13in 2012 cMBP and Longevity

[dylin]

Hello Everyone,

Just wondering to see how anyone with a 13inch 2012 classic Macbook Pro is doing.

I'm not having any issues so far, and even use it my 32inch BenQ 2560 x 1440 monitor for my work and school. I haven't made the biggest upgrades too it, and upgraded the HDD to a 256gb SSD and bumped it to 8gb of RAM.

It's chugging along fine, but trying to determine how much longer i have before it starts to really slow its age. The most intensive thing I do with it is 2k editing (2048 x 1152) and it does stutter rarely, but nothing that ruins the experience. I've been debating on bumping it up to a 1TB SSD, and maxing out the RAM to 16gb.

Anyone have any suggestions or even think I should upgrade to another machine. I was looking to find an used 2009 mac pro (preferably a 2010 model) and upgrading the CPUs myself.

I'm even on the edge of making a hackintosh, but dont want to be stuck with skylake considering that kaby lakes already released.

Thanks for the look at the thread and leave some feed back. 🙂

 

[Fancuku]

It's still a decent machine for what you do and you admit to not having any complaints. Bumping the RAM to 16GB may or may not help but why not, moar is always better. 😀

 

[ZapNZs]

What SSD do you have? Is it an older generation that isn't able to max out SATA 3, or is it one that already saturates almost all that SATA 3 offers? When I went from an Intel X25M SATA 2 SSD to a Samsung 850 PRO in a particular computer, I noticed what I felt was a significant speed improvement. But if comparing one of my 850 PROs to a SanDisk Extreme Pro, I can't personally notice a performance difference.

When the stuttering occurs, what does your RAM/Virtual RAM and compression look like?

 

[dylin]

What SSD do you have? Is it an older generation that isn't able to max out SATA 3, or is it one that already saturates almost all that SATA 3 offers? When I went from an Intel X25M SATA 2 SSD to a Samsung 850 PRO in a particular computer, I noticed what I felt was a significant speed improvement. But if comparing one of my 850 PROs to a SanDisk Extreme Pro, I can't personally notice a performance difference.

When the stuttering occurs, what does your RAM/Virtual RAM and compression look like?

I'm using a Samsung 830 pro. It's SATA 3, and I was getting read/write speeds of about 480/400 when I first got it and now they are at 350/280.

As for the stuttering in editing, I haven't had the activity monitor up, but it's usually when I scrub through 2k or 3k footage.

 

[robvas]

Do you have an i5 or i7?

 

[ZapNZs]

I'm using a Samsung 830 pro. It's SATA 3, and I was getting read/write speeds of about 480/400 when I first got it and now they are at 350/280.

As for the stuttering in editing, I haven't had the activity monitor up, but it's usually when I scrub through 2k or 3k footage.

If TRIM is already enabled and the slower write speed is an outcome of high filled capacity/age, I think you would likely see a difference with a newer SSD.

 

[dylin]

If TRIM is already enabled and the slower write speed is an outcome of high filled capacity/age, I think you would likely see a difference with a newer SSD.

I do have trim enabled, and havent really noticed the slow down that much. I do have 60GB left on it, so I think thats probably contributing to the slow speeds since its better to have more space empty on an SSD, and better for the life of the SSD.

Do you have an i5 or i7?

I have 2.5 GHz i5.

 

[ZapNZs]

I do have trim enabled, and havent really noticed the slow down that much. I do have 60GB left on it, so I think thats probably contributing to the slow speeds since its better to have more space empty on an SSD, and better for the life of the SSD.

I don't have experience with the 830 generation, but with the current 850 PRO (which I love), I find it is sensitive to slow down with capacity (and, subjectively, based on moving files and Black Magic tests, I would say somewhat more sensitive to this than some of my other SSDs with different controllers.) Like right now I only have about 30 GB free on a 256 GB 850 PRO and its writes are about 300 MB/s (where as it was around 500 MB/s when only about 60% full, and I can notice a performance difference with its current filled state versus its more empty state when I copy a VM or something sizable.)

 

[Altis]

It sounds like it's still working and getting the job done well for you.

I wouldn't say an upgrade is needed until you either need it or simply want it. If it's the latter and you're looking for an excuse to upgrade, the retina screens are nice. 😉

I don't think you'd see too much performance increase from additional RAM or a faster SSD -- at least, not enough to warrant the expense. Keep an eye on the memory usage/pressure while working on your videos.

As for "feedback"... your post was well written and had good paragraph lengths. 😎

 

[darksithpro]

I have 2.5 GHz i5.

