morganmd7 Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 I use a lot of taxing software instruments (Omnisphere, East West, Kontakt). When I have large projects I often get the " System Overload" message. I try to bounce and freeze tracks as much as possible, but it seems that I may just need to upgrade my system a bit for better performance. So my question is, what will give me the most bang for the buck to improve performance? Or another way to put it, what part of my computer is being taxed the most by these software instruments? In your experience would upgrading the RAM, HD or getting something with more cores be most beneficial? I'm NOT looking for a "just upgrade everything" answer. I'd like to know what you guys feel like would boost the software instrument performance for my computer THE MOST. iMac (mid 2011) i7 2.4 ghz quad core, 8GB ram 7200 rpm HD Thanks guys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morganmd7 Posted December 20, 2014 Author Share Posted December 20, 2014 I'm also using Logic X, forgot to mention. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C4L88 Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 Using that stuff (especially East West stuff) RAM is a must http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/iMac/2011/DDR3_21.5_27 Good place to get RAM and that should be your model. Up to 32GB I've upgraded my whole system but I have an i7 2GHz 16GB RAM MacBook Pro that still runs fine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morganmd7 Posted December 20, 2014 Author Share Posted December 20, 2014 Awesome, thanks for the specific advice. So you'd recommend just 8 x 4 slots (32gb)? I remember hearing once that there are ways to configure it that work better (don't use different types of RAM or different brands)? Not sure if there's any truth to that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C4L88 Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 Not sure myself but I've done 2 RAM upgrades through that company (one for my MacBook and one for my main iMac) and they have been good and also cheaper. It saved me about $100 by choosing the stock RAM from Apple and then just upgrading it myself with their RAM You could 16GB if you want, but it certainly never hurts to have more On the recent iMacs they have a door in the back to install RAM, but I'm not sure about your iMac, so check on how to do that and whether or not you'll need a professional to do it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morganmd7 Posted May 22, 2015 Author Share Posted May 22, 2015 I'm thinking of adding 2 8gb RAM into my other slots. So I'll have 2 x 4gb RAM + 2 x 8GB RAM. This sound alright? Also, anyone have opinions about running on SSDs and how much of a difference that could make for me? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triplets Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 SSDs will make apps boot faster, but it won't let you add more plugins. Things will be snappier. Unless you're recording audio, you won't see a huge performance boost. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morganmd7 Posted May 22, 2015 Author Share Posted May 22, 2015 Ok, so I could potentially just run projects (with audio files in the project folder) from an external SSD drive to get the advantages from a SSD? But as far as most of my software instruments, RAM is most important. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triplets Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 Ok, so I could potentially just run projects (with audio files in the project folder) from an external SSD drive to get the advantages from a SSD? But as far as most of my software instruments, RAM is most important. The advantages of an external SSD can be felt mainly with a Thunderbolt connection and with video. Audio not so much because it has less bandwidth than video. But a lot of people swap out the internal HD with an SSD and record to that and then move it to another external after they're done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJHP3 Posted May 23, 2015 Share Posted May 23, 2015 There is very much truth to the idea that the arrangement of SIMMs makes a difference. I would, and have, bought my memory from OWC which has very clear diagrams about how to install RAM John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morganmd7 Posted May 29, 2015 Author Share Posted May 29, 2015 Would a drive like this work well to run projects off - http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=1060365&gclid=CL_XxtLe1cUCFUQXHwodWGIA5g&Q=&is=REG&A=details Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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