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  #1  
Old 02-26-2015, 08:17 PM
kmoneybts kmoneybts is offline
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Default Macbook pro is starting to get slow, thinking of getting an SSD OS drive

What sort of performance improvements should I expect? Right now I'm just experiencing overall sluggishness on the computer and increasingly more cpu overload errors...

I have a 2011 macbook pro 2.7 ghz intel core i7 and 16 gb of ram running pro tools 10.3.9 HD native.

Anyone who has upgraded, let me know how it worked for you, thanks!
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Old 02-26-2015, 09:23 PM
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Southsidemusic Southsidemusic is offline
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Default Re: Macbook pro is starting to get slow, thinking of getting an SSD OS drive

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Originally Posted by kmoneybts View Post
What sort of performance improvements should I expect? Right now I'm just experiencing overall sluggishness on the computer and increasingly more cpu overload errors...

I have a 2011 macbook pro 2.7 ghz intel core i7 and 16 gb of ram running pro tools 10.3.9 HD native.

Anyone who has upgraded, let me know how it worked for you, thanks!
Hi

As with anything new you would see an nice improvement but putting in a dedicated OS drive α la SSD you will be AMAZED at the Speed and serious performance gain.

The new life your MacBook will recieve will be huge and I would say do it NOW

Just make sure you have all your songs and files backed up should something go awry so you can back paddle and keep working while you sort out the problem and give it a new go.

Also as I have learned from Darryl here on the forum who is a fountain of knowledge on these things - Get a bigger SSD drive as they have better performance and reliability. I would shoot for a minimum 256 GB but preferably a 512 GB or bigger if you can spring for that size. You won't regret it one bit!

I would say you could eliminate the need for dedicated external recording drives aswell for normal sessions. We mixed a few tracks for one of the bigggest DJ's in the world in a hotel room a week ago with 130 tracks and over 100 plugins on just the internal SSD drive in one of the MBP retinas with 16GB and 256GB original intel SSD and not one issue, not one error or anything wonky what so ever. No external drives, just Pro Tools 11HD and our ilok dongle at the hotel room.

Your MBP should feel like a whole new computer and the performance for Pro Tools will be considerably better and maybe even as good as a brand new. You have an i7 with 16GB and thats the shizniz for music production

Look at the Samsung series as we have been using those for years on all our studio Mac computers. There are other drives that are cheaper and probably as good but have a serious look at Samsung and take it from there.

Best of Luck and let us know what you get and if you need any further assistance
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  #3  
Old 02-26-2015, 11:27 PM
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Default Re: Macbook pro is starting to get slow, thinking of getting an SSD OS drive

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Originally Posted by kmoneybts View Post
What sort of performance improvements should I expect?
This site has good information available and the drives are also good.
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Old 02-27-2015, 12:11 AM
Dave Lang Dave Lang is offline
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Default Re: Macbook pro is starting to get slow, thinking of getting an SSD OS drive

I just went through this with my early 2011 MacBook Pro.

I was shocked at how much better a late 2013 MacBook Pro Retina worked, even though the processor speeds were similar.

I put an SSD in the old machine first, and that helped speed things up, but not so much with ProTools.

If you can get your hands on a faster laptop, maybe try it out and see what you think. Rental maybe?

ps - do the fans run a lot on your current machine?

good luck,
dave
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Old 02-27-2015, 12:50 AM
abre abre is offline
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Default Re: Macbook pro is starting to get slow, thinking of getting an SSD OS drive

Not hijacking the thread but I have a question for Southsidemusic. I observed too that their are no issues when recording to an internal SSD. Where did you all record those tracks to? The desktop or somewhere else?
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Old 02-27-2015, 11:30 AM
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Default Re: Macbook pro is starting to get slow, thinking of getting an SSD OS drive

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Originally Posted by abre View Post
Not hijacking the thread but I have a question for Southsidemusic. I observed too that their are no issues when recording to an internal SSD. Where did you all record those tracks to? The desktop or somewhere else?
Hi Abre

Yes we recorded to the Desktop each time. Made a folder which was named after the song and fired away

After we were done we copied the song folders to an external drive for backup and kept a copy on the desktop. we used the MBP in the show in front of 35000 cheering raving fans with PT11HD and nothing else but the internal SSD.
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Old 02-27-2015, 01:11 PM
lexaudio lexaudio is offline
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Default Re: Macbook pro is starting to get slow, thinking of getting an SSD OS drive

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Originally Posted by abre View Post
Not hijacking the thread but I have a question for Southsidemusic. I observed too that their are no issues when recording to an internal SSD. Where did you all record those tracks to? The desktop or somewhere else?
While it may work, I would recommend it. The boot drive is used for VR so the less space it has, the more problems you will encounter down the line.

If you have a USB 3 port, just use a USB 3 drive. They work fine.
Keeps everything nice and tidy too.
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Old 02-27-2015, 02:33 PM
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Default Re: Macbook pro is starting to get slow, thinking of getting an SSD OS drive

I also record and playback from the Desktop all the time, zero worries here. The current PCI-express based SSD's are so wicked fast you really don't have to worry about it any longer. Really.
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  #9  
Old 02-28-2015, 01:23 AM
abre abre is offline
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Default Re: Macbook pro is starting to get slow, thinking of getting an SSD OS drive

Originally posted by Southsidemusic:

Hi Abre

Yes we recorded to the Desktop each time. Made a folder which was named after the song and fired away

After we were done we copied the song folders to an external drive for backup and kept a copy on the desktop. we used the MBP in the show in front of 35000 cheering raving fans with PT11HD and nothing else but the internal SSD.

Very good to hear Southsidemusic.

Originally posted by Lexaudio:

While it may work, I would recommend it. The boot drive is used for VR so the less space it has, the more problems you will encounter down the line.

If you have a USB 3 port, just use a USB 3 drive. They work fine.
Keeps everything nice and tidy too.

Lexaudio, I am presently recording to an external USB3 256 Gb SSD both with Logic pro X and protools 11. I am getting "Disk too slow" with Logic and errors with Protools 11 with Yosemite. I don't get any when recording and playing back via the internal 512 gb Crucial SSD. I say get a large SSD and do everything on it and done with those disk related issues
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Old 03-01-2015, 10:16 AM
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Park Seward Park Seward is offline
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Default Re: Macbook pro is starting to get slow, thinking of getting an SSD OS drive

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Originally Posted by JFreak View Post
I also record and playback from the Desktop all the time, zero worries here. The current PCI-express based SSD's are so wicked fast you really don't have to worry about it any longer. Really.
Has anyone seen an official Avid blessing on using your SSD boot drive for recording? While it's great it seems to be working fine, I'd like to see something official.
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