MacBook Hardware Upgraded

Just_Steve

Just_Steve

Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Joined
Apr 24, 2016
Messages
1,599
Location
Dutchess County
Got a bee in my bonnet from the Dumb & Blind MacBook thread.
http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f27/dumb-and-blind-macbook-question-87568.html
Decided to upgrade my MacBook Pro from 4 Meg Ram to 16 Meg
and went with a 1 TB SSD hard Drive.
Woo Hoo, this thing is screaming fast.
$500 upgrade Vs $1700 New Machine. I'm happy for the moment.



Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro7,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 16 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz

OWC Mercury Electra 3G SSD:

Capacity: 960.2 GB (960,197,124,096 bytes)
Model: OWC Mercury Electra 3G SSD
 
Congratulations!

MacBookPro7,1 is a "Mid-2010" MacBook Pro.

The extra memory doesn't hurt, but I expect it's the SSD that makes it "scream". Switching to SSDs was the single most impressive upgrade I've ever experienced on a computer. Anyone who still runs a spinning hard disk is really torturing themselves. Spinning HDs are great for backup, but not running as a primary disk on a computer.
 
mpeirce said:
Congratulations!

MacBookPro7,1 is a "Mid-2010" MacBook Pro.

The extra memory doesn't hurt, but I expect it's the SSD that makes it "scream". Switching to SSDs was the single most impressive upgrade I've ever experienced on a computer. Anyone who still runs a spinning hard disk is really torturing themselves. Spinning HDs are great for backup, but not running as a primary disk on a computer.
Click to expand...

The Ram was cheap enough I figure it couldn't hurt.
Unbelievable an Excel spreadsheet just took about 4 seconds to open when it was taking almost 2 min prior. And a cold start took 27 seconds Vs 90 prior.
It's like having a brand new computer.
 
mpeirce said:
Congratulations!

MacBookPro7,1 is a "Mid-2010" MacBook Pro.

The extra memory doesn't hurt, but I expect it's the SSD that makes it "scream". Switching to SSDs was the single most impressive upgrade I've ever experienced on a computer. Anyone who still runs a spinning hard disk is really torturing themselves. Spinning HDs are great for backup, but not running as a primary disk on a computer.
Click to expand...

+1

When I phased out of my work PC to the MacBook I thought this was the coolest thing ever not having to wait around all the time. Now I'm spoiled if I ever get the spinning beachball and have to wait a few seconds I get cranky.:cool:
 
Sounds like a sweet upgrade :D.
 
All I use my MacBook Air for is surfing the internet. The main reason I bought it is that it had a SSD (my first one). Just the fact that I could open the laptop turn it on and be using it in a few seconds made it all worth it. Now my desktop has a SSD with a 1TB HDD for backup. Like most upgrades/improvements, I can't imagine what it would be like to have to go back to a regular main hard drive.

Great upgrade. I'm not a Mac person and I didn't know they could be upgraded. Sounds well worth it for what you got out of it. Personally, it frustrates me to have had to buy so many computers in my life as I rode the new technology. Good job extending the life of a perfectly good machine, not to mention the inevitable software upgrade that you usually have to buy when you buy a new computer.
 
Sittingduck said:
+1

When I phased out of my work PC to the MacBook I thought this was the coolest thing ever not having to wait around all the time. Now I'm spoiled if I ever get the spinning beachball and have to wait a few seconds I get cranky.:cool:
Click to expand...

The beachball is typically a sign you are running out of RAM. The computer then needs to 'swap' some not-currently-being-used-memory out to the disk drive. Hard drives are far, far slower than RAM, so big slowdown. Check your RAM usage (Activity Monitor I think it is called on a Mac?), you'd probably benefit from more RAM.

An SSD is much faster than a spinning hard drive, but it is still far slower than RAM. RAM has a very direct connection to the CPU, but it has to go through an interface to get to the SSD, and the SSD memory itself is not as fast as RAM.

-ERD50
 
Interesting that you could go to 16MB RAM - I have a newer MacBook Pro (8,2 - early 2011) and it is limited to 8MB max RAM (I was pretty sure that when I added 4MB to it a few years ago it was maxed out, but I just verified this).

I'm probably going to spring for a new one soon, but since it's my only computer and the place I use it most won't accommodate a large monitor, I need to get another 15" model for eye comfort, and that's enough $$ to make me hesitate. Have to have a laptop as I take it to volunteer gigs regularly. Glad to know about the speed bump of the SSD also.
 
