Want to upgrade my MacBook, need advise

[JoLLyRoGer]

Hello all,

I have an older Macbook Pro (circa 2010) w/ the 2.4 core 2 duo and 4 GB RAM.

I recently in the last week loaded up Logic Pro Studio 9 on my MacBook now that the price dropped to $199.00 for tracking/mixing/audio production. I've been using Cakewalk Sonor 6 Producer Ed. for a few years and this seemed like a good opportunity to get a quality DAW suite on a portable platform vs. being tied to a desk yet still maintain 100% compatability w/ my Tascam surface for tracking. I travel a lot so I like the idea of being able to toss my MacBook in a bag, grab a nice set of cans and get some production work done while I'm on the road.

The problem I'm having is Logic periodically crashes. Not always, but often enough to be an annoyance. This happens during recording (rarely) and post production when I'm layering effects/plugins over several tracks (more often) due to what Logic calls either a system overload or other times the hard drive is too slow.

Turning off things such as Airport, and quitting any running apps (Safari, Skype, Chrome, etc..) seems to make the problem much better and a reboot will usually solve all for a while, but I'm looking for ways to improve this and keep the MacBook/Logic 9 setup as a solid and more stable solution for me as I've fallen head over heels for Logic's work flow in the matter of a couple of weeks.

I'm thinking some additional RAM and possibly changing out my spindle drive to a larger one or even an SSD.

Here are my questions:
What part/pieces are compatable for this version of the MacBook (specifically RAM and HDD/SSDs)

How big can I go? I want to stuff the largest drive and the absolute most RAM I can into this box.

Can I do a TimeMachine backup beforehand and restore after changing to a different size/type hard drive?

What else am I not considering here..?

Thanks,
-JR

 

[bearxor]

8GB of RAM is cheap. Just do it.

A SSD would fix your slow disk problems, but I don't know how much disk space you need. If you're using the stock 5400RPM drive, then mane even upgrading to something like a 750GB 7200RPM drive would solve your problems:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136835

You might also consider the Seagate Hybrid Drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148837

I would maybe hook up a second monior, open up activity monitor and put it on the second screen. Work like normal and see if you're running out of memory and swapping to disk. If you are, go for the RAM upgrade. Seriously, 8GB of RAM is so cheap:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148345

If that doesn't help, then I'd look at replacing your HDD with a SSD or a Hybrid drive.

If you order from newegg, what I would do is order one of these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812226045
************
(or one of these if you want to be future-proof)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812226046
************

Reinstall OS X, and when it asks you, use the migration wizard to say 'Transfer my information from another hard drive'. Just hook the one you had up to the USB kit and it will copy over files, setting and applications.

 

[JoLLyRoGer]

man, thanks, that's just the kind of advise I was after..

I was looking some of that stuff already (the WD drive and different ram). Just wasn't sure what was compatible and what wasn't. (Particularly the Hybrid drives). Last time I built a PC was about 3-4 years ago and I've never tried plugging my own parts into a Mac.. Just didn't know what the rules were with Macintosh essentially w/ Apple being all proprietary and what not.

For RAM I notice you listed the 1333 stuff. Pretty sure my Mac uses the 1067 stuff being a 2010 model. Does it make a difference in a MAC or will the 1333 just operate at the slower bus speed? Also CAS 7 v. CAS 9 in the 1067 v the 1333. If I'm only gonna run at 1067 anyway, wouldn't I see a theoretical performance bump with the lower CAS timings on the 1066(7) stuff?

Thanks,
-JR

 

[bearxor]

All of the standard type components are interchangeable. The 1333mhz RAM will just down clock to 1066mhz. When it down clocks the CAS should change to 7.

 

[dawks]

I have a Corei5 Macbook Pro from July 2010, and I just bumped from 4gigs to 8gigs when I saw I could do it for $40 plus a $15 rebate ($25). Was easy, and laptop is running great.

If you want to switch harddrives, the easiest way I found to get it done is with Carbon Copy Cloner... free software that will copy a drive from one to another, bit for bit. If your case you'd need a temporary USB connection, but its possible. I've never done a Time Machine restore, but I'd imagine it would work.

 

[TheStu]

I honestly have never done Time Machine either, I have always just used Carbon Copy Cloner. It works like a boss.

 

[JoLLyRoGer]

Just wanted to say thanks to those who replied. Some good advise here. 8gb is done. That's just too cheap to pass on. The hybrid drives have me intrigued too. I'm probably gonna go that route since I need both speed and massive amounts of storage for rendering audio.

That carbon copy cloned is something I'm definitely going to check into. Does it matter if I'm cloning a 250 gb drive over to a 750? Wondering if hard drive geometry plays into it at all..

Thanks again!

JR

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

Does it matter if I'm cloning a 250 gb drive over to a 750? Wondering if hard drive geometry plays into it at all..

I'm not sure on this, but I think it'll expand the drive to fill the whole 750GB.

 

[TheStu]

Just wanted to say thanks to those who replied. Some good advise here. 8gb is done. That's just too cheap to pass on. The hybrid drives have me intrigued too. I'm probably gonna go that route since I need both speed and massive amounts of storage for rendering audio.

That carbon copy cloned is something I'm definitely going to check into. Does it matter if I'm cloning a 250 gb drive over to a 750? Wondering if hard drive geometry plays into it at all..

Thanks again!

JR

So long as the destination drive has enough free space on an empty partition to hold the data from the source drive, then it will use as much space as on the source drive.

 

[bearxor]

I would seriously just not even bother with CCC. CCC is more of a disaster recovery utility than a migration utility. There's absolutely nothing wrong with Apple's built in migration utility from an external hard drive.

 

[Spineshank]

I have the same MBP. I put 8GB ram in it (I think Corsair). And put the Seagate 500GB Monumentus XT in it. Used Carbon Copy to do it. No problems what so ever.