Questions regarding upgrading and rebuilding Macbook Pro 15'' Mid 2010?

[vittoria]

I am planning on upgrading and hopefully rebuilding my Macbook pro (mid 2010) and I have some questions I was hoping to get advice about.

1. I am not sure which SSD to get. I am looking at these three (all the 500GB): Crucial MX500, Samsung 860 Evo Sata III and the SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD. I am leaning towards the Samsung or the SanDisk as they are supposed to be faster and I mainly use this macbook for photoshop and final cut pro. They are all available on amazon here in the UK. Does anyone have any recommendations about SSD? Would these all be compatible with my Mid- 2010 15'' Macbook Pro?
   

1. Is it possible for me to do a "clean install" on the new SSD rather than clone my old disk? I have the mac OSX Install Disks that came with the laptop when it was new would it be possible to install OSX on the new SSD and then upgrade to OS Sierra? Would I need to upgrade to OS X El Capitan first? If so is it possible to still download and install X El Capitan? If I did this would it be wise to back up the current hard drive in the Macbook on another HD just in case?
   

1. I have some software I want to re-install back onto the macbook once I have the new SSD installed. These are: Final Cut Studio (Final Cut Pro 7), Adobe Photoshop CS5 and Office Mac 2008. Are these versions all still compatible on OS Sierra?
   

Any advice or suggestions on these questions would be very welcome and much appreciated!



Note: I have already upgraded the memory on this macbook pro. I also have a Torx T6, Small Phillips screwdriver and an Iomax Sata Adapter.

 

[BeatCrazy]

As far as SSD choices, I think any of those are fine, and should max out the SATAIII bus for read/write.

I think you can do a clean install of El Cap. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904

Regarding software, dunno about most of those, but I’d avoid re-installing Office 2008 if I were you. Maybe you can at least find a used license of Office 2011 for cheap? But I think even that version is no longer receiving patches.

 

[vittoria]

Thank you for your respose that is very helpful!

To be honest Office 2008 isn't critical as i use a PC for most word processing applications the Macbook Pro is mostly for creative work.

Do you know if I do the clean istall of El Cap would I then be able to upgrade to Sierra? Also should I or can I install the OS on the SSD before installing it in the macbook?

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Your SATA bus is sata 2 so you will max out at half the possible sequential read/write of any modern ssd. You are stuck with usb2 and FireWire for externals and your gpu and cpu for creative work will be anemic at best rubbish at worst. You may well need a new battery as this vintage throttles if used on plug in power only. It’s also nine years old and could well just die at any given moment.

Basically unless you are using this machine for a very specific and out of date purpose it is just not really worth investing time money or effort in.

 

[vittoria]

Your SATA bus is sata 2 so you will max out at half the possible sequential read/write of any modern ssd. You are stuck with usb2 and FireWire for externals and your gpu and cpu for creative work will be anemic at best rubbish at worst. You may well need a new battery as this vintage throttles if used on plug in power only. It’s also nine years old and could well just die at any given moment.

Basically unless you are using this machine for a very specific and out of date purpose it is just not really worth investing time money or effort in.

Thanks for your input but I can't afford a new laptop so I'm stuck with upgrading this one. Many users are happy with the upgrade once complete.

 

[BeatCrazy]

Thank you for your respose that is very helpful!

To be honest Office 2008 isn't critical as i use a PC for most word processing applications the Macbook Pro is mostly for creative work.

Do you know if I do the clean istall of El Cap would I then be able to upgrade to Sierra? Also should I or can I install the OS on the SSD before installing it in the macbook?

I don't think you'll be able to do a clean install of El Cap with a machine of that vintage. You may have to re-install Snow Leopard, then go to El Cap, assuming you have a "history" of a purchase of that in your macOS App Store?

I don't think it will cause any ill effects going from Snow Leopard to El Cap, if you're not dragging along any programs or files. After you get El Cap, you can easily go to Sierra.

