Upgrade to a MacBook Pro?

Josh220

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I got a notice from Lightroom that my hard drive no longer has enough space to import my pictures. I currently use the bottom MacBook (13" white one which cost $999 new, now lowered to $949). This computer wasn't meant for handling RAW images and editing, but I didn't plan on doing any of that when I purchased it.

Should I just add RAM to this computer, or get a MacBook Pro? I can't even finish importing my images from today because I don't have enough space.

Will a MacBook Pro be significantly better for handling images, and will it be more resistant to being filled up?
 
It depends on your HDD space. Adding RAM won't increase the amount of memory you have, instead it will speed your Macbook up.

Upgrading to a MBP won't help you either, unless you get a bigger HD.

You could always upgrade the HD you have now to a bigger one, or get an external hardrive.

I have a MBP, and from all the downloading music, photos, applications etc i have, my hard drive is already filled. I bought a 500GB external hard drive, which helps out, but it's not a portable HD, so doesn't really fit with the whole, computing on the go thing.
 
I'd upgrade. Larger hard drive, more RAM, better processor, PCIe bus on the GPU. Yup, it'll be quite the improvement overall, and I think you should go for it. I also suggest ditching the idea of holding all your images on one machine; at least put them on an external device—a Drobo is a good choice if you can swing it.
 
I have a 500GB external HD right now (Time Capsule by Apple) so I have all of my pictures backed up there. I was thinking that I could use this to store pictures that I don't directly need (once I have edited them and used them, throw them on the external HD and delete them from the computer) but that seems like a hassle. I also won't have direct access to them unless I am at home and can transfer them over.

I believe my model has a 160GB hard drive. The MBP I am looking at has a 320GB hard drive. It also has twice as much memory (4GB) and a faster processor.

If 160GB is so easy to fill, will a 320GB HD really be much better? Enough to be worth $2k?

I'm not only getting the warning on Lightroom (it actually prevents me from importing any more pictures) but my computer gives me pop-ups periodically telling me my start-up disk is almost full and that I need to delete files.
 
Honestly, you can probably just upgrade the hard drive, and the RAM if you want to.
 
Why not nip the problem at the source. You need added storage capacity. You can get 2TB of network attached storage for a song these days. I suggest you look at something like that.
 
I have a 500GB external HD right now (Time Capsule by Apple) so I have all of my pictures backed up there. I was thinking that I could use this to store pictures that I don't directly need (once I have edited them and used them, throw them on the external HD and delete them from the computer) but that seems like a hassle. I also won't have direct access to them unless I am at home and can transfer them over.

You should consider increasing the amount of external storage and archive your photos there. Keeping all your photos on the internal drive is a loosing proposition as you'll be in the same boat in a year or two.

I believe my model has a 160GB hard drive. The MBP I am looking at has a 320GB hard drive. It also has twice as much memory (4GB) and a faster processor.

Sounds to me like you are trying to justify the cost of upgrading your laptop. If you want a mac pro, just admit it and start saving $$$ to buy it. Be honest to thyself. There's nothing wrong with upgrading just because. Memory upgrade for your MacBook is inexpensive. Bigger internal hard drive for your laptop is also inexpensive. More external disk space is also inexpensive. I'd rather spend the cash on other stuff than upgrading a perfectly fine macbook.

Some links of interest:
Find the latest Performance Upgrades, Firewire and USB Hard Drives, SATA, Memory, Laptop Battery, and more at OWC
How to Upgrade Your MacBook's Hard Drive | Macinstruct
 
<< Looking at his car and thinks... My rims a scraped up!!

Hun? Can we stop buy the car dealership and buy a new car???

:lol: Don't I wish I could do that...
 
I have a 500GB external HD right now (Time Capsule by Apple) so I have all of my pictures backed up there. I was thinking that I could use this to store pictures that I don't directly need (once I have edited them and used them, throw them on the external HD and delete them from the computer) but that seems like a hassle. I also won't have direct access to them unless I am at home and can transfer them over.

You should consider increasing the amount of external storage and archive your photos there. Keeping all your photos on the internal drive is a loosing proposition as you'll be in the same boat in a year or two.

I believe my model has a 160GB hard drive. The MBP I am looking at has a 320GB hard drive. It also has twice as much memory (4GB) and a faster processor.

Sounds to me like you are trying to justify the cost of upgrading your laptop. If you want a mac pro, just admit it and start saving $$$ to buy it. Be honest to thyself. There's nothing wrong with upgrading just because. Memory upgrade for your MacBook is inexpensive. Bigger internal hard drive for your laptop is also inexpensive. More external disk space is also inexpensive. I'd rather spend the cash on other stuff than upgrading a perfectly fine macbook.

Some links of interest:
Find the latest Performance Upgrades, Firewire and USB Hard Drives, SATA, Memory, Laptop Battery, and more at OWC
How to Upgrade Your MacBook's Hard Drive | Macinstruct

I could look into that but I don't want to leave my laptop at Apple because I use it every day. I am not trying to justify it, I would prefer a way around it. I do have more than enough money to buy this, but I was planning on buying a 70-200 Nikon lens this month, and I'd rather not spend over $4k in a single month.

When upgrading to a bigger hard drive, does that not lose all of the data I currently have on this one?
 
I saw some 250mb external hard drives at wal-mart for 60 bucks yesterday. They had a big display. I don't know if they would work on Mac, but you should just be able to change the file transfer system (if its already NTFS) to HFS+
 
The only way I have been able to figure out how to use an external HD to solve the problem is to store photo's on it after I edit them in LR. There isn't a way to import them directly to the external HD and still edit them? The problem with this is I shoot 200+ pictures per week (RAW). So even though I can narrow these down to about 10 and delete the rest from my disc, it will eventually add up. And it only gives me about a week or 2 to use the images before I have to throw them on the external HD before I need more space. That's not much time.
 
In the LR import dialogue, Copy to: /blah/blah/weeeee/ <Choose...> . Click the Choose... button and select your external drive.
 
In the LR import dialogue, Copy to: /blah/blah/weeeee/ <Choose...> . Click the Choose... button and select your external drive.

It will allow me to make back-ups to my external at the time of import, but not to select the external HD as it's main import location.
 

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