MBAustin said:
Interesting that you could go to 16MB RAM - I have a newer MacBook Pro (8,2 - early 2011) and it is limited to 8MB max RAM (I was pretty sure that when I added 4MB to it a few years ago it was maxed out, but I just verified this).
Click to expand...

The particular model used by the OP has a Nvidia chipset that allows 16 GB of RAM. I have the same model, and it is kind of a fluke in some ways.
 
Last edited:
MBAustin said:
Interesting that you could go to 16MB RAM - I have a newer MacBook Pro (8,2 - early 2011) and it is limited to 8MB max RAM (I was pretty sure that when I added 4MB to it a few years ago it was maxed out, but I just verified this).
....
Click to expand...

jimbee said:
The particular model used by the OP has a Nvidia chipset that allows 16 MB of RAM. I have the same model, and it is kind of a fluke in some ways.
Click to expand...

I sure hope you really mean 16 GB, not 16 MB!

If you are, that's a very, very old computer. Heck, my System Monitor is telling me that this tab alone is using ~ 100 MB of resources!

-ERD50
 
ERD50 said:
I sure hope you really mean 16 GB, not 16 MB!

If you are, that's a very, very old computer. Heck, my System Monitor is telling me that this tab alone is using ~ 100 MB of resources!

-ERD50
Click to expand...

Oops! :LOL:

Thanks, yes, 16 GB. Old fingers...
 
MBAustin said:
Interesting that you could go to 16MB RAM - I have a newer MacBook Pro (8,2 - early 2011) and it is limited to 8MB max RAM (I was pretty sure that when I added 4MB to it a few years ago it was maxed out, but I just verified this).
Click to expand...

According to Apple my model can only use 8 gb of ram but according to the guru of Mac upgrades it can be upped to 16 gb so I rolled the dice and low and behold they are right.

Go to this site: https://www.macsales.com then click memory on top and it will guide you to your model. Just doing a quick look it appears your 2011 can do 16 gb. https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Apple_MacBook_MacBook_Pro/Upgrade/DDR3_1333MHz_SDRAM
 
ERD50 said:
I sure hope you really mean 16 GB, not 16 MB!

If you are, that's a very, very old computer. Heck, my System Monitor is telling me that this tab alone is using ~ 100 MB of resources!

-ERD50
Click to expand...

I screwed up my original post.:facepalm:
Gig not Meg.
 
Just_Steve said:
According to Apple my model can only use 8 gb of ram but according to the guru of Mac upgrades it can be upped to 16 gb so I rolled the dice and low and behold they are right.

Go to this site: https://www.macsales.com then click memory on top and it will guide you to your model. Just doing a quick look it appears your 2011 can do 16 gb. https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Apple_MacBook_MacBook_Pro/Upgrade/DDR3_1333MHz_SDRAM
Click to expand...

There were a few odd models that could physically accept X GB, but really could only access a portion of that. I don't recall if it was a limitation to the mother board, or the CPU.

-ERD50
 
ERD50 said:
There were a few odd models that could physically accept X GB, but really could only access a portion of that. I don't recall if it was a limitation to the mother board, or the CPU.

-ERD50
Click to expand...

While looking around the OWC site there were a bunch I seen that could not be upgraded, for what reason I have no clue.
 
Well, there's an online "Black Friday in July" sale at BestBuy and lo and behold the 15" MacBook Pro with the 512GB SSD is $350 off list (which hardly ever happens for Macs). Available for pickup today at a nearby store, so I went for it. Once I've got everything going on the new one, I'll either give this to one of our kids or donate it to someplace that can use it (I checked and it's worth less than $300 to sell used).
 
Maybe too late but Best Buy has a student discount for an additional $100, basically if you just know a student :), bought a new iMac from them last weekend, $200 less than the Simply Mac authorized Apple Store
 
I have an old iMac that was operating very slow. Several minutes to boot up, and starting PhotoShop took another few minutes. After checking out the specs and prices on the new iMacs I decided that they were just to expensive for what they offered.

(Note: Apple. It's time to WAKE UP! and stop treating the Mac like an unwanted stepchild).

After doing some research, I decided that the easist fix was to buy an external SSD drive that would hook up through the iMac's Thunderbolt port. I loaded the OS and the software on the SSD and keept the data on the internal HD. WOW! Boot up takes 30 seconds max. PS starts in less than 20 seconds. Everything is 'snappier'.
 
Last edited:
SSD's make such an improvement after I did it for my laptop, I did it for my desktop and use the spinning 1Tb drive for storage of large data like photos and music, keeping the OS and programs on the SSD.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Ronstar
Mac Pro
Replies
9
Views
701
someguy
S

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom