Noob needs help: Macbook RAM/storage upgrade advice

Firstly, let me apologize in advance for my ignorance in this subject area! I'm a complete noob!
Here goes:
I have a MacBook 7,1 (MC516LL/A) with all original, factory components, and since I've upgraded to OS X 10.7.5, it's been running incredibly S...L...O...W... which is incredibly annoying to me:P
Out of the 250GB's of HD storage, I have about 91 free. From my previous experience with mac notebooks, I know that I am going to need to get some more hard drive space, soon (my last iBook turned to complete crap, once I got down to 20 gigs of available memory).
I see that I can upgrade the RAM from two, 1GB sticks to two, 4GB sticks. From the limited research I've done, I'm under the impression that only the boot-up speed will increase slightly (please correct me if any of this is wrong).
I've also been reading about Solid State Drives, found some reasonably priced ones on crucial.com, and they look/sound AWESOME! Aaaaaand the reality is that I really have no idea what I truly need. I'm a single mom and a college student, so I'm looking for an upgrade option in the $200-300 range, *and* I'm not into graphic design, web design, or anything that requires top of the line equipment.
My macbook is practically glued to my hands 24/7, so I just want it to run FASTER, and I need more storage. I don't know if this info is pertinent or helps, but outside of studying (all done with ebooks and online websites), I like to download a lot of music, watch videos, upload family pictures, browse the interwebz, etc., etc.
What can I do to improve speed and expand storage capacity?
Any help is GREATLY appreciated! Thanks!

Hello! I own a mid-2010 MacBook (a.k.a MacBook 7,1) running OS X 10.8.2 Mountain Lion, which I use for school, and I had the exact same issues with my MacBook, before I upgraded it. I had almost filled up my MacBook's HDD and my computer's RAM was insufficient to perform any of my day-to-day tasks with ease. I upgraded the RAM from two sticks of 1GB (the factory-installed configuration) to one stick of 4GB, and I installed a 1TB HDD in place of the original 250GB HDD (my requirements were slightly different from what yours seem to be). Currently, my MacBook is a lot less laggy than it used to be (even with a HDD that's four times larger in terms of capacity installed), but it still takes a long time to start up and perform certain tasks. Therefore, from my experience, I would recommend that you do the following:
1. Get two sticks of 2GB (2x2GB) of RAM, not one stick of 4GB (1x4GB). Even though the latter will probably be considerably cheaper than the former, I think it's worth the few extra dollars to get the former because it's much faster than the latter. You shouldn't go for anything more than 4GB of RAM in total, because it'll overload your MacBook. Trust me, that's not something you want to have to deal with!
2. Get a 500GB or 512GB SSD, not a larger HDD. In hindsight, I don't think I even needed anything close to 1TB. I only purchased my huge HDD because it was on offer, and it was being sold (believe it or not) for less than a 500GB HDD. But if you're looking for speed, an HDD is not the way to go; they're much, much slower than SSDs, even though they're much cheaper.
You should see an exponential increase in the speed of your MacBook. You might want to try the following websites; they offer high-quality, affordable components and I've known people (including myself) who have used their products before.
1. Other World Computing - http://www.macsales.com
2. Crucial (of course) - http://www.crucial.com
3. Strontium - http://www.strontium.biz
4. RamJet, Inc. - http://www.ramjet.com
5. MacUpgrades - http://www.macupgrades.co.uk/store/index.php
6. Corsair (these guys can get a little pricey at times) - http://www.corsair.com/us/
7. Kingston - http://www.kingston.com/us/
8. Sandisk - http://www.sandisk.com
Good luck speeding your MacBook up, and I hope this helped!

