New SSD / RAM / Battery on early 2013 Macbook Pro 15''

[Pietro Guglielmi]

Hello everyone,

I am Pietro, Italian student based in London. I am new to the forum, I registered to ask for some suggestions on how to boost the performances of my 6 years old Macbook Pro.

I have a
- MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013, 256gb)
- Processor: 2.4 GHz Intel Core i7
- Memory: 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
- Serial Number: C02LJ1X2FFT0

I have tried to clean it from the cache, reduce the files, applications etc but the performances of the notebook are still poor: for instance, I can't open TripAdvisor's webpages because "they use a significant amount of memory" as Safari tells me.

A friend of mine bought from Amazon for 70€ and installed himself a new SSD on his 2011 Macbook and told me that the notebook's performances are basically as if it was new. I am therefore considering doing the same thing: changing the SSD with a new one and possibly also changing the RAM and the Battery (which has significantly deteriorated with use and now has a very short autonomy.

I am wondering which intervention would be more effective to improve the performances: new RAM or new SSD? And what capabilities of the new RAM and SSD should I take into consideration?

Thank you in advance to all that will help me.

Pietro

 

[bionictony]

your 256gb HD, how full is it? that is standard and should be fine for tripadvisor. I'm on a 1 year older macbook pro and it works fine. i don't think your ram is upgrade able though. have you tried firefox, chrome or brave web browser? also what OS are you using?

 

[mightyjabba]

I don't think you should be having error messages about using too much memory just opening websites. 8GB is still a reasonable amount for normal computing tasks. So I wonder if there might not be another issue involved.

Your friend's 2011 MBP has user-upgradable RAM, uses a standard SATA drive and also originally came with a spinning hard drive. So that means that it's easy and cheap to add an SSD, and he will also see much bigger difference in performance compared to what his computer came with.

Unfortunately, I don't believe your model of MBP can have its memory upgraded as it's soldered to the logic board. You can upgrade the SSD (although you will have to get a specific type of SSD that is compatible, which is somewhat expensive, or use an adapter). I wouldn't necessarily expect a replacement to be much better in terms of speed (your current SSD should be quite fast), but it would give you more storage. And you can also replace the battery, although this is a little tricky as it's glued in place.

 

[Honza1]

I suggest first start with clean system install. Make backup (or two, check they work first), wipe the disk, and install clean system. Then reinstall only applications you need, configure only stuff you need, and move only data you need. You will be surprised how much this can help after few years of use. Upgrades on this hardware are not as simple and cheap as 2011 model.

 

[Pietro Guglielmi]

Thank you all for your replies. I will follow Honza1's suggestion and perform a clean system install and see how it goes.

I realized replacing the battery is in fact hard to do, I won't do it. And the RAM, as you guys pointed out, is not expandable.

As for the SSDs, do they deteriorate with time? I don't need more space (I'm currently using only 135gb, and have 114gb free ), the only reason why I would upgrade the SSD is to improve performance due to the new hard-disk. In other words, is the substitution of the SSD likely to make my Macbook faster?

As for prices, I found these relatively inexpensive solutions:
- $70 OWC 250GB Aura Pro 6G Solid-State Drive (https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/S3DAP12R250/)
- $105 OWC 500GB Aura Pro 6G Solid-State Drive (https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/S3DAP12R500/)
What do you think? Is OWC the best manufacturer of SSD or are there better ones?

Thank you again,
Pietro

 

[firelighter487]

that's weird. i have a 2012 MBP and i tried to open tripadvisor in safari as a test and it's fine.

i have 16GB of ram in mine but i'm not even using 8gb and and i have 8 other tabs open. so like, yours should be totally fine still

 

[jerryk]

How many other tabs do you have open in addition to trip advisor? Makes sure it is only the one site. Second do you have ad blockers or software installed? Trip advisor may just be sending a generic error message.
Also, what happens with other browsers like Chrome or Firefox?

What does Activity Monitor show on the CPU (how busy and top cpu using process), and Memory tabs (what does the Memory pressure graph look like).

I don't think your SSD degraded much. It is much more likely the applications (including web sites).