Hey all,
 
LOL...my earlier post today on "what have we become" and look at me here.  Hahaha!  However, I've decided that my seven year old machine could legitimately use an update, and I don't want a whole new rig/build.  I'm doubling and maxing out the RAM to 8 GB and the system drive will now be on SSD.  Maybe at some point I'll put the audio and sample drives on hybrid, but this I figure this will be alot of bang for the buck for the time being and should work well for a long time yet.  Except for the RAM, I can use all this on a new build in the future.
 
What's really cool is that I'll be able to use the existing RAM and system drive in my DAW on a spare motherboard/Core 2 duo I have to make my kids a box for Youtube and games.  Thinking about putting Chrome OS on that.  Hopefully this will get them off the DAW. 

Good plan!

If you use Kontakt samples a lot, a larger SSD will allow for better "streaming" which will minimize your ram headaches... I keep some of my samples on c drive...
 
As they are so reasonable now, bigger might make sense...

cclarry
Good plan!

We've cut off satellite TV so my girls watch more online stuff now, plus use educational/game sites.  Didn't think of it immediately, but would be super handy connected to a TV.  Also, would be neat to try out ChromeOS.

cclarry
Good plan!

Vastman
If you use Kontakt samples a lot, a larger SSD will allow for better "streaming" which will minimize your ram headaches... I keep some of my samples on c drive...
 
As they are so reasonable now, bigger might make sense...

Very good point.  Definitely did consider that.

Wow...very happy with the system SSD update.  Cloning went off totally without a hitch and the machine is absolutely much snappier.  Really impressive how quickly Sonar pops up and plug ins like Ozone 6 and K Meter fly right up.  Definitely worth the money.  RAM will be updated on Thursday evening.  Woohoo!

Which SSD did you go with?

I did exactly the same thing - doubled my RAM to 8 gig and put in a 500GB Samsung 850 Pro SSD. I had to go one step further and upgrade to 64 bit (went from Win7x86 to Win10x64). But man... what a difference it made! I'm booting up from nothing into SONAR in less than 30 seconds, which is amazing for such an old dual core laptop.
 
Let's see how long we can stretch the life out on our aging machines, hey? 

Lord Tim
I did exactly the same thing - doubled my RAM to 8 gig and put in a 500GB Samsung 850 Pro SSD. I had to go one step further and upgrade to 64 bit (went from Win7x86 to Win10x64). But man... what a difference it made! I'm booting up from nothing into SONAR in less than 30 seconds, which is amazing for such an old dual core laptop.
 
Let's see how long we can stretch the life out on our aging machines, hey? 

About the same boot to Sonar time for me too.  Yes I wanted to spend the barest minimum to get the most hardware improvements possible.  I did have a really weird quirk though.  After I installed the RAM, the RME PCIe card vanished from Windows and the Device Manager.  Rebooted...nothing, rebooted...nothing, rebooted...nothing.  I was afraid I'd ESD'd on it accidentally while putting in the RAM...that would have been very bad.  Finally after another boot or two it reappeared and seems to be fine now.

Maybe the card got a little loose while you were inserting ram etc.
Might be worth pulling the card out and re seating it to prevent future problems.