In my computing life I’m very much into segregation. Until recently I’ve worked exclusively with PCs and have always had 3-4 machines around, each installed with a certain set of tools to do a specific job:
- Workstation with After Effects, Photoshop, Web Development tools, Content stuff…
- Laptop with Mail, IM and other communication/organization stuff.
- Server with bittorrent downloading, media serving and distributed rendering.
- Gig machine with just Resolume and required codecs.
Since this whole tour thing started I’ve had to consolidate everything onto my MacBook. All of the usual amail, browsing and IM duties remain, but are now encroached by editing in iMovie, flyer and poster design in Photoshop/InDesign, web administration and coding in Coda, Tour and Gig organization with NeoOffice, photo organization in Lightroom… My poor MacBook has been flogged half to death, with constant slowdown and frequent freezes and crashes. Quicksilver especially – my Mac raison d’être – has been having huge problems.
I was very close to just palming my trusty lil BlackBook off to the GirlThing and upgrading to a MacBook Pro. I was talking to Peter about which MBP I should buy when he suggested that perhaps a little RAM upgrade may be in order. Best. Advice. Evar.
Local MacStore price to upgrade to 2GB RAM: AU$400. Price of RAM from local PC bits store: AU$106. The installation was a little nerve-wracking, requiring considerably more force than I’m used to applying to RAM installation, but the machine booted first time and everything seems happy now. Less MacBook slowdowns = more time to play with my new HVR-V1P. 200FPS slow motion. Can I get a hell yeah?