I think you misunderstood my question.
Its not the free gigabytes that matter but how much space you need, i.e., can you buy a 256GB SSD, or do you need a 512GB model, or even a 1TB model? I think you can justify spending some money on an older machine, but obviously you don't want to overspend. That's where the deciding factor is, what size SSD do you need, how can you justify spending that much money on a 6 year old computer.
But the free gigabytes do matter because having a certain percentage of your drive free of space does enable the os to run smoother, thats a fact I've read everywhere
- Which SSD do you have and which OS version are you running?
There's no point to switching out the SSD just to clear up more space. That won't make anything faster.
Can you describe a bit more the sort of symptoms of slowness you're seeing? It sounds like your internal SATA drive cable may be at fault.
I have 10.11.5, I would have the 10.11.6 update (however my mac won't restart, possibly due to finder-but thats a whole other issue) and a crucial ssd.
Look from I have seen over the internet, everywhere suggests that if you use a drive as just a boot drive, with only the OS and apps on it you will see big benefits in load times and generally the whole computer will run smoother, they all suggest having a bit of free space even if you choose not go down that road.
My thinking is a fresh install on a new SSD, or just doing it on the one I own would result in a smoother experience, plus apparently reading and writing multiple times on an SSD does it no good but i cannot confirm that obviously as im not that experienced. Again just something I have read.
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JT makes an excellent point in post 6 above.
A flaky SATA ribbon cable can cause havoc with SSDs.
You might be able to troubleshoot by taking the ssd back out of the Macbook, and connecting it temporarily via a USB3 enclosure.
IF the speeds suddenly get better via USB3, that would point towards the ribbon cable as the problem.
The cables are cheap and you can find them from various sources.
Interesting, they may be cheap but is it an easy install? As i'm not so hands on when it comes to more technical things as that.
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- Which SSD do you have and which OS version are you running?
There's no point to switching out the SSD just to clear up more space. That won't make anything faster.
Can you describe a bit more the sort of symptoms of slowness you're seeing? It sounds like your internal SATA drive cable may be at fault.
Sorry i just realised I didn't really describe my symptoms and more specifically my SSD is the crucial m4 2.5" which i realise is probably fairly outdated by now.
Its just slow in general really, Its hard to explain, the boot up is fast but when i log in it takes a while to load up apps, slightly crashes, opening new windows in browsers becomes challenging, it wont shut down without me forcing it too now, however i wonder if an update did that.