You can see what I did in a similar situation here: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...3-macbook-pro-now-what.2116495/#post-26012865

 

[Fishrrman]

"I have some software I want to re-install back onto the macbook once I have the new SSD installed. These are: Final Cut Studio (Final Cut Pro 7), Adobe Photoshop CS5 and Office Mac 2008. Are these versions all still compatible on OS Sierra?"

If you want to keep using these apps, the easiest way to get them from the old drive to the new one is to use CarbonCopyCloner and "clone over" the contents of the old drive to the new SSD.

 

[Audit13]

I know these mid-2010 15" MBPs suffered from kernel panics due to an under-sized capacitor. I had one of these MBPs and it would kernel panic when switching from the integrated Intel GPU to the nVidia GPU.

A quick way to determine if your MBP is affected would be to run the Cinebench test: https://www.maxon.net/en/products/cinebench/

When going from a mechanical drive to an SSD, you may also encounter a lot of beachballing. One cause may be a slightly faulty sata hard drive cable.

 

[vittoria]

I know these mid-2010 15" MBPs suffered from kernel panics due to an under-sized capacitor. I had one of these MBPs and it would kernel panic when switching from the integrated Intel GPU to the nVidia GPU.

A quick way to determine if your MBP is affected would be to run the Cinebench test: https://www.maxon.net/en/products/cinebench/

When going from a mechanical drive to an SSD, you may also encounter a lot of beachballing. One cause may be a slightly faulty sata hard drive cable.

Thank you for your reply I downloaded the Cinebench and ran both tests. My macbook pro passed the CPU test with a score of 192 test, it was slow at about 3.5 minutes to complete. It failed the Open GL Test in that it crashed the laptop both times I tried to run it.

I guess am used to the laptop being slow but would it be possible to upgrade the logic board and if so is it a fix I could do myself?

Thanks for the heads up about the sata cable also!
[doublepost=1544009519][/doublepost]

"I have some software I want to re-install back onto the macbook once I have the new SSD installed. These are: Final Cut Studio (Final Cut Pro 7), Adobe Photoshop CS5 and Office Mac 2008. Are these versions all still compatible on OS Sierra?"

If you want to keep using these apps, the easiest way to get them from the old drive to the new one is to use CarbonCopyCloner and "clone over" the contents of the old drive to the new SSD.

I still have the offical disks these programmes came on so would it be possible just to reinstall once the machine is rebuilt or are you saying that unless I clone compatibility issues might be likely?

 

[Audit13]

Thank you for your reply I downloaded the Cinebench and ran both tests. My macbook pro passed the CPU test with a score of 192 test, it was slow at about 3.5 minutes to complete. It failed the Open GL Test in that it crashed the laptop both times I tried to run it.

I guess am used to the laptop being slow but would it be possible to upgrade the logic board and if so is it a fix I could do myself?

Thanks for the heads up about the sata cable also!

You may be able to use the software fix for now: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/gpu-kernel-panic-in-mid-2010-whats-the-best-fix.1890097/

No need to replace the entire board. It's capacitor c9560 that needs replacement. A competent computer repair tech could replace it in about an hour: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ts-the-best-fix.1890097/page-28#post-25214949

I used the cheapest third-party sata cable from Amazon on a few 15" and 13" MBPs with no issues at all.

 

[vittoria]

Just to let you all know I've done it. It was a lot easier than expected which is great. I just did a clean install of macos sierra from my disk utility after reseting and updating my old harddrive. I've decided to upgrade some software as a result and keep this as a dedicated FCP machine.

MBP is running a lot faster boot up time cut in half and no more random beach balling so far! I will bear the new cable in mind though. I'll also installed the kernal panic fix and it no longer crashes on the cinebench OpenGL test, it is still slow (Results: OpenGL 10.24fps & CPU 192) but at least its working. I will keep the old hard drive as is for a while till I test everything and if it all seems good will pop that in an enclosure and use as a back up device. I will also look into the capacitor replacement.

Thank you to everyone who replied and offered advice!