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Macbook pro 2011 worth the upgrade?

K

korpel

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 17, 2015
15
0
Hello guys i am new to this community and new to mac anyways.
So i just got in my hands a refurbished macbook pro 2011 13 early model that works perfectly. this is my first mac os machine and i could say i am really excited. It's spec are 4 gb ram and 320gb hdd. i was wondering is it worth nowadays to update the sad with a dual raid and the ram with 16 gb since it can support up to that? i can use the ssd for my Desktop once i stop using my mbp.
so i am not worrying about that money cause even if something happens the ssd will be useful. About the ram though i am thinking of spending the 100+ bucks to buy it. Do you guys think it is worth the update? will this macbook pro last 2-3 years? thats how much i want it to last. please some help would be appreciated..
thank you
 
Quijano187 said:
Yes of course.. Enjoy and have fun
Click to expand...
thank you for the really fast reply! i am thinking of getting the 1600 mhz memory that people reported that works for the 2011 macbook pro 13 inch.
May i also ask you how noticeable is it gonna be with all this update? Since it's gonna cost me about 300 bucks for the 2 ssd's and the 16 ram will the difference be noticeable? i forgot to mention the main activities i do on my mac. I using vmware A LOT like 70% of the time i have my mac on.. Fusion 360 too plus Xcode/ android studio. i am not using photoshop or anything for video editing or photo editing. aside from my developing rutine i would say my ''free-time'' usage is some web browsing and iTunes.
Once again thanks for the answers
 
VM's use loads of memory so 16gb will help out with that

The SSD will speed up boot time and application load times. Not sure if you need 2 though

I have just put an SSD into my 2011 13", but sadly due to not being able to get a screw out I can't replace the superdrive. Never mind though as I have just set up a 2TB NAS on my home network to get around that problem

Just be careful when replacing the HDD that you don't damage the Sata cable as I appeared to do this afternoon :eek:
 
Unfortunately I don't have experience with the apps you wanna use. I would assume it should be fine with your machine and even much better after your upgrade.
 
Mine is an i7 2.7GHz early 2011 macbook pro.

Put in a 128GB SSD with 500GB HDD (swapped out the DVD) to form a fusion drive.
Next changed the Bluetooth to Bluetooth 4.0 to support Handoff and Continuity.
Now it has been given a new lease of life with great speed and boot up time. Even much better than the stock 2012 non retina macbook pro 13" (HD3000 remains inferior though).

korpel said:
thank you for the really fast reply! i am thinking of getting the 1600 mhz memory that people reported that works for the 2011 macbook pro 13 inch.
May i also ask you how noticeable is it gonna be with all this update? Since it's gonna cost me about 300 bucks for the 2 ssd's and the 16 ram will the difference be noticeable? i forgot to mention the main activities i do on my mac. I using vmware A LOT like 70% of the time i have my mac on.. Fusion 360 too plus Xcode/ android studio. i am not using photoshop or anything for video editing or photo editing. aside from my developing rutine i would say my ''free-time'' usage is some web browsing and iTunes.
Once again thanks for the answers
Click to expand...
 
I went from 4GB to 8GB RAM and performance improvement was fair, but when I went from a 750GB HDD to the 1TB Samsung SSD that made it an incredible speed demon.
 
Macbook pro 2011 worth the upgrade?

Yes. You should enable trim either with command line or trimenabler. But I'm not sure how TRIM works in a Raid setup.

I have a 2011 i5, 16gb ram and Intel 530 SSD. It's still a very performant machine and does well with vmware.

I'm not sure you really need dual SSD drives, but that will let you reach PCI-E speed similar to the retina 1TB. I think it's overkill.
 
yeah it would be an overkill to have the 2 sad raid tbh. Anyways so from 4 gb memory would you suggest me to update the hdd to sad first or the ram?
thanks for your answer
 
I'd put the money into one larger SSD rather than two smaller ones; the larger sizes generally perform better than smaller versions of the same model. And RAID0 with SSDs isn't particularly useful unless you have a really specific need (like shuffling around large video files.)

