I have a macbook pro 15 inch mid 2010. For school i have to use mostly Adobe applications but they take so long to boot up. Not only these programs but other programs too. What should i do to improve my macbook. I was thinking to upgrade my ram from 4GB to 8GB. I was also thinking to buy a Samsung Evo 840 128GB SSD. But i don't know which one should i buy first.
Which one should i buy first? (SSD or Ram?)
Don't get a 128GB SSD. You don't want to run a 3rd party SSD on OS X without a decent amount of free space since you won't have TRIM support.
Does Activity Monitor show memory pressure? If not, I'd save my pennies until I could afford a 256GB or 512GB SSD. I've done both RAM and SSD upgrades many times and an SSD has always been by far the best upgrade in changing the "feel" of the computer.
Once programs are started they reside in RAM.
So if you have enough RAM they will be fast.
A fast SSD will be also helpful but usually it is not used much during normal operation if you have large RAM space.
I would start with RAM upgrade, since the RAM is acting as SSD but it is faster.
Main difference in SSD you will see when starting up the computer, or starting new applications (that are not in RAM yet).
That said, it is only a budget question, but having both is the best solution.
If you want to boot up programs faster, i would advice you buy the SSD first. This is the part of your computer that is responsible for booting up programs.
In my experience, an SSD has led to faster load times (a formerly-1:20 boot time became 18 seconds!), but a RAM upgrade has epically increased the stability of the computer (I used to get the beach ball of death on a daily basis, which the SSD did nothing to combat, but I can count how many times I've gotten it since going from 4 to 10 GB a few weeks ago on one hand).
Analogy time! If using a computer is like a road trip, getting an SSD is like getting a faster car, and getting more RAM is like improving the quality of the road. It's all about what matters more to you, pure speed or overall smoothness.
Upgrade to SSD first then only come the RAM. There is software to help you enable TRIM support for third party SSD
