How to speed up MacBook Pro

rpearlberg said:

My MBP has been running very slow lately, and seems to freeze a lot more than usual.

Here are the specs:

MBP 13", Mid 2010
2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

4GB 1067 MHz DDR3

NVIDIA GeForce 320M 256MB

Mac OX X Lion 10.7.5

56.6 GB free of 250GB SATA Disk

What can I do to clean it up and speed things up a bit? Anything?

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Chances are is that OS X and your applications you use on a daily basis are using up all the CPU and RAM. It might be time to add more RAM to your system (if possible).

You can verify this by checking Activity Monitor when you're running your applications that you use on a daily basis and posting a screenshot.

rpearlberg said:

Thanks. It looks like I have 2GB in each slot, so I should upgrade to 4GB in each.

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It's not guaranteed that it will help, but it's the easiest and most likely upgrade that will help. Like I said, a screenshot of Activity Monitor will help the most.

Another thing you might want to look into is purchasing and installing a SSD.

rpearlberg said:

What can I do to clean it up and speed things up a bit? Anything?

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If you're having performance issues, this may help:

rpearlberg said:

Thanks. It looks like I have 2GB in each slot, so I should upgrade to 4GB in each.

Click to expand...

To determine if you can benefit from more RAM, launch Activity Monitor and click the System Memory tab at the bottom to check your page outs. Page outs are cumulative since your last restart, so the best way to check is to restart your computer and track page outs under your normal workload (the apps, browser pages and documents you normally would have open). If your page outs are significant (say 1GB or more) under normal use, you may benefit from more RAM. If your page outs are zero or very low during normal use, you probably won't see any performance improvement from adding RAM.

Using Activity Monitor to read System Memory and determine how much RAM is being used

Best is a Relative Term..

rpearlberg said:

Where is the best place to buy memory? Any particular brand?

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There are LOTS of good brands, and just like Automobiles you will get 20 Answers when you ask "What is The Best..??"

I have had great luck with MUSHKIN (USA made) and CRUCIAL in my Macs over the past 6-7 years.. No issues with either EVER!! As far as where to buy, I suggest Newegg (or Newegg.ca for me in Canada) has been a great store for many items for me..

Now, if your 2010 2.4 MBP is as it says here, it may well accept 16GB of RAM (if running OSX 10.7.5 or higher, and latest Firmware Updates) and that isn't even too expensive these day.. about $160 for 2x 8GB sticks I bought pre-Christmas!! ** I don't see 8GB sticks at Newegg, but OWC has them.. $117 / set..

No matter what, upgrading RAM will likely be the Best thing you can do, after doing the SSD for Speed Increase perhaps..

Good Luck and happy shopping!!

Upgrading to 7200 RPM would improve speeds a bit at lower prices at the expense of battery life. You may benefit from 8GB but I would look at activity monitor to see if you are paging out the HDD.

As for the 16GB max the price of the sticks are too high to be reasonable for such old RAM. Newegg doesn't sell it. I can vouch for this $47.99 G. Skill set of 4X2GB that I have in my unibody late 2008 macbook as well as my Mom's 2009 iMac.

brop52 said:

Upgrading to 7200 RPM would improve speeds a bit at lower prices at the expense of battery life.

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Of course that depends on the specific drives involved. Some 7200 rpm drives consume less power than some 5400 rpm drives. Also, some 5400 rpm drives outperform some 7200 rpm drives, due to higher density. It's essential to know which specific drives are being compared.

The best it probably 8GB DDR3 and an SSD.
SSD will change the boot speed and application start up time on most machines.

SSD makes old laptops almost feel new again sometimes. The things are magic.

I would DEFINITELY recommend an SSD as the first upgrade.

rpearlberg said:

I just ordered new RAM, now I need to get an SSD. Which one should I get??

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Since your MBP only has SATAII, I suggest Crucial M4.