RAM or HD upgrade to boost performance?

Question

Level 1

31 points

RAM or HD upgrade to boost performance?

I have a 2.4 ghz MBP with 2GB of RAM. My HD is a 5400 RPM 160GB with about 25GB free. I always seem to have a lot of apps open, which I think could be a reason why I find the computer to be a bit sluggish. It just seems like apps open slower than they show, or that I get the spinning beachball too often. I had this issue with my iMac (yes, sounds like it could be me) too. When I upgraded from 1GB to 2GB of RAM, I really couldn't tell a difference. When I'd look at Activity Monitor, it never seemed like the RAM was being fully used, with a lot either Free or Inactive. I'm wondering if it's worth going from 2GB to 4GB on the MBP, if I'll see a noticeable improvement or not. Or maybe I should upgrade the HD? Curious what people think.

Thanks!

15 MBP Santa Rosa, 20 iMac G5, Mac OS X (10.5.5)

Posted on Nov 21, 2008 6:09 PM

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Answer 1

lenn5

Level 4

2,537 points

Nov 21, 2008 7:57 PM in response to Cibby

I would definately try to free up some hdd space first. Can you back up some of your files to an external drive and then see if that helps.

If you're still seeing alot of free in the activity monitor then ram is probably not your problem.

lenn

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Answer 2

DonH49

Level 6

16,716 points

Nov 23, 2008 5:12 AM in response to Cibby

a simple test ;

get an image say a tiff file with a resolution of say 400, try to open with 1 gig ram. Then 2 gigs then 4 gigs. your question will be answered immediately.

of course you could down grade the image say to 150 and get back to normal but that takes away the flexibility does it?

A 7200 rpm hard drive will make a 15% improve to overall speed.

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