or spend £300 on another computer.
It’s a mid 2012 mac book pro and is so unbelievably slow that if I see that spinning wheel again I WILL KILL.
If I get it’s internals upgraded how long will it last before it turns back into a piece of shit ?
What makes it slow ? The memory isn’t full up.
We have a chrome book at the shop and it’s only used for banking but from off to a web site it takes 20 seconds as opposed to about 4 minutes on the mac book.
Also the battery lasts about 45 minutes on the mac book.

I’ve got a Late 2011 MBP so probably the same as yours and about this time last year I fitted a Solid State Hard Drive and it made a huge difference. It’s made the whole thing perform better and speed is now spot on. I’d definitely recommend doing the same.

It boots up super fast now and no longer has issues with playing youtube videos and browsing or photo editing etc. It’s surprised me just how much of an improvement it has made and to just how many bits of using the laptop.

Oh, I’ve got 8gb of RAM installed and the SSD made much more difference than increasing the RAM from 4 to 8 gb

How are you thinking of upgrading the internals? You can put more memory in and maybe a SSD but they’re not going to make a deal of difference to the performance.

I did exactly what Matthew did to my 2012 MacBook Pro (probably the same as yours). The difference in the speed is unbelievable. It’s like a new machine

Money well spent

I was thinking of doing what Matthew did.
My concern is that in a years time I will be posting on here asking the same question.
How long will the upgrades keep my machine serviceable?
It’s used for 6000 tunes on iTunes and web browsing.

How are you thinking of upgrading the internals? You can put more memory in and maybe a SSD but they’re not going to make a deal of difference to the performance.

Sorry, this isn’t my experience with my 2009 MacBook. A couple of years ago I upgraded from 4gb ram to 8, the maximim for that machine, and there was an instant improvement in performance. 6 months later I replaced the HDD with a hybrid drive, again another significant improvement I. Performance all around. Gave the machine a new lease of life and it is still going strong today.

Did the upgrades myself, pretty easy, so costs were under £100 – the drive was about £80 and the ram under £20.

My brother has just done he same with his early Mac mini, So maybe 2011 vintage,, ram and SSD and reportingh similar improvements in performance, in fact he thinks it’s better than it was when new and he does video and photo editing so not just ponding about like I do.

I’d do it if I were you.

You can put more memory in and maybe a SSD but they’re not going to make a deal of difference to the performance.

An SSD especially will make a huge difference.

Agreed ssd. I’ve done both ours.

It sounds like an upgrade is the way to go.
Our local computer shop won’t touch Apple will they do it at one of the stores?

As above with ram & ssd for my late 08 MacBook unibody. You might get 16gb of ram in yours.
The latest OSX, 10.13.2 has been a big improvement for our iMac after it was pretty sluggish with 10.12 & 10.13.

There is no reason for the performance to degrade over time if everything is working properly. I have a much older MBP with an SSD upgrade which works perfectly. If you’re seeing the spinning wheel very often the most likely reason is the hard disk is dying.

I got this SSD “SanDisk Ultra II SSD 480 GB SATA III 2.5 inch Internal SSD up to 550 MB/s Read and up to 500 MB/s Write” from Amazon in different sizes depending on need, and just did it myself. Pretty straightforwards though I bought a hard drive caddy to make it easier (I’ve done 2 for friends as well). See here: https://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/

When the disk goes in do a fresh install of the OS don’t bring all the old cruft back from a clone. Then bring all your documents and email in from a back-up (you do have at least 2 in rotation). It’s less of a problem than in OS8/9 but preference files can cause problems as with OS speed.

EDIT: Things start to go wrong if your start-up disk has less than 10% free space. A half Terabyte disk should have at least 50GB free.

currently using a 2009 macbook pro as SO has nicked my 2015Retina.

It is slower but 8gig ram and a fairly fast HD and for most things it is OK.

What i would caution with older hardware, it doesn’t last for ever. The DVD drive no longer works and i have just swapped the DC in board and battery. about £100 for the pair. I don’t use the drive enough to justify replacing. Things like HDD and ram are easy to do yourself. the DC in board is a little more involved but not that difficult.

