Hi Guys,
My 15" Macbook pro has been annying me for awhile now with lag,
core i7 2.2ghz, 4gb ram, 750gb hhd, and additional hi res low glare screen.
does anyone have good sources to get ram and ssd?
i use it mostly for browsing, and it seams to struggle occasionaly wiht that, though would love to finally have the power to edit and manage my gopro videos (which are currently jsut blocking up my ext and internal harddrive)
is it worth the uprgade? or would i be better off buying something else?
though would love to finally have the power to edit and manage my gopro videos (which are currently jsut blocking up my ext and internal harddrive)
If you want additional power to edit videos, you'll probably want a new laptop with a quad core processor.
8th Gen intel processors are already here, so you might find that it's the right time for a new laptop…
8 to 16GB of RAM is usually recommended for larger video projects, but you can get away with it if your video projects are small.
You can extend the usability of your laptop with SSD upgrade, but be aware you won't be able to transfer the ordinary SATA 2.5" inch ssd's from your old machine to a new mac, as the new ones are using NVME. Same goes for the DDR3 memory, as new macbooks are on DDR4.
I added a 256gb SSD to MacBook Pro mid 2012 and 16gb ram.
removed the optical drive and replaced with the SSD (in a caddy).
improved it fantastically. it takes 8-10 seconds to boot from cold start.
here is a link to a post about doing it
I'd recommend upgrading as it can be easily done for <$200.
a small SSD (128gb or 256) for the OS and programs and the orginal HDD becomes storage.
use ifixit as a guide (but it's pretty straight forward- the only thing is one of the screws holding the optical drive in. it's under some cables on the side towards the hinge edge.
Highly recommend it — I've maxed out the RAM in both my (now retired) 2008 Macbook Pro and my 2011 version. Keep a deal alert going for some SSD, may not find a deal for RAM though.
Debating about a new Macbook Pro, but the inability to do basic upgrades like RAM is a bit annoying. The 2011/2012 editions are the last (I think) that can be upgraded.
Definitely worth a RAM and SSD upgrade as others have said. The 2720QM in that MBP is still a quad core (not quite as fast as current gen, of course) but has plenty of potential once you're not running into RAM/storage bottlenecks.
We've recently had this discussion before with others in similar situations - please read those conversations too.
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/342292
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/299048
though would love to finally have the power to edit and manage my gopro videos
Adding just RAM and an SSD won't really help with this.
Grab 16GB memory first and then upgrade the internal hd to ssd and buy extra drive caddy to replace the dvd with slower hdd but big drive, such as 1tb (from memory 2011 mbp has dvd writer)
I had mbp late 2011, but got an issue with the graphic card, on which Apple offered free fix, unfortunately, mine started to play up in early 2017, on which the replacement program has finished.
I went to genius bar, unfortunately, the parts are no longer produced, at the end my old mbp just collecting dust now…
I guess you are lucky that you still have a working mbp
Absolutely +1
Extra RAM and Ssd will make a huge difference for everything, especially video editing.
The upgrade is really simple
Consider putting your HDD in the DVD tray with an adapter to increase your storage. Or if you want to experience a near silent laptop for a while, just use the SSD
SSD will vastly improve performance.