Ableton Forum

Hi,
i'm thinking about upgrading my mac mini.(SSD and maybe ram)

a) i know with SSD it boot up faster and apps load up faster.Will projects within live load faster as well?
b) will plugins and max for live apps load faster with SSD
c) right now i use the 64 bit version with 8 gb ram
d) would a ram upgrade to 16 gb be big difference?
c) i'm thinking about setting it completely new up (installing everything new etc.)
This will be a lot of work but the one i have now is about 4 years old and it might be worth it.
Any tipps here! Timesavers,importend things to be aware of??

Thanks in advance!
Maze

especially in Max for Live devices (load times with SSD i'm interested!!

Yes everything will load faster with an ssd.. No more waiting and waiting.
Your computer will turn on and shut down faster and everything becomes a lot more responsive.
With 8 gigs of ram, ram will only make a difference when using large samples/ sample libraries or if you are using on board graphics- I would still upgrade it.

If your processor is slow that will always be an issue after you start loading lots of plugins. I dont know what they were using 4 years ago in a mac mini but Im guessing it was a Dou core I5.
I probably could still make good use of that computer for audio if the ssd and ram was upgraded.

So SSD is the way i go.
I also decided to don't go the time machine way and instead set the the mac new up.
Any tips here for transferring the projects and stuff?

maze23a wrote:So SSD is the way i go.
I also decided to don't go the time machine way and instead set the the mac new up.
Any tips here for transferring the projects and stuff?

make sure you use the 'Collect All & Save' feature in Live so that your tracks are self contained. if not, you may spend a lot of time trying to find missing samples and recordings in your old sets on your fresh OS.

+1 for more RAM. dollar for dollar the easiest and cheapest way to increase a computer's performance.

I went from 4GB to 20GB and installed an SSD drive on my 2009 Imac. It was like a brand new computer the speed was so much faster in every aspect. I did the same for my mom's 2009 imac but went from 4GB to 12GB and SDD drive. She too couldn't believe the change in speed.I took her old spinning drive and used that as my 3rd drive with an external mounting kit for storing projects. The thing that sucks, is my 2009 computer is now going to need a video card and with labor, not worth putting anymore money into an old computer. So need to take age of computer into factor. But if you have a mac mini, I don't know about the video cards in that computer.

But it will feel like a new computer with the upgrades you suggested. Use SSD drive to launch apps and your current drive for loops, samples, projects etc as long as you have everything backed up correctly. Ableton recommends three drives: One for apps which would be SSD, one for your library of sounds your current disk drive, and one for projects. That is how my computer is setup but a lot of folks only use two drives. Confused the tar out of me but I went with Ableton's recommendation and even had an Ableton tech dial in to set everything up.

Hope that helps.