Old MacBook Pro?

I'm just here to throw my experience and results with anyone in a similar situation.

I have a late 2011 MacBook pro, it was starting the become useless in my expectations with a 2 minute boot up, and xcode loading as well as the simulator taking more than a decade to become useful.

So I got into the mind-frame of selling my £1,850 MacBook for about £300 and buying a new MacBook to keep up. However, first I decided I would try upgrading it myself.

I bought a samsung 850 evo @ 512GB to replace the primary hard-disk, as well as a ram upgrade to 16GB from 4GB.

Products bought
RAM
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-342-CS
SSD
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-192-SA

This has completely revamped my MacBook and rendered the need for a new one pointless. Unless I was keen to get the retina display, I'm not too fussed.

Boot time is now ~ 12 seconds and application loading and usability is beyond my requirement/expectation.

If anyone is in a similar boat, I recommend doing what I've done until you're required to upgrade your MacBook. However, this 4 year old relic is now performing ( if I dare say ) better than an out of the box 2015 model.
​

 

I swear old macbook pros work better than the new ones. I'm still on mine that I bought 7 years ago. Its surprising since I literally keep it on 24/7. At this point i'm scared to not keep it on 24/7 aha. I've had to reformat it a couple of times though.

- team xcode

 

For me, my MacBook is only there for if I work away. My iMac 5k gets the main burden of use. However, I'm now due to be away for at least 3 months and the MacBook wasn't going to cut it. I'm so glad I went down this path rather than shelling out on a new one.

I've formatted my macs far more than my PC.. I also agree on the 24/7 mine only sleeps or is on haha.. Switching it off feels like I'd be switching off a life-support machine!

 

Added a tutorial video for anyone interested.

 

Can vouch for the 850 evo, I put one in my desktop a few months ago and Windows 10 boots in about 7 seconds. Considering buying another to put in my laptop, though at the moment it has a hybrid drive so boot times aren't awful.

When it comes to laptops, it's almost always worth it to upgrade instead of buying a new one unless there's a glaring feature you're missing. I was at that crossroads a few months back. I had an old 2010 Toshiba Satellite with 4GB of RAM. Upgrading was on my mind but I ultimately decided that I wanted something built a lot better (the Satellite had a flimsy plastic chassis) with better battery life and a 1080p screen. Bought the Lenovo Y40-80. Will likely be upgrading this one in a few years instead of buying a new laptop.

 

This is what I was tossing up between. I had a 15" mid 2012 macbook pro (non retina) with a 500gb HDD. I ended up purchasing the new macbook pro 13 retina purely because of the portability of it. The 15" was too bulky to carry around uni everyday.