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-raid-benchmark,3485-13.html

As for RAM or SSD first, normally I'd say SSD, but with your usage it sounds like the RAM may become a bottleneck... still probably do the SSD first as the 320GB is likely original equipment 5400rpm and getting quite dated.
 
I just recently did two upgrades
1) later 2009 MacBook (not pro) : I added memory from 2gb to 8gb. I was going to replace the hdd to ssd. Then I found it was enough for web browsing and causal Lightroom editing. So I put the ssd somewhere else. But when it was with 8gb and the ssd, I only had problem with iMovie. It was lagging noticeably.
2). I helped a friend to fix her 2010 17" mbp, which had only 4gb and a broken hdd. We found a broken dell and recycled the memory and hdd to make the Mac 6gb. The user experience is faster than my 2011 windows 7 with 8gb/hdd/i5.

They both upgraded to Yosemite. Bottom line is the Macs are intend to last long and Mac osx are envolving to be more efficient. Your upgrade should give you a few extra use of it and is worth the $$. :)

And you will never go back to Windows...
 
dxmac99 said:
I just recently did two upgrades
1) later 2009 MacBook (not pro) : I added memory from 2gb to 8gb. I was going to replace the hdd to ssd. Then I found it was enough for web browsing and causal Lightroom editing. So I put the ssd somewhere else. But when it was with 8gb and the ssd, I only had problem with iMovie. It was lagging noticeably.
2). I helped a friend to fix her 2010 17" mbp, which had only 4gb and a broken hdd. We found a broken dell and recycled the memory and hdd to make the Mac 6gb. The user experience is faster than my 2011 windows 7 with 8gb/hdd/i5.

They both upgraded to Yosemite. Bottom line is the Macs are intend to last long and Mac osx are envolving to be more efficient. Your upgrade should give you a few extra use of it and is worth the $$. :)

And you will never go back to Windows...
Click to expand...
Really thanks for your advices guy. Mac os seems really fun since i just started using it.. the only think i dislike is that the battery won't last the 8 hour they said it will. i mean cmon with 120 charges the machine has and 98% battery health i get something like 4-5 max with 40% brightness and safari browsing.I did a clean install on yosemite and i have only vmware installed.checked for cpu usage and for safari isn't that much. Sucks that i can get that 8 hours battery life :p. i have read on the internet it might be a yosemite issue but i hope it is since i can't go back to mavericks or something and snow leopard seems to be old
 
In activity monitor you can see what app has the most energy impact. If Safari does use a lot try to install the Adblock Plus extension so it filter out ads using adobeflash. If your mbp has dedicated graphic card, make sure it is not used unless it is needed to be. Also the bad wifi spot can drain the battery fast too.

My 13" rmbp still had 90% of the battery after about two hours Pages editing on the plane... Of cos I had wifi and Bluetooth off:). But still quite impressive...
 
It will never do 8hours real world usage. Number 1 culprit is Adobe flash. I never let my battery run down that much, but I've gotten 3-4hours before and still had 30% left or something.
 
i am running mac os x 10.10.2 and when i am only using safari i get max 4 hours with adblock installed. dunno what wrong.. cpu usage seems alright and i don't see any app do more like 1% except safari kernel-task and windows server while the 2 last of them never use more than 10% max
 
I have the same MacBook Pro you do. I just upgraded the hard drive to a 256GB SSD and upgraded the RAM to 8GB. Made a huge difference! Well worth the upgrade and definitely extends the life of the laptop. The entire upgrade cost about $180. Just make sure you have the right tools and follow the instructions carefully.
 
illusionx said:
Yes. You should enable trim either with command line or trimenabler. But I'm not sure how TRIM works in a Raid setup.

I have a 2011 i5, 16gb ram and Intel 530 SSD. It's still a very performant machine and does well with vmware.

I'm not sure you really need dual SSD drives, but that will let you reach PCI-E speed similar to the retina 1TB. I think it's overkill.
Click to expand...

You should only enable TRIM if your drive doesn't have its own in built solution IMHO
 
Is it 13 or 15"

If 13" nothing to worry about as they don't have the radeongate issue
 
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