Translation- It's really a core i3, since those ultra low power Intel Core i5/7 CPU's are only 2 cores, not 4 and the I5 has no hyper-threading. The CPU may get long in the tooth later on. Other than that it all looks good.

 

[dylin]

It sounds like it's still working and getting the job done well for you.

I wouldn't say an upgrade is needed until you either need it or simply want it. If it's the latter and you're looking for an excuse to upgrade, the retina screens are nice. 😉

I don't think you'd see too much performance increase from additional RAM or a faster SSD -- at least, not enough to warrant the expense. Keep an eye on the memory usage/pressure while working on your videos.

As for "feedback"... your post was well written and had good paragraph lengths. 😎

Thanks for the feedback 😀

Translation- It's really a core i3, since those ultra low power Intel Core i5/7 CPU's are only 2 cores, not 4 and the I5 has no hyper-threading. The CPU may get long in the tooth later on. Other than that it all looks good.

Actually its pretty surprising that this i5 does have hyper-threading.
It has the intel core i5-3210m.

Everymac.com has each model and I do wish I had opted for the 15 inch Macbook Pro back in the day to as least have a true quad core.

 

[darksithpro]

Thanks for the feedback 😀



Actually its pretty surprising that this i5 does have hyper-threading.
It has the intel core i5-3210m.

Everymac.com has each model and I do wish I had opted for the 15 inch Macbook Pro back in the day to as least have a true quad core.

Clever girl. So, yea I guess it is a good CPU. You win 🙂

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Translation- It's really a core i3, since those ultra low power Intel Core i5/7 CPU's are only 2 cores, not 4 and the I5 has no hyper-threading. The CPU may get long in the tooth later on. Other than that it all looks good.

Apple have not used a core i3 since the 2010 iMac. They have used only hyperthreaded dual core i5's and i7's in all their 13 MacBook pros since they changed from core 2 duo's.

 

[dylin]

Just wondering if anyone has a 2012 13inch cMBP running macOS Sierra?

I'm currently using El Capitan and wondering if I should upgrade.

 

[NGruia]

Just wondering if anyone has a 2012 13inch cMBP running macOS Sierra?

I'm currently using El Capitan and wondering if I should upgrade.

No problems so far .

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"It's chugging along fine, but trying to determine how much longer i have before it starts to really slow its age. The most intensive thing I do with it is 2k editing (2048 x 1152) and it does stutter rarely, but nothing that ruins the experience. I've been debating on bumping it up to a 1TB SSD, and maxing out the RAM to 16gb."

If you're not yet dissatisfied, don't replace it.
I got nearly 7 years out of a mid-2010 13" MBPro, and it will still boot and run fine (just wanted something newer, that's all).

As hardy as the old "tower" Mac Pros have been, I wouldn't buy one now, unless I -absolutely needed- the slots and expandability.

I'd pick up a refurbished iMac instead (5k, 27", 2tb fusion m395). Will cost about $1,700 if you know where to buy.

 

[dylin]

If you're not yet dissatisfied, don't replace it.
I got nearly 7 years out of a mid-2010 13" MBPro, and it will still boot and run fine (just wanted something newer, that's all).

Yea, I see what you mean. I was thinking about at least getting more storage. 256 is rather limited, and i dont really want to work with using the ODD for a regular spinning harddrive, since i still use the DVD Drive (surprising right? 😛)

As for a tower, I would like to have a dedicated desktop I guess, and something with a more power. And didnt want to go for an imac considering i already have quad HD screen. Other than that, most of my reason for wanting a new mac, is just to have better performance over what my current mac has. But if I can hold out, hopefully the new iMacs that are rumored to release these years will be part of my work space.

 

[duervo]

Thanks for the feedback 😀



Actually its pretty surprising that this i5 does have hyper-threading.
It has the intel core i5-3210m.

Everymac.com has each model and I do wish I had opted for the 15 inch Macbook Pro back in the day to as least have a true quad core.

Biggest differentiator with the i5's is that they will be limited to a max of 4 threads (2 cores with Hyperthreading.) The i7's can have more than that (8 threads is the i7 limit for mobile, and for desktop, they can have more than that.)

The next few years might be more interesting, though, now that AMD Ryzen is out. If they match things on the mobile front, then Intel could have little choice but to go after more cores/threads, or they could pull an "Apple" and rely heavily on marketing to convince their customers that they are still just as tops or more than they've always been. I would suspect in the short term, it would be the latter, with the former being a possibility in the longer term, especially if AMD is able to impact Intel's market share enough for them to react.