Do I need 16gb of RAM and/or and SSD

Hi,
My wife has an early 2011 macbook pro, entry level 13''. I upgraded it to 2x4gb of RAM but she still gets a lot of lag. I've tried convoncing her that it's because she has 20 odd file open in Adobe illustrator and a couple of files open in a few other aps (excel, firefox, work PS). She won't change her habits as she says she needs the files there as we have a lot of customers at the same time..............bla bla.
Would the machine run noticably quicker/smoother if I were to upgrade the RAM to 2x8gb? Would we notice a difference if we installed a Crucial m4 SSD?
I like the idea of removing the DVD drive and keeping the old optical HD and either running them so they both have the same on them (can't remember if it's RAID 0,1 or 2) or as we already have a Time Capsule I wouldn't mind using the SSD as the Boot disk. As you can tell I don't know my terminology and know next to nothing about a lot of stuff. Would the Boot SSD also have the aps on and the files on the old optical HD? Is there a guide for dummies on how to do this?
Thanks in advance if anyones managed to read all of this and want to reply with help.
Rich

Like Bimmer, I would recommend a SSD upgrade. I have the Crucial m4 512GB and love it - everything that accesses the disk (and that's a lot of apps) frequently can use the faster speed. I think Bimmer had the same model. If I were you, I'd go to Crucial's website and take a look around, maybe ask questions in their users forum: there are a lot of MBP owners there. Also take a look at the Amazon website where the m4 is sold - here. Lot's of happy Mac users there as well.
As far as a guide for 'dummies' - take a look at OWC - www.macsales.com - they have videos on how to install the drives as well as kits for putting your old SATA drive in the optical bay, or enclosures for your old HD if you decide to go that way as well. As for me, I just put the SSD in the old HD bay, kept my optical drive in place (I use it weekly, at least), and now have my old 500GB in a drawer awaiting the day when I finally decide what type of enclosure I want for it. I already had a 1 Tb external HD for Time Machine back-ups, so I'm in no hurry.
As to RAM - I do use up to 12-13GB of my 16GB RAM from time-to-time. Use Activity Monitor, in your Utilities folder, to monitor your RAM usage for a week or two and see if you could actually benefit from a RAM upgrade.
I think Bimmer and I have similar set-ups? Not sure about that, though. So we're good go-to folks for questions about SSDs and RAM.
Good luck - keep us posted.
Clinton

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I don't see any DDR3L on the page for the RAM that would fit your model -> http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Apple_MacBook_MacBook_Pro/Upgrade/DDR3_133 3MHz_SDRAM.
But the answer is that it doesn't really matter - just make certain to get 1333MHz.
Good luck,
Clinton
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Do i need an SSD in order to upgrade to 16gb of RAM upgrade????

Hey there,
I've been the proud owner of an MBP 15.4" late 2011. I have already upgraded my RAM to 8gb (2X4gb) but I continue to hit some bottle necking when working on projects.
I am a free lance web developer, which means I have illustrator and photoshop windows open, plus a FTP client (cyber duck) and text wrangler, plus a browser. I try to minimize my programs to only what I need, but I still experience sluggish haults when I run anything in conjunction.
I'm thinking of upgrading to 16gb of RAM, but I wanted to know if I need and ssd to do that? Will 16gb work without an ssd? I have just the stock HDD (750gb) right now.
I also have a day job as a networking engineer, so I run multiple VMs at once, which chokes my mbp with the current RAM available.
I don't want to do an ssd right now, but I will down the line when the prices are more reasonable. I would like to just upgrade the RAM first if its effective.
Thanks in advance for your feedback.
Rich

No. You don't need an SSD to upgrade your RAM. Here's what you can install:
Maximum Memory
16 GB (Actual) 8 GB (Apple)
Memory Slots
2 - 204-pin PC-10600 (1333 MHz) DDR3 SO-DIMM
You will find suitable RAM at OWC or DataMem.

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Do I need 16gb RAM?

I am a mechanical engineering student about to purchase a new laptop. I am pretty set on the new 15 inch macbook pro with retina display. I have also considered trying to wait for apple to release a 13 inch with retina display. I would like the 13 inch for ease of transport, but want the screen real estate of the 15 inch for autocad and other design apps. I can’t decide if 15 inch is a large enough difference over the 13 inch to be appreciated or if ill end up using an external display no matter which size I get.
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Thanks

More then likely NO you don't. I have 16GBs of RAM install on a Win 7 64bit desktop and rarely use more the 6-8GBs and that is really rare.
Oh and after re-reading your post. As long as you aren't trying to run more then one VM at a time 8GBs should be fine. Actually you may run into problems trying to run more then one VM at the same time even if you have 16GBs of RAM installed. The system just doesn't have enough resources, CPU power, to handle that.

X240 and 16GB of RAM

Does anyone know if it's possible to upgrade to 16GB of RAM? I've tried finding the hardware maintenance manual for the X240 but am coming up empty.

jrainey wrote:
Does anyone know if it's possible to upgrade to 16GB of RAM? I've tried finding the hardware maintenance manual for the X240 but am coming up empty.
No.
Only one RAM slot is available, and there are no compatible laptop 16GB DIMMs in production.
Cheers,
George
In daily use: R60F, R500F, T61, T410
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Enjoying retirement: A31p, T42p,
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Starting Thursday, 08/14/2014 I'll be away from the forums until further notice. Please do NOT send private messages since I won't be able to read them. Thank you.

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Will 16GB RAM in my 2014 Retina Macbook Pro wear out the SSD? I plan on keeping it for 4 years.
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Will 16GB of RAM really increase my speed?

Hello, all you MacBook Pro fanatics!
I have a late 2011 MacBook Pro with 8 GB of RAM installed - I bought the Corsair memory from Amazon for under $50 and installed it myself.
Amazon now has a 16GB kit fro Corsair for only $100 - the least expensive price I've found. The only RAM intensive app I really run is Photoshop CS6, but I do keep a lot of apps open at one time (Acrobat Pro X, Outlook, InDesign CS6, Illustrator CS6, Word, Parallels running XP, iTunes at the moment) and I was wondering if the extra RAM would actually help me out.
I'm looking for some advice from people who have already upgraded to 16 GB... can you actually tell a difference?
Any advice would be most welcome.
Clinton

BEWARE BEWARE BEWARE before you install your shiny new 16GB of RAM and restart the Mac!
All modern computers manage their memory using a paged virtual memory scheme. This means setting aside a piece of the hard disk drive where unused portions of the processes are paged out (as you have already found out). Plus Macs incorporate a sleep+hibernate scheme for fast and reliable recovery after the lid is closed.
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Now that you are going to stuff 16GB in to replace the 8GB it already had, the paging + sleep spaces are going to DOUBLE in size. That means you will see 16GB magically vanish from the amount of free disk space, the instant the Mac boots up fully decked out. So be sure there's enough room available before doing the install.

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megagram wrote:
K as far as I understood modern OS's, they write memory to disk when physical RAM is exhausted. My physical RAM has not been physically exhausted and yet I still see high numbers of pagefiles. This is my concern; especially since I have an SSD that can't be replaced I'd rather not accelerate its demise with unecessary writes.
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Hi Rickaroni,
Welcome to Lenovo Community!
I’m sorry to inform you that the maximum RAM/Memory that is supported up to 8GB and 16GB is not compatible with this Laptop model. Below is the image with the exact specifications of the RAM:
Spoiler (Highlight to read)
Do post us back for further queries.
Best Regards
Shiva Kumar
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ML Ram, VRAM paging and allocation questions.

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Do I need 16gb of RAM and/or and SSD

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