If you look at ifixit.com there will be a video of most things.

There is no reason for the performance to degrade over time if everything is working properly.

In a strict sense the performance doesn’t decrease – over time the workload the computer is asked to do increases as applications and content become more memory and processor intensive

It’s used for 6000 tunes on iTunes and web browsing.

One of the problems is ‘only web browsing’ is one of the most processor intensive activities most people do and its the factor that changes over time. The tunes on your hard drive are the same – its the web pages that get hungrier and hungrier for resources.

I’ve done 3 things to my 2010 Macbook that have made significant differences

– Upgraded the ram

= switched to SSD

– Bought a P

while I’m not one to complain about the ads here except for when they go rogue even the ‘good’ ads are a huge drain and given a choice between a new mac and a ‘P’ the latter was the better value for money. 🙂

Jamba recommended this….https://www.scan.co.uk/products/dynamode-25-hard-drive-sata-caddy-to-usb-black-storage-enclosure-bus-powered-pc-mac and a Samsung Evo 850 SSD . What else do I need?

I’m contemplating changing the HDD in my 2008 MBP to an SSD. How would I go about doing a fresh install of the OS? The current version in the app store won’t work with my MBP so it would have to be an older version of Mac OS.

SSD and RAM (8 is ok, if you have that already just donthe SSD)

As hard drives get old they get slower as errors / faults build up, wife’s 2012 MBP had exactly that. My 2009 Mini runs just fine, no need for new processor / hardware as it runs normal personal stuff, no fancy inage editing etc.

OP I have posted my thoughts on “how to” upgrade to ssd before. If you want some pointers drop me an email

@beamers easiest for you is to create a time machine backup and then restore from that having put the new drive in. “Clean install” is a bit of a myth. I did a friends 2008 MBP, biggest concern really is max ram is quite low (4 or so I think), her machine runs a lot lot better though.

external caddie for the current hard drive and clone over. Or get a DVD drive caddie for the SSD(means ditching the DVD drive), leaving 2 drives in the macbook, and then clone over and switch startup disk once done.

Jamba recommended this….
…
and a Samsung Evo 850 SSD

I’d concur with Jamba. Samsung Evo is one of the best SSDs on the market.

@seaso I have done a couple via cloning and it was more trouble than either time machine backup or using a usb stick configured as a start-up drive for a “clean install” before copying selective data.

I’d concur with Jamba. Samsung Evo is one of the best SSDs on the market.

I got the recommendation from Mac Rumours and have now done 6 machines all with Samsung Evo’s – all running well.

I would get a portable drive as a time machine back up then clone from that. Macs are easier than PC’s when replacing hard drives IME.
I’m not familiar with that macbook but you may need some kind of fan control after the swap.

Never had any fan issues, I think SSD runs cooler anyway ?

I’m a pretty heavy user (HD video editing, medium format photographs etc). Still use a 2011 MBPro with maxed out RAM and a SSD where the dvd drive used to be. Have put a a new 2 TB drive where the original drive was and it’s a proper workhorse.

Keep all user files (documents, movs, photos) on the 2 TB drive and once a year do a clean install on the SSD. Just waiting for my 3 year old to spill her orange juice on it.

Apple iMac hard drives have temp sensors that replacement drives dont have. So when you replace them you need to either add a temp sensor or (more likely)use sortware fan control.

I’m not sure about macbooks though they may not have the sensor.

My 2010 had almost ground to a halt.

Apple Store diagnostics said HDD was failing.

It now has 500Gb SSD, 8Gb RAM and a 1Tb HDD in place of the CD drive.

Still going strong and only thing letting it down is the screen which is fairly lo res by modern standards.

I’m not familiar with that macbook but you may need some kind of fan control after the swap.

No, you don’t, works just fine using the original fan sensor or whatever it is.

