Macbook Pro 2012 non retina running slow

[DancingTiger01]

A friend of mine has a 2012 Macbook Pro 2012 non retina which is running Yosemite. The specs are as follows:
Processor: 2.5GHz Dual Core Intel Core i5
RAM: 4GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM
Hard Drive: 500GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 4000
So the computer is running really slow. It's not for any specific task, it's just running slow the whole time. Someone suggested that she should upgrade the RAM as Yosemite likes at least 8GB of ram to run smoothly but I wanted to check with you guys whether she should do that as she doesn't want to pay money for nothing. If the RAM is the problem, any idea of a place where she can buy some RAM that will work at a good price?
Cheers!

 

[BrettApple]

SSD all the way! I had a good friend of mine with the same MacBook running stupid slow because of the slow hard drive. We cloned his system over to a new SSD and it's perfect now. Sub 10 second startups, instant app launches and we kept the 4GB RAM. No reason for more unless they are really going to use it. Plus it's upgradable later unlike the new models.

I'd look to see how much space they've used on the HDD and plan accordingly. A 256GB SSD can be had for under $100 these days. And cloning it with disk utility or a bundled program is pretty painless.

I've been installing SSDs in all the PCs and Macs here where I work (over 60 installed so far with more to go) and I've gotten a LOT of great feedback. I wouldn't run anything on an HDD anymore other than for storage.

 

[JoePa2624]

An SSD upgrade is the single most noticeable change you could make. It completely wakes up these older computers. RAM is a good choice too, but the SSD will be more noticeable.

I installed 16gb RAM and a 256gb SSD on my 2011 Mini for about $200, which is well worth it compared to dropping another $1300+ on a new laptop.

 

[DancingTiger01]

Thanks. Any idea of a place where I could get a 512GB SSD from?

 

[JoePa2624]

Crucial.com
Owc.com

 

[noles1983]

i upgraded the SSD and RAM in my 2012 MacBook, it was awesome. I only got rid of it for the retina screen.

 

[yjchua95]

Thanks. Any idea of a place where I could get a 512GB SSD from?

Go for the Crucial BX100 or MX100, or Samsung 850 Evo.

 

[Budiosx]

GO for the Samsung 850 Evo or Ocz Vector 180

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Thanks. Any idea of a place where I could get a 512GB SSD from?

Amazon usually has the best SSD prices...

Have you tried repairing the disk in disk utility and doing an SMCand PRAM reset on this computer yet??

I'm not saying that an SSD is a bad idea (I wouldn't have a computer without one) it's just that you seem to have done no software troubleshooting yet. Have you checked activity monitor to see if some process or old Kext is out of control causing excessive RAM use or CPU use...

 

[DancingTiger01]

No we haven't tried that, yet. Will try it out, thanks

 

[MagicBoy]

Check the Memory pressure graph in activity monitor also when a typical set of applications is running. Green is fine, yellow means an upgrade to 8GB may help. Red is bad.