OS X El Capitan to High Sierra on 2011 MBP?

[laguna6512]

Hi,

I’ve recently been thinking about upgrading my late 2011 13” MBP to High Sierra but I’ve seen mixed reviews at various online locations about the end result; some users have said it granted the gift of speed upon their machine while others have said it slowed it down tremendously. I did upgrade my system from 4 GB to 16 GB of RAM a few years ago, but I haven’t touched the 750 GB disk as a comprable SSD would be quite expensive. What are your recommendations - do any of you have similar machines on High Sierra and thoughts on whether to upgrade or not?

 

[bbfc]

Hi,

I’ve recently been thinking about upgrading my late 2011 13” MBP to High Sierra but I’ve seen mixed reviews at various online locations about the end result; some users have said it granted the gift of speed upon their machine while others have said it slowed it down tremendously. I did upgrade my system from 4 GB to 16 GB of RAM a few years ago, but I haven’t touched the 750 GB disk as a comprable SSD would be quite expensive. What are your recommendations - do any of you have similar machines on High Sierra and thoughts on whether to upgrade or not?

Unless you’re willing to upgrade to an SSD then you won’t see any noticeable changes in performance. High Sierra wasn’t great on my MBP Early ‘11, until I put an SSD inside it.

 

[Kamolas]

A 1 TB SSD is now $150.
El Capitan is no longer supported. High Sierra is the last OS compatible with your Mac and it shall have updates up to 2020.
An SSD will gave your Mac a new life, so I think it's definitely worth the upgrade.
I don't have a pro but a mini from 2012, and I went from Mavericks to High Sierra when it was still 10.13.2, on the original HDD, and so far I had zero issues. (I'm planning to upgrade to an SSD, when we get to know what's the last OS compatible with this mini, if Mojave or newer)

 

[Brian33]

I have an Early 2011 15" MBP that I recently upgraded from El Capitan to High Sierra. I saw no performance difference, but it does have (the original) SSD, so that might not tell you much. I also upgraded two other Macs with Fusion drives with no noticeable performance change.

Personally, I wouldn't expect a slowdown by going to High Sierra, and I would recommend it (whether or not you move to an SSD) in order to get (and keep getting) the security updates. Make a clone backup first, and if you're not satisfied with High Sierra, you can restore the system back to El Capitan.

 

[Sabretooth78]

I just updated my 2012 MBP (which has long since been upgraded with an SSD) from El Cap to High Sierra and so far so good.

Regarding SSD upgrades, you could do what I did initially which is install the disk doubler that OWC sells. Keep your 750 GB and put a 120 GB SSD in the optical drive bay - unless of course you use the optical drive often, but even then they also sell a kit which effectively turns it into an external drive.

 

[Eithanius]

Won't your MBP fans kick in way earlier on HS compared to El Cap...? Mine 2010 does when comparing Sierra to HS, even with light browsing...

 

[foliovision]

A 1 TB SSD is now $150.
El Capitan is no longer supported. High Sierra is the last OS compatible with your Mac and it shall have updates up to 2020.

What is this unhealthy obsession with "supported"? As long as the third party software you use in a version you like are available for an OS and browser makers are releasing new secure versions, no version of the OS is much more or less secure than another.

Not sorry to miss out on Apple SIS which locks me out of modifying my own computer in the name of fictitious security while at the same time macOS High Sierra 10.13.0 and 10.13.1 have a critical[28] vulnerability that allowed an attacker to become a root user by not entering the password.

Along with Snow Leopard and Mountain Lion, El Capitan is one of the most troublefree and reliable versions of OS X which Apple has issued. No networking issues like Yosemite or new file system issues like Sierra and High Sierra (which can't be repaired with the normal disk repair tools like DiskWarrior for instance).

 

[Fguerouate]

Hi,

I’ve recently been thinking about upgrading my late 2011 13” MBP to High Sierra but I’ve seen mixed reviews at various online locations about the end result; some users have said it granted the gift of speed upon their machine while others have said it slowed it down tremendously. I did upgrade my system from 4 GB to 16 GB of RAM a few years ago, but I haven’t touched the 750 GB disk as a comprable SSD would be quite expensive. What are your recommendations - do any of you have similar machines on High Sierra and thoughts on whether to upgrade or not?

You should be fine with 16 gb ram. It will probably run a little slower than el cap. Upgrade to an ssd though, your laptop will feel new afterwards