So when your Mac runs out of ram and pages to the SSD (uses the SSD as RAM) then it does not slow down, because an SSD is really like a big RAM drive! That's why I (and you) can get away with 8GB of RAM. The SSD is also made from flash chips that are almost as fast as the RAM. The SSD knows where it all your data is instantaneously. With an SSD, there is no waiting, this is because your data is effectively in a spreadsheet. A traditional hard drive is like a record player, when you send data from the HDD to the CPU the computer has to find it, it hunts around the platters looking for all the data. It is not the raw speed of the SSD, it is how it works. I dont have to wait for the CPU to catch up, there is no spinning beachball, there is no lag.

I edited the images for this article in Photoshop, uploaded them to our server using Cyberduck, and I'm running Mail and Excel in the background.

I'm running two browsers (Firefox and Chrome. I am typing this article on a 2010 Macbook Pro with 8GB of RAM and a 500GB SSD drive. A RAM upgrade is easy, a Mac SSD upgrade is a bit harder, but with this guide you'll be an expert with all the knowledge to make an SSD upgrade simple.įor general use, most modern Macbooks have enough CPU power. Replace it with an SSD, and the speed increase is incredible. The second bottleneck is your the hard drive. (Did you expect that bit of truth from the Mac memory upgrade guys?) You really only need 8GB and an SSD for a super speedy Mac. If it is a choice between 16GB and an SSD, choose an SSD. You need at least 8GB of RAM for the current macOS. Applications will open quicker, starting up is snappy, and the overall result is extending the life of your Mac.įirst bottleneck is RAM. Fix both and you can make your Mac run like new. There are two speed bottlenecks in a Macbook Pro notebook.

How to clone your Crucial SSD with Acronis.

How To Upgrade Your Mac Mini with an SSD.

How To Upgrade Your Macbook Air with an SSD.

How To Upgrade Your Macbook Pro with an SSD.

Upgrade macbook pro hard drive 2015