I’m running a mid-2012 MacBook Pro with 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD from Crucial and it flies. Trying to run the latest OSX with 4GB o fRAM was hopeless, my advice would be to stick as much RAM in as you can, it definitely will take 16GB and that alone makes a difference. Throw in the SSD and it’s properly quick, even with Photoshop. Files save much faster and programmes open almost instantly and you don’t have to fret about having multiple apps open simultaneously.

One thing to be aware of with this version of the MBP is that the ribbon cable which connects the hard drive with the master board often partially fails. If this happens it may work fine with a standard hard drive, but not with an SSD. If that happens it may not recognise the new drive. Before you decide the drive is faulty, try changing the cable which only costs a tenner or so.

Initially I assumed the new drive was defective, but it was simply the cable and apparently it happens a lot. HTH.

All easily DIY-able btw. Good walk-throughs with images at ifixit.com

Apple iMac hard drives have temp sensors that replacement drives dont have.

Are you sure? I know little to nothing about Macs but I’ve never come across that before. AFAIK, HDDs are generic HDDs irrespective of what they’re in?

If I just change the RAM what difference would that make?
It looks pretty easy to do.
While we are at it ,what does the RAM do?

Pretty sure (as in 100%) iMacs HDD’s have another connection and built in temp control. When you replace them unless you buy from Apple the drive wont have that connection so you have no fan control.

I think theres a US company that does somekind of hardware fix but most people just download software control that sets the drive at a fixed speed.

All thats correct on 2010 to 2015 iMacs which are my only experience.

Google “iMac HDD fan control” for more.

Macbooks may not have this as its probably more difficult to add another connection to a 2.5” drive.

Jambalaya – Member
@seaso I have done a couple via cloning and it was more trouble than either time machine backup or using a usb stick configured as a start-up drive for a “clean install” before copying selective data.

What was the trouble with it, out of curiosity? Never had any bother cloning macs or pcs myself. Not something I’ve done a great deal, admittedly, alway gone smoothly though.

Cougar – Moderator
Apple iMac hard drives have temp sensors that replacement drives dont have.
Are you sure? I know little to nothing about Macs but I’ve never come across that before. AFAIK, HDDs are generic HDDs irrespective of what they’re in?

Any old macs I’ve been inside, do have it(it’s just a chip glued on to the side of a standard drive.), you don’t need it though, would be easy enough to prise off and stick on a new drive, I’ve never bothered, wouldn’t imagine an SSD would need it.

You also dont need need a usb boot drive for macs, just start them up, ethernet is enabled in the bios and you download a base fresh OS online or from time machine.

All thats correct on 2010 to 2015 iMacs which are my only experience.

Google “iMac HDD fan control” for more.

As per my post above, with a mid-2012 MBP there’s no need for any additional fan control, you just swap the hard drives. The only issue I had was the one with the HD ribbon cable above. It’s genuinely all pretty straightforward, you just need the appropriate screwdriver and the ability to follow simply instructions and to not lose small screws during the upgrade.

Which is why I was clear to state iMac not Macbook.

Pretty sure (as in 100%) iMacs HDD’s have another connection and built in temp control.

Huh. Every day’s a school day.

Recently upgraded my late 2011 macbook pro. Upgraded the main drive to ssd and put the hdd where’s the optical drive was. Massive improvement and boots up in about 10 seconds

If this isn’t something you’re comfy doing yourself, who can do it for you? Will a Mac store? Early 2011 MacBook Pro here and it’s getting slower and slower. Now I suspect I know why!

Yep, just google for local Mac repair specialists. If it helps, my experience was that 4GB of RAM simply wasn’t enough as Apple’s operating system upgrades seem to need more and more memory to function smoothly. I’d fix that first if you only have the stock amount of RAM Installed, then the Solid State Drive just adds overall speed and snappiness.

I think the two are also somewhat interconnected as if the Mac runs out of RAM it then recruits hard disc space as an emergency measure, so if you have an SSD, this process will also be quicker than with a standard hard drive. I’m not a computer geek though, so I may have got that wrong, but that’s how I vaguely remember it.