I have a 2010 MBP 13 in. I am considering upgrading the HHD to SSD or should I just upgrade the HHD in size. I am not a gamer and don't work with media. I primarily use my MBP for school, surfing the web,music download, and minor photo editing. Also, is there a need to upgrade RAM? I am being told not to. If I am advised to upgrade I will be upgrading from a 250gb HHD. Note: Any and all advice is appreciated.
MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)
A traditional HDD will be satisfactory. Get one that spins at 7200 rpm. They don't cost very much more than the slower ones. SSDs are stil woefully expensive for the benefits that they provide. A 750 GB HDD should be in the $80-$90 range. It is difficult to have too much storage.
If you do not have 8 GB of RAM installed, it would be a good idea since you are using Mt. Lion. Should cost you about $40.
Ciao.
An SSD would certainly speed things up - although most SSDs are capable of 6.0 Gbps speeds, the SATA bus on your model only supports 3.0 Gbps speeds. But it would certainly be much faster than the spinning platters in your current hard drive. For information and a buyer's guide to SSDs see Sean's SSD Buyers Guide & Information Thread.
If you've only 4GB of RAM, you could certainly stand to upgrade to 8GB - that, for me, is the 'sweet spot' for running current versions of OS X and newer applications. A good source for RAM upgrades is Crucial - go to their site and use the System Scanner tab to determine which is right for your model.
Good luck - call back with any questions....
Clinton
8 GB of RAM is cheap enough now where it would be rude not to upgrade. An SSD is almost always a worthwhile purchase, despite what anyone says. However, for your use, it wouldn't be worth the investment. I would recommend the 750 GB Seagate Momentus XT. This is a "hybrid" disk, combining a traditional platter hard drive with a small, 8 GB SSD that acts as cache. The SSD stores the files that are accessed most often, providing much faster access. If OS X is your only operating system, after a few reboots, your machine can boot just about as quickly as a standard SSD because the drive is "learning" your usage patterns. The Momentus XT is a bit more expensive than a standard hard drive (about US$130), but it's a great compromise if you need more space but don't fancy shelling out $300+ on a 512 GB SSD.
Should I upgrade my 2010 MBP 13 to SSD?
