SSD or RAM upgrade

[dharan]

I have a Macbook pro 13 mid 2009 with 2GB RAM and 160GB hard disk ,I'm planning to upgrade either the RAM from 2GB to 4GB or 160GB hard disk with a intel 320 series 120GB SSD, I can't decide which one to go for.

 

[TemjinGold]

Why not both? Ram isn't that expensive...

If you have to pick one, the SSD hands down.

 

[dharan]

Thank you.

 

[Anonemous]

Biggest difference you will see is with SSD.

 

[bntran02]

Definitely SSD if you had to pick only 1.

With 2GB of ram you are likely using some pagefile store on your HDD at times. If you upgrade to an SSD you will still be using pagefile but now it'll be on your SSD and will be much faster. So in a way, getting an SSD will help alleviate your lack of RAM.

But the best solution as been stated is to get both an SSD and more RAM. Having a pagefile on your SSD will likely wear the drive down more quickly.

 

[Texashiker]

What kind of applications are you running? Is this a basic machine used for web browsing, video editing, gaming,,,,,,?

If your using the machine for gaming, drafting software, photoshop or video editing, I say go with the memory upgrade.

 

[lsv]

I'd say get both. Going from 2gigs to 4gigs would be dirt cheap.

 

[nanaki333]

Why not both? Ram isn't that expensive...

If you have to pick one, the SSD hands down.

depends if he has ddr2 or ddr3. ddr2 is pretty pricey right now.

 

[Jeff7]

Another vote for SSD.

A mechanical hard drive is one of the worst bottlenecks in a computer anymore, thanks mainly to the decline of floppy drives and 56k connections.
So in that case, that'd be the thing to address first.

 

[Bill Brasky]

If you *have* to choose one, the SSD is the way to go. Obviously getting a cheaper SSD and more RAM would ideal.

 

[jjmIII]

Obviously getting a cheaper SSD and more RAM would be ideal.

agreed

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2170303