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Upgrade or Change Altogether

  • 07-08-2009 1:33pm
    #1
    Julesie
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 401 ✭✭


    Debated on whether this belonged in the Mac or Upgrade forum but plumped for here. Feel free to move if appropriate.

    I'm in a quandry as to whether I should upgrade by current 13" macbook or whether I should bite the bullet and buy another system entirely

    I have started to use the laptop more and more for system heavy apps such as photoshop and the performance aspect is really starting to become apparent. The current specs are as follows:

    Monitor: 13"
    Hard Drive: 160gb
    RAM: 2gb
    Processor: 2.4ghz Intel Core Duo
    Graphics: Intel Integrated GMA

    If I was upgrading I would probably upgrade the ram to 4gb, the harddrive to 500gb 7200rpm and get a good quality external monitor. I currently make do with vga output to a 26" HDTV but it's not really up to scratch. Would I notice big improvements with these upgrades?

    Alternatively I could either sell the laptop and get a macbook pro that has most of the above features, plus a dedicated graphics card and still purchase the external display. Or purchase an imac and keep my laptop as is (still want a laptop for portability).

    Given the choice what would you do, taking into consideration the performance gain relative to the cost?


Comments

  • #2
    Sad Professor
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 22,693 CMod ✭✭✭✭Sad Professor


    Yours is one of the first gen unibodies, right? I'm not sure you'd see much performance gain from the current gen models, unless you went for the high-end 15 inch.

    You'll definitely see benefits from bumping the RAM. I'd recommend holding on to it.


  • #3
    Julesie
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 401 ✭✭Julesie


    It was actually an early 2008 model so still a pre-unibody white one.


  • #4
    Dublin_Gunner
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,692 ✭✭✭Dublin_Gunner


    HDD - only if you're running out of space.

    RAM - you will definitely see benefits.

    Performance / cost - RAM would be your best bet. AFAIK you dont need to order mac specific RAM for the MacBook.

    Macbook Pro's are stupidly over priced, so I wouldn't bother going that route, if you're looking for a decent price/performance ratio.

    The new iMac's are pretty good. Don't take up much space, have decent specs, and excellent screens.

    Of course, if you were willing to switch to a PC based laptop (which I doubt, primarily because your software is all Mac based) you could get a decently powerful laptop for under €500, which would run PS superbly.

    So, sticking with Mac, the best option would be RAM for the macbook - or stump up the ~€1000 for a decent iMac.

    Obviously, if you wish to continue down the PS route - a better machine, and most importantly, a decent screen is what you'll want.

    I use an 8 core Mac Pro in work, and to be honest, the way Adobe have coded their software, its not al that much quicker than my dual core PC when flattening large indesign files to PDF.

    But RAM will defo make a good difference to your macbook, if you're not willing to splash out just yet :)


  • #5
    Julesie
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 401 ✭✭Julesie


    Thanks Dublin Gunner!

    RAM seems like such a cheap upgrade i'll do it regardless. Only £40 on Crucial for a 4gb kit that is compatible with my macbook.

    The harddrive is overflowing already.... with a windows partition taking up space the 160gb is just not nearly big enough. To be honest if I could stick in a 1TB I would but it seems I'm limited to 500gb. I have a WD Passport so its not the end of the world but nothing beats having the space within the laptop itself.

    I hear what you are saying about a windows based machine but I am kinda invested in Macs now in terms of software and I genuinely do prefer it as an operating system (aesthetics somewhat aside ;))

    I guess i'll give the new RAM and HD a go and see if it gives the performance boost I need.


  • #6
    Dublin_Gunner
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,692 ✭✭✭Dublin_Gunner


    You're welcome. Yes, RAM has dropped considerably in price the last couple of years - I assume its DDR2 SODIMM's it takes.

    Definitely your best bet for a bit of extra performance. The PC idea I was literally just throwing out there - if you design on a mac, and have all your software on mac, then stick to mac.

    You can get pretty good deals on external drives, and if it uses USB2, you won't notice much of a difference in file access speed.

    You could get a 1TB external for under €100 these days - might be the way to go - and would mean you don't have to re-install any software or the OS.


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