How to Speed up a MacBook Pro

[modit]

My 2010 MacBook Pro was pretty "snappy" back in the day (if I could borrow a phrase ). However, it's been running slow lately in terms of opening up multiple applications and switching between them and when I have multiple windows/tabs running in Safari (I get that rainbow coloured beachball spinning).

Right now I'm running OSX 10.8.5 Mountain Lion with 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3, 2.4 GHz Intel Core i5. My Hard Drive has 306.19GB out of 319.21GB used.

What steps can I take to get my Mac running without a hitch? More ram? SSD? Fresh install? Bigger hard drive?

Any help would be greatly appreciate!

Thank you.

 

[parapup]

You said it yourself- SSD and RAM both will make a difference in your case. However since it is the 2010 model it is limited to SATA2 speeds so the SSD will make a difference but you will not be utilizing its full potential. RAM on the other hand - 4GB with non-SSD drive is definitely a problem and going 8GB should fix that.

 

[brdeveloper]

You have a great piece of hardware. I have a Unibody white Macbook with 8GB RAM, 250GB SSD and I find it pretty fast for normal tasks like browsing or opening apps and files. Even if you have a SATAII controller, your computer would benefit a lot from a SSD. Also, I presume that your MBP supports up to 16GB of RAM, so this would be my choice when upgrading.

OWC also shows a tutorial on how to make a "fusion" drive from two storage units (like a SSD+HDD). In short, with 16GB of RAM and a SSD you'll probably feel that your MBP is running faster than a brand new standard MBP (non-retina).

 

[MeUnix]

Personally, I would go for a RAM upgrade and an SSD drive. My Late '08 Alum MacBook really benefited from a RAM upgrade and an SSD drive.

It definitely brought new life into my machine

- Kyle

 

[Nameci]

My 2010 MacBook Pro was pretty "snappy" back in the day (if I could borrow a phrase ). However, it's been running slow lately in terms of opening up multiple applications and switching between them and when I have multiple windows/tabs running in Safari (I get that rainbow coloured beachball spinning).

Right now I'm running OSX 10.8.5 Mountain Lion with 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3, 2.4 GHz Intel Core i5. My Hard Drive has 306.19GB out of 319.21GB used.

What steps can I take to get my Mac running without a hitch? More ram? SSD? Fresh install? Bigger hard drive?

Any help would be greatly appreciate!

Thank you.

Upgrade your HDD to a larger capacity drive. If yourHDD is almost full it will slow down opening apps and sorts. Rule of thumb is that your free space is about 20% of your total drive capacity.