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Quote from: Exo on 21-May-07, 18:23:34
You can't use DDR2 ram with that board. You need DDR1 PC3200 ram. Best thing to do is sell the ram you currently have and get a new dual channel kit as your slots are already full and further mixing will lead to problems.
Hi thanks for replying.
I don't intend to mix the existing rams that I have with a new replace rams. I will just install 2 x 1GB rams. So I need to know if my motherboard will be able to use 1 GB DDR2 533mhz or DDR2 667Mhz rams before I go and buy.
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Rodney:
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See my sig for system info...
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CELL MENU
CPU Clock speed: 2200
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All your contacts should be in whatever PC program you have been syncing them with - Outlook 2003/2007 or Windows Address Book.
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Hi,
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,     column_e
,     column_f
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One solution is:
SELECT     COUNT (DISTINCT CASE WHEN diagnosis = 1 THEN kindred_id END)     AS diagnosis_1
,     COUNT (DISTINCT CASE WHEN diagnosis = 2 THEN kindred_id END)     AS diagnosis_2
,     COUNT (DISTINCT CASE WHEN diagnosis = 3 THEN kindred_id END)     AS diagnosis_3
,     column_d
,     column_e
,     column_f
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Dear All,
I have a Macbook 5,1 late 2008. I want to upgrade my RAM to the maximum since I sometimes use VMware Fusion to run windows 7 for school stuff. I know Apple says my Mac is 4GB max but some of these discussions have mentioned its really 6GB maximum. I was looking at this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104165 . It has the right number of pins and low latency. Or do I have to buy the MAC specific computability memory like http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134833
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Dear Kappy,
Thanks for getting back to me so fast. Here is the info from my system profiler.
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I'm in need of help. I'll try to give all the info I can.
I have had this MacBook Pro for at least 4 years.
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It doesn't really make sense for the drive to suddenly fail. I don't even think Mavericks fully began installing... it downloaded the file, rebooted and then said that the install failed.
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Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Invalid extent entry
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Volume repair complete.
Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required.
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Need help regarding ram upgrade

hi,
I m having dv6703tx with folloging config:
MS Vista 32-bit
Intel Core 2 Duo CPU T5450 @ .66Ghz
2 GB RAM
NVIDDIA GeForce 8400M GS
I need to upgrade another 2 GB extra
can any one will help me regarding this.
I am having following q:
Is my system will work good and fast after upgrading the RAM?
my os will support for it?
any problem will creating bcoz of upgrading ram?
which companys ram will better and what will be the cost for it?
regards,
niranjan

HI,
niru12 wrote:
hi,
I m having dv6703tx with folloging config:
MS Vista 32-bit
Intel Core 2 Duo CPU T5450 @ .66Ghz
2 GB RAM
NVIDDIA GeForce 8400M GS
I need to upgrade another 2 GB extra
can any one will help me regarding this.
I am having following q:
Is my system will work good and fast after upgrading the RAM?
my os will support for it?
any problem will creating bcoz of upgrading ram?
which companys ram will better and what will be the cost for it?
regards,
niranjan
Adding RAM will help especially for graphics and number crunching applications. You will no longer get the out of memory warnings. Windows 7 is happier with more memory.
Be advised that there are only two soDIMM slots for memory in a notebook. That means you will have to replace the current memory modules with two 2 GB memory modules to achieve 4 GB of installed memory.
I recommend only purchasing guaranteed compatible memory modules.
That way you won't have disappointments ( blue screens or black screens) after new module installation and attempting to boot into Windows.
The better memory modules are made by manufacturers such as Kingston (model KTH-ZD8000B/2G • DDR2-667 / PC2-5300 • 1.8V)
As for the cost: You will have to find your own local supplier by searching online .
Best regards,
erico
****Please click on Accept As Solution if a suggestion solves your problem. It helps others facing the same problem to find a solution easily****
2015 Microsoft MVP - Windows Experience Consumer

Noob needs help with Logic and Motu live setup.

Hello everyone,
I'm a noob / semi noob who could use some help with a live setup using 2 MOTU 896HD's and Logic on a Mac.
Here's the scenario:
I teach an outdoor marching percussion section (a drumline and a front ensemble of marimbas and vibes). We have an amazing setup of live sound to amplify and enhance the mallet percussion. There is a yamaha PA system with 2 subs and 2 mains which are routed through a rack unit that processes the overall PA balance. I'm pretty sure that the unit is supposed to avoid feedback and do an overall cross-over EQ of the sound. Other then that unit, we have 2 motu896hd units which are routed via fire-wire. I also have a coax cable routing the output of the secondary box to the input of the primary box (digital i/o which converts to ADAT in (i think?)..?
Here's the confusion:
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All of my performers and inputs routed via firewire into a Mac Mini running OSX and Logic pro.
I want to be able to use MainStage and run different patches of effects / virt. instruments for a midi controller keyboard / etc.
I want to be able to EQ and balance the ensemble via Logic.
Here's another question:
How much latency will I be dealing with? Would a mac mini with 4gb of ram be able to handle this load? With percussion, I obviously want the sound as latency free as possible. I also, however, want the flexibility of sound enhancement / modification that comes with Logic and the motu896hd units.
Any help would be REALLY appreciated. I need the routing assistance along with some direction as to whether or not this will work for this type of application. I'm pretty certain it does, as I have spoken with some other teachers in similar venues and they have been doing similar things using mac mini's / logic / mainstage / etc.
Thanks in advance,
Chris

