I have an idea.

Going to file this report under “newer ain’t automatically better.”

I am really happy I got my MacBook Pro (late 2011) in April when I did. They don’t make a 17” anymore, they stripped the optical drive, and you can’t upgrade the RAM in the new models (it’s soldered to the motherboard), nor replace the battery (it’s glued in now).

But… I played with a new MBP, and it’s heartstoppingly fast. It’s the solid state drive they used instead of the traditional HD. The Retina screen is neat, but I’m not sold on the entire unit because of that- I love my 17”.

I love the new SSD technology, it’s fast (way fast) and prices are falling. But their sizes aren’t anything to write home about. My current hard drive is 750gb. It’s also a 5400 rpm drive, and that’s slowish. So, the entire snappiness of my computer is bottlenecked through HD access and read/write times.

I want both.

The other item that the new MBPs don’t have is an Expresscard 34 slot. This one does, and I’m thinking that installing an SSD drive in that is a good idea. System OS and applications are installed on the SSD, and files and media are stored on the HD. Fast boot times, fast app performance and launch times, and opening files like music and video will be as fast as they’ve always been. The drives start at about 48gb and go up to 128 gb as of right now. This one I like is 64gb, and it’s looking good. So, all of the performance (expect sub-13 second boots), all of the storage, keep the optical drive (instead of switching it out for an SSD), and a lower cost.

First up though, is some RAM. They should have put 8gigs in this laptop as stock. The other neat thing is that it goes beyond Apple’s limit of 8. You can actually stick 16gbs in it. 

Then again, I’m thinking, when am I ever going to need an optical drive? 

2 Notes/ Hide

  1. billreeseblog said: I’m kind of in the same boat. The Retina Display Macbook is a nice piece of kit, but my big beef is the loss of the Firewire. Sure it has USB 3, but Firewire was always more stable than USB. I am also perplexed by the lack of desktop system updates.
  2. rxryanm reblogged this from skylundy and added:
    It’s only the MBPr that you can’t upgrade RAM on. The non-retina you can. Get an SSD, which have capacities up to 512GB...
  3. skylundy posted this