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Macbook Pro Early 2011 startup times

M

MPB11

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 2, 2011
159
0
Hey everyone,

I own an Early 2011 MBP, Sandy Bridge quad core i7 2.2ghz, 4gb RAM, 500g 7200rpm HDD.

I take very good care of my computer, keep it updated and everything.

It is file vaulted and running ML 10.8.2.

To be honest, I am obsessed with quality and performance and won't ever hesitate to contact Apple if the product I'm using isn't working properly.

Anyways, I decided just for fun to mesure the startup times of my MBP an of some apps just to see if after 1 year and 7 months of use, my MBP is still running good of not.

Let me know what you think!

Startup (from On switch to full dock display): 1min to 1min10secs.

Shutdown: 23 sec

iPhoto (from clicking the dock icon to full display of my photos) : 26 sec

Opening a precise document in Pages: 12 sec

Creating a new Garage Band project: 16 sec

According to you, are does startup times normal or not for a 2000$ computer only a year and a half old? Sometimes I wonder!

Thanks,
 
Oh by the way, forgot to mention, on SL a year ago, my MBP used to boot in 37 sec and shutdown in 3 sec.
 
Doesn't sound too bad to me. I have the same machine (early 2011) with an SSD and I boot in a little under 30 seconds.

Repairing your disk and disk permissions in Disk Utility (you need to boot into recovery for this) might noticeably improve your startup times, though.
 
Just throw in an SSD and some more RAM and you will be surprised. I boot in about 12 sec and shutdown in under 5 sec. All my programs open in just a few seconds. You can do this for under $250 and it'll be the best upgrade you can ever do for your early 2011 machine.
 
That sounds terrible to me. My wife's early 2011 cMBP-13 2.3 Core i5 with 4GB boots from button to log in screen in about 12 seconds, then from login to dock in 2-3 seconds. It shuts down in about 5-6 seconds and opens iPhoto with (tons of) photos loaded in 6-7 seconds. It is not file-vaulted.

The differences probably are down to:

1. 750GB Momentus XT hybrid drive ($120 on Amazon)
2. File vault - and we're going to vault her's soon but I have no idea what the speed impact will be
3. A clean install of ML?
 
Yeah I often heard that a 7200rpm HDD might be a bottle neck for the computer, a SSD might be a good thing.

I already repaired disk permissions and it unfortunately didn't change ****... :S
 
That sounds similar to my startup times before I switched to an SSD. Now it's around 15-20 seconds to boot. If you're looking for speed, get an SSD. If you're just looking to make sure your machine is functioning properly, I think you're fine.
 
sweetbrat said:
That sounds similar to my startup times before I switched to an SSD. Now it's around 15-20 seconds to boot. If you're looking for speed, get an SSD. If you're just looking to make sure your machine is functioning properly, I think you're fine.
Click to expand...

thanks, yeah the speed doesn't bother me THAT much, depends of how I feel when I wake up! I just don't think it's normal to have to spend 250$ on a 2000$ laptop less than 2 years after purchase
 
You don't have to do it, but it's really nice having an SSD. Put your HDD in where your CD drive is and put the SSD in HDD slot, best of both worlds
 
MPB11 said:
thanks, yeah the speed doesn't bother me THAT much, depends of how I feel when I wake up! I just don't think it's normal to have to spend 250$ on a 2000$ laptop less than 2 years after purchase
Click to expand...

You don't have to spend anything. Even though it might seem like it on these forums, most people still don't have SSDs in their computers. Comparing a traditional HDD to an SSD isn't appropriate; they're two different technologies. Either be happy with what you have, since it doesn't sound like there's anything actually wrong with your machine, or pay to upgrade it and make it faster. The choice is yours. People here are just giving you options.
 
Krazy Bill said:
I expected to hear this band-aide fix. Yeah, just throw money at it.

How about fixing ML first? The OP's numbers are horrendous.
Click to expand...

Hey buddy, what do you suggest in order to fix ML? By the way, I personnaly do not feel that ML reallllly slowed down my computer. Yes the startup time increased a little bit with ML but it was pretty much the same with SL. I'd say that the shutdown time increased dramatically with ML. Otherwise, the startup times of my other apps haven't changed with the OS.

thanks
 
Before i switch to SSD, with 5400rpm HDD; it would take a minute or so to start up. After SSD, it's within 10 seconds.
 
Krazy Bill said:
I expected to hear this band-aide fix. Yeah, just throw money at it.

How about fixing ML first? The OP's numbers are horrendous.
Click to expand...

1 minute to startup for a HDD is not "horrendous," especially since he's counting from the time he switches it on...not even from the startup chime.

If his times haven't changed since installing ML, you can't blame it on ML. It's because he has a HDD, and the only way to make it faster is to swap it for a SSD. There are some things that can't be blamed on ML, as much as people might like to try.

OP, when you shut down, do you have the box checked to "Reopen windows when logging in"? If so, that might be why it's taking longer. Just a guess, though.
 
Krazy Bill said:
I expected to hear this band-aide fix. Yeah, just throw money at it.

How about fixing ML first? The OP's numbers are horrendous.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure you are the only one in the world who doesn't agree. Even with ML fixed the numbers are still horrendous with an HDD. An SSD is money well spent IMO, and my recommendation is logical since the OP is worried about drive speed. The OP can fix ML by doing a clean install onto a new SSD. Surely if a person can afford to buy a MBP then they can spend a couple hundred for a little more RAM and an SSD, which by the way is the cheapest and best upgrade one can do to improve computing speed.
 
Irock619 said:
I'm pretty sure you are the only one in the world who doesn't agree. Even with ML fixed the numbers are still horrendous with an HDD.
Click to expand...

There's nothing inherently "horrendous" about an HDD. I have the same computer as the OP, with HDD, and it was speedy on 10.6 but crawls with 10.8.2. That's clearly a software issue.
 
Nermal said:
There's nothing inherently "horrendous" about an HDD. I have the same computer as the OP, with HDD, and it was speedy on 10.6 but crawls with 10.8.2. That's clearly a software issue.
Click to expand...

I guess I am just used to running with an SSD. If I went back to an HDD the speed would feel horrendous.
 
Nermal said:
There's nothing inherently "horrendous" about an HDD. I have the same computer as the OP, with HDD, and it was speedy on 10.6 but crawls with 10.8.2. That's clearly a software issue.
Click to expand...

Was it a fresh reformat with 10.8.2? I never expect good performance writing over an old OS.
 
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