what's the best way to speed up my early 2011 mac book pro?
is it possible to keep the optical drive?
is it possible to keep the optical drive?
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early 2011 mac book pro
- Thread starter ethoscinema
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Replace a hard drive with a solid state drive.
Upgrade memory.
Upgrade memory.
I also kept the optical drive and swapped the hdd for a 960 GB Crucial SSD in my 2011 17" mbp. Like having a new machine. Happily running El Cap and it boots in about 12 secs. Made much more difference than the 16GB ram I dropped in. Saying that, I have not really used the DVD drive much.
I don't pretend to be an expert but I think there may be speed issues based around which version of SATA is available- I think I remember reading that the optical bay can't handle/take advantage of the speed of the SSD as it is not SATA III or something. So you should put the SSD in the startup disk position and if you do replace the optical, put a basic hard drive there. Sure someone more techy can clarify that.
I don't pretend to be an expert but I think there may be speed issues based around which version of SATA is available- I think I remember reading that the optical bay can't handle/take advantage of the speed of the SSD as it is not SATA III or something. So you should put the SSD in the startup disk position and if you do replace the optical, put a basic hard drive there. Sure someone more techy can clarify that.
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Doesn't your MacBook only "officially" support up to 8GB of RAM? I was thinking of doing the same to my 2010 MBP.
Sorry, 2010 only support 8 GB of RAM.
Even if you put 16 GB in there, macOS 10 can only see 8 GB.
Yes, I just thought I had read people still put 16GB in there and had it working. Not too much concern for me as I got a whole new MacBook, the old one is still running great though.
Only for the 2010 13" model. Doesn't work on 2010 15" and 17" models.
- What hard drive do you currently have? (I am guessing a 320/500/750 GB 5400 RPM drive?)
- Which Early 2011 do you currently have?
- How much RAM do you have?
- What version of OS X are you running?
- What are you currently using to backup the computer?
If it were me personally, I would not reuse your OEM hard drive. If your hard drive is the original one, it is 6 years old, and its service life is most likely coming to an end if you use the computer frequently. As they are not very expensive, I think replacing is better than reusing.
When going to a SSD, I agree with others that the best options are:
A) Remove your current hard drive and install a large SSD in the hard drive bay, or
B) Remove your current hard drive, install a smaller SSD in the hard drive bay, and install a secondary HDD in the Optical bay (where you would have to remove the DVD drive)
For $60-70, you can get one of the finest 2.5-inch 1TB HDDs made - this drive is faster and more reliable than the OEM drive. However, as it is still a HDD, it will not give you the performance of a SSD. So if you purchase this drive, I recommend using it as a secondary drive in the optical bay (or put it in a USB, FireWire, or ThunderBolt enclosure and make it into an external hard drive.)
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1250980-REG/wd_wd10jplx_wd_black_mobile.html
This is a very popular SSD that many owners love, and is very affordable - so you could get a 500-1,000 GB size for a pretty reasonable price, and keep your DVD drive
https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-MX30...F8&qid=1486089205&sr=1-1&keywords=crucial+ssd
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I am typing on your exact laptop. I upgraded it with 16GB DDR3 RAM and a Toshiba 480GB SSD. It works really well. Boots fast and still runs just about everything with the latest version of Sierra on it. It's a pretty easy upgrade. Lots of videos on YouTube will show you how to take it apart and remove the drive if you need assistance. I did a fresh install using a USB stick to boot the Sierra install. (You will want to download the install file from the Apps store and find instructions online to create the bootable USB stick.) However, I have done it for customers using Carbon Copy Cloner to replace the old slow hard drive but keep the existing install and their data. Definitely worth the money to upgrade. Good luck.