You'll definitely want to read the manual to make sure the 896HDs are connected together properly. ADAT is a little tricky, it's not just a matter of cabling them together. Go to motunation.com if you need more guidance on connecting multiple devices. Beyond that initial hookup, here are a couple of quick suggestions:
1. Open CueMix and see if both devices are reported there. If not, your connections aren't correct. Be sure to select 44.1kHz as your sample rate, otherwise you are reducing the number of additional channels. For instance at 88.2kHz you would get half the additional channels via ADAT.
2. You may need to create an aggregate device for the MacBook to recognize more than the first 896HD. Lots of help on this forum for how to do that. Again, first make sure you have the 896HDs connected together properly.
3. As for latency with Mainstage on the Mini, no way to know until you try it. Generally MOTU is fantastic for low latency work but Mainstage is a question mark for a lot of users right now. If the Mini can't cut the mustard, you have a great excuse to upgrade to a MacBook Pro.

Need Help Expanding RAM On An Aging iMac

I am looking to expand my 2009 iMac from the current 2GB RAM to 4GB RAM (or higher if that is possible, and still affordable). The problem I have is I can't afford the $200 price tag for the brand new modules on sale at apple.com. So I wanted to know if there is a less expensive but effective alternative? I am not the most computer savvy, so I need guidance in selecting appropriate modules that would be reliable and compatable, but for less $. I would like to keep this aging iMac as up-to-date as I can as it has been the best computer buy I have EVER made! I upgraded to OS10.7 a few months ago, and I saw a warning I probably didn't have enough RAM to run it really efficiently when I installed it, and they were right. My iMac as slowed down some since the OS upgrade, and I'd like to make an upgrade to the RAM capacity to help speed it back up. Thanks in advance for your advice!

You can purchase any third-party RAM for much less than Apple charges and install it yourself. 2009 iMacs can accommodate up to 8 GBs of RAM: 2 - 204-pin PC3-8500 (1066 MHz) DDR3 SO-DIMMs. The Late 2009 model can accommodate up to 16 GBs.
You can buy good RAM at OWC or DataMem.

Need help choosing models and upgrades

Hi guys,
Basically I am stuck on a air few things with deciding what models along with upgrades to get. I am stuck between getting the MBP 15 inch 2.6GHz or the Retina 15 inch 2.3GHz. For starters I would say I want to use the MBP for general stuff like office and more complex programs like SSPS, surfing the net downloading movies and music and playing games like Rome total War amongst many other games etc. However, I think I have read the Retina display does not even work with all games?
Due to the relative low price I'm sure I will upgrade to 16 GB worth of RAM If get the Retina MBP as you can't upgrade them further down the line (*****). I beleive with the Retina MBP there is no disk drive, so i can't directly insert DVD's or Burn files onto disks etc, but this can be overcome by buying the Apple USB Super Drive, am I correct?
The Retina display only has 256 GB flash storage and that is kinda of low, will it more then enough for what I want to use the MBP for? What would that flash storage not be enough for?
If I get the normal 15 inch 2.6Hz MBP then I will upgrade the screen Hi-res glossy widescreen display as I like to play games and watch movies. Is it worth upgrading the hardrive the improve seed, efficientcy and power performance?
Overall what model would you say best suites my needs thanks?

Actually I have been doing further research and I personally would either go with the 2.6GHz NON RETINA MBP or cough up the cash and go all out on a 2.6GHz RETINA MBP and upgrade the RAM to 16GB and upgrade to 768GB Flash storage, I am a student as well so will get a discount which will help.
My fears are that if I get the Retina model I will not be able to upgrade it even further, I want to keep the computer for at least a good 5 years, during those 5 to 8 years will the current upgrades be enough to keep up with the top games and programs etc? Also I have read that repairing the Retina display model is very diffcult and it can malfunction commonly, so I am guessing I should get apple care on top of it just to be sure with this particular model?
I am assuming that they they will bring out the new models out next year and all the chinks and bugs of the current Retina model will be fixed so to speak, of which I have read there is a few... Would it be worth buying the NON RETINA MBP and then selling and upgrading to an improved RETINA MBP model next year?
Finally if i back up my files on a hardrive would I have to use the USP SUPER DRIVE to install files onto the RETINA MBP or can i directly do this without the USP SUPERDRIVE?
Thanks

Noob needs help: Macbook RAM/storage upgrade advice

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