Finally upgrading my Mid-2010 MBP; A Few Questions

[mc21]

Hey all!

So my new early 2015 13-inch Retina Macbook Pro machine is getting customized with a 1TB SSD and should be arriving this week. Until then I had a few questions maybe some more experienced folks could answer for me!

A quick summary of what I'm moving on from:
Mid 2010 15inch MBP w/ 2.66Ghz i7, 8GB of RAM and 500GB 7200rpm drive running 10.10.2 Yosemite. I was running low on Hard Drive space (about 100GB left free) and the battery was starting to slip, plus my time as eligible for student pricing was coming to an end and I figured now was as good a time as any to jump on board the retina train!

So now for my questions:
1) Is there anything out of the ordinary I should expect with switching to SSD and a retina display other than the obvious speed boosts and sharper screen?

2) What is the best way I should go about moving all my data? I've already got the thunderbolt to ethernet cable ordered since I like to use a hardwired connection in my apartment as much as I can and I just figured using migration assistant via ethernet would be just fine.

3) Any "must have" apps or accessories anyone else would recommend investing in? I already picked up a super drive as I still burn the occasional CD or DVD.

Thanks again everyone, I greatly appreciate any help or suggestions you can provide!

 

[ZBoater]

Migration via ethernet took 12 hours for me, vs. 37 minutes via Thunderbolt cable.

 

[Hieveryone]

Have you considered putting an SSD in your 2010? With a 2.66 Ghz processor and 8 GB RAM it isn't a bad idea...

As far as accessories, there aren't any "must haves" but I use a magic mouse, external monitor, couple cases, couple sleeves, an extra power cable, book arc, things like that.

EDIT: Definitely hit up YouTube and watch a 4k video!!! First thing! It'll blow your mind.

 

[mc21]

Migration via ethernet took 12 hours for me, vs. 37 minutes via Thunderbolt cable.

How can I hookup my old MBP to the new one via thunderbolt? It only has USB, Ethernet and Firewire (which I'm assuming is what you'd suggest? Using a thunderbolt to firewire adapter then firewire cable to bridge the two macs?)

Have you considered putting an SSD in your 2010? With a 2.66 Ghz processor and 8 GB RAM it isn't a bad idea...

As far as accessories, there aren't any "must haves" but I use a magic mouse, external monitor, couple cases, couple sleeves, an extra power cable, book arc, things like that.

EDIT: Definitely hit up YouTube and watch a 4k video!!! First thing! It'll blow your mind.

Will certainly watch some 4k video! I looked into just getting a new battery and upgrading the hard drive and was damn near ready to make the order to get that done but then I was surprised as a last minute belated graduation gift with the funds to make the entire new machine happen so i figured why not now?


ALSO, one other question that I just thought of! What is the best way to go about resyncing my dropbox? I used macdropany to set it up so my documents and pictures folders just link back up into dropbox. should I break that link till I'm reset up on the new machine?

 

[CaptainChunk]

How can I hookup my old MBP to the new one via thunderbolt? It only has USB, Ethernet and Firewire (which I'm assuming is what you'd suggest? Using a thunderbolt to firewire adapter then firewire cable to bridge the two macs?)

Yes, that would be the way to do that. Everything would operate at FW800 speeds, however. But it still should prove significantly faster in practice than Ethernet.

 

[mc21]

Yes, that would be the way to do that. Everything would operate at FW800 speeds, however. But it still should prove significantly faster in practice than Ethernet.

Awesome thanks again! Got the Firewire stuff coming this way via Prime. So excited to get setup on my new macbook!