Macbook pro upgrade

[Gonzosan]

Hello all, first post here. Figure I'd join since I have plans to build my own hackintosh in the future. Right now I own a Macbook pro, late 2011 model. I love it, but it's not as powerful as I'd like it to be. I'm looking to upgrade the ram to the max and replace the optical drive with an SSD in it's place. I'm using it for iOS development, but also use some heavier programs like Blender and the Adobe CS5 collection. I figure for now it'll be nice to have this laptop running pretty fast with plenty of power, least as much as I can upgrade before I invest in a hackintosh later on in the year. Has anyone done this? Pros/Cons? I'll be spending roughly $300 for this depending on the SSD size and such.

 

[Gonzosan]

Haha, the funny thing is that I plan on doing exactly what you said. I actually wanted to hook up my MBP to my TV and just buy a wireless Apple keyboard. I know no matter how much you upgrade the laptop it'll still be a laptop. I plan on doing some 3d stuff along with Xcode programming, which I'd like to do for the time being, but eventually I'll want to move up to a hackintosh when I have the money to really build a great machine. Either way it'll be one fast laptop. I don't really have any cons, I don't use the drive enough to warrant having it, and 99% of the time I don't even take my laptop with me other than when I'm travelling. As far as the parts, I plan on getting a smaller SSD (128GB) just to have the OS and main programs I'll be using (CS5 Collection/Blender/whatever else fits) and using the stock HDD for storage and everything else. I wanted to get that special kit that allows you to replace the optical drive with a HDD, and also includes a case to use your optical drive as an external. Either way it'll be fun to upgrade, I don't think I've ever had a computer with that much space nor ram. Even my current desktop only has 8 gigs and I was pretty happy with that. We'll see how much of a difference it makes. Tired of getting the pinwheel when working between programs.

 

[Gonzosan]

I'm just going to get an SSD to hold all the programs, and use the HDD that came with it. I don't really need a ton of storage in the laptop itself. I already have a few 500GB external HDDs. The trackpad is nice, but I love my trackball mouse. It's just so much more precise than anything I've ever used.

 

[p8blr]

I've got a late 2011 13" Macbook pro, I've upgraded the ram to 8GB and a Samsung 830 SSD. I've never used any of the software you're listing, but in Bootcamp I can run Autodesk Inventor 2012 easily. Renders aren't super snappy, but everything else is silky smooth. Even with integrated graphics, I can run Portal 2 on max settings with it still being very playable. Definitely go with a SSD, it was easily the best upgrade I've ever done. Also, even though Apple claims the max memory is 8GB, people have gotten 16GB ram kits to work - so you might consider that if you think you really need it. Perhaps install the iStat Nano widget and watch your memory usage when your computer feels slow. Neither of these upgrades will void your warranty, I've had my computer worked on under warranty with both of these upgrades done myself.

 

[Gonzosan]

I figure I might as well max out the ram, I could use the extra "power" especially with the programs I'm running. Lately I'm getting the pinwheel more often, and it's pretty annoying. Unfortunately I can't upgrade the video card, but that's where the hackintosh will come into use later on. I plan on getting all this stuff when I get back from my deployment late this year. So hopefully ram/SSD prices will be lower than now. I think right now it's about $300 for all the upgrades I want to do.

 

[pwalth21]

Con's
-Void your warranty
-Graphics card is non-upgradeable... biggest bottleneck of the mbp
-no internal dvd drive
-you will be happy with it for a few months until you realize what you really want is a hackintosh. then you will build that hackintosh and be left with only a really badass laptop.

Hopefully soon they will make the external thunderbolt GPU adapter. That will be an awesome day.

 

[Gonzosan]

Btw I use ifreemem to clear my ram.I use it religiously on every computer I have.

What exactly does that do? It just clears the ram memory?

*Edit* I looked it up, might actually get it. I'll try it out and see how good it works. I'm getting the way too often lately, even though when I first got my MBP it was running like a champ.