mid-2009 MBP - performance expectations with SSD/RAM upgrade

[warthog3]

I've been using my mid-2009 MBP for years (15", 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo), but have had to hold off on the last few OS X updates because of sluggish performance on the newer OSs - even with clean installations. I'm currently running Mountain Lion (10.8.5) and recently found out that even Google Chrome won't be supported on 10.8 in just a few months. This has gotten me thinking about ways that I could upgrade my computer to improve performance and hopefully run El Capitan without being too laggy.

I still have the stock 5400 RPM 500 GB HD and only 4 GB of RAM. I'm thinking of replacing my HD with the Samsung 850 Evo and upgrading my RAM to 8 GB.

My question is that is this reasonable to expect good enough performance to run El Capitan on my good old mid-2009 MBP?

 

[Romanesq]

I've been using my mid-2009 MBP for years (15", 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo), but have had to hold off on the last few OS X updates because of sluggish performance on the newer OSs - even with clean installations. I'm currently running Mountain Lion (10.8.5) and recently found out that even Google Chrome won't be supported on 10.8 in just a few months. This has gotten me thinking about ways that I could upgrade my computer to improve performance and hopefully run El Capitan without being too laggy.

I still have the stock 5400 RPM 500 GB HD and only 4 GB of RAM. I'm thinking of replacing my HD with the Samsung 850 Evo and upgrading my RAM to 8 GB.

My question is that is this reasonable to expect good enough performance to run El Capitan on my good old mid-2009 MBP?

Let's put it this way, you put in that Samsung SSD badboy in there and bump up the RAM and you won't care what Mac OS you're running. Your 2009 machine will be running better than new.

Running El Capitan on early 2008 Macbook Pro Penryn on Samsung 840 EVO and 6GB RAM.
Uh yeah, for real. Best of luck there and don't delay; just do it.

 

[KimUsername]

I've been using my mid-2009 MBP for years (15", 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo), but have had to hold off on the last few OS X updates because of sluggish performance on the newer OSs - even with clean installations. I'm currently running Mountain Lion (10.8.5) and recently found out that even Google Chrome won't be supported on 10.8 in just a few months. This has gotten me thinking about ways that I could upgrade my computer to improve performance and hopefully run El Capitan without being too laggy.

I still have the stock 5400 RPM 500 GB HD and only 4 GB of RAM. I'm thinking of replacing my HD with the Samsung 850 Evo and upgrading my RAM to 8 GB.

My question is that is this reasonable to expect good enough performance to run El Capitan on my good old mid-2009 MBP?

I have a macbook pro early 2011 and have upgraded to 8 GB of memory and changed the HD to a Samsung 850 EVO 500 GB drive and the boot up time is about 15 seconds.
It runs much much faster than before.
If you are planning to upgrade to El Capitan you definitely want to upgrade your RAM to at least 8 GB.

Good Luck.

 

[Trio2]

I've been using my mid-2009 MBP for years (15", 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo), but have had to hold off on the last few OS X updates because of sluggish performance on the newer OSs - even with clean installations. I'm currently running Mountain Lion (10.8.5) and recently found out that even Google Chrome won't be supported on 10.8 in just a few months. This has gotten me thinking about ways that I could upgrade my computer to improve performance and hopefully run El Capitan without being too laggy.

I still have the stock 5400 RPM 500 GB HD and only 4 GB of RAM. I'm thinking of replacing my HD with the Samsung 850 Evo and upgrading my RAM to 8 GB.

My question is that is this reasonable to expect good enough performance to run El Capitan on my good old mid-2009 MBP?

I have a 17" 2009 MBP and did exactly what you are asking: RAM to 8 GB and a 500 GB SSD. It made a big difference in speed. I don't see the "spinning pizza wheel" any more. It was worth it to me. I'm running El Capitan.

 

[warthog3]

Just to report - after the SSD upgrade alone (I haven't received the RAM yet), the computer is running El Capitan perfectly. I'm both amazed about how quickly everything runs now and frustrated I didn't do this earlier.

Next plan: replace the optical drive (which I never use) with a mount interface to put my 5400 RPM hard drive back in as a backup drive.