Early MBP 15 8,2 Upgrade

[pingfan59]

I have ordered the following for my mbp. I have searched through numerous threads and found that the Samsung 840 EVO is reliable and works well in my mbp as long as it is installed in the main bay. This upgrade will cost $350 minus what I can sell FarCry 4 coupon for.

Samsung 840 EVO 500gb SSD $190 with FarCry 4 to sell and get money back(do I need anything other than the drive for the install, I have noticed that my Toshiba 750gb drive is 9.5mm and this one is 7mm, so before I open up the mbp, wanted to make sure an adapter is not needed)

Kingston HyperX Impact Black 16gb 204-pin DDR3 SO-DIMM 1600 (PC3-12800)
HX316LS9IBK2/16 $160- did not see any reviews on here with this particular ram, but kingston had it listed as compatible with my model of mbp.

I did read about moving my existing HDD to the optical bay or using it in an external housing? What are suggestions on this from some that have gone through this already?

What software would be best for cloning my existing HDD and is there a suggested cable or housing needed for this? I have seen mention of Carbon Copy Cloner and wanted to check if there was anything else that worked better or this is the suggested software for what I need.

Thank you

 

[pingfan59]

I have also just read about radeongate, does that effect every 2011 mbp? I have not had any issues with my MBP other than it has been getting slower and more and more beach balls when accessing certain apps along with the 1 min plus boot time.

So I see than I can sell it on ebay for around $900 to $1000

But then I would need to fork over another $1000 to $1500 for a new rMBP

I use my MBP for some gaming, productivity, and some iphoto.