, and the RAM is being maxed out with 16GB. Nice Spec :)

MacBook Air 13" i7 with 8GB RAM and 256GB Storage also ordered.

Roll on the 20th when most of it turns up.... apart from the MBA which appears to be the end of the month :(
Click to expand...

In that spec it certainly is worth waiting for :)

& that sounds like a rather nice combo there!
 
Ryan-3 said:
In that spec it certainly is worth waiting for :)

& that sounds like a rather nice combo there!
Click to expand...

Thanks :D

Properly excited. The uni discount on the MBA makes it a total no brainer when picking a laptop for general use. Resale with the i7 and 8GB should be fair. I would have liked to plum for the 512GB drive, but just couldn't justify £200 for the extra space.
 
The Uni discount really does make it a no-brainer. :D

- The extra for the 512GB drive really doesn't seem worth it, especially if you're like me, and just using it for storing photos/itunes media/documents - i'm currently running at 195GB free with all of my stuff on it. Then there is the speed of the thing!
 
Hehe yep. I won't have any iTunes stuff on it unless I'm going away in which case ill drop a few films and albums on.

Just checked, tge discount almost covers the cost of my Mac mini upgrades !
 
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