Recommended OS to Macbook pro 13.3 from 2012

[miq68]

Hi

Just planned to give my old MAC pro a rebirth so one of my kid can use it.

I did upgrade it to the latest Cateline OS, but the result of that was a very slow Macbook

Which OS is recommended for my Macbook that still contains the original hardware with following specs:

MacBook Pro 13-Inch "Core i5" 2.5 Mid-2012

2.5 GHz Core i5 (I5-3210M)

Intro. June 11, 2012 Disc. October 27, 2016 Order MD101LL/A* Model A1278 (EMC 2554*) Family Mid-2012 13" ID MacBookPro9,2 RAM 4 GB VRAM 512 MB* Storage 500 GB HDD Optical 8X DL "SuperDrive"

 

[Pakaku]

Depends what your use for it is. If you're having slow issues, do yourself a favour and upgrade from that old drive to a SSD. That should feel like a bigger upgrade than just changing the OS. Bumping up the RAM to at least 8GB will probably be a good idea as well.

My 2012 Pro runs 10.14.6, and I think it's the perfect sweet spot between having a modern-enough OS and legacy support for older 32-bit apps

 

[richardt1994]

Hello Miq68,

I have exactly the same model MBP. I replaced the HDD with a 500GB WD Blue SATA SSD and replaced the existing 2 x 2GB RAM SODIMMs with 2 x 4GB. It runs Catalina very acceptably for fairly basic tasks such as email, word processing, web browsing, simple photo editing and audio editing.

IMHO this model MPB is one of the best as it has a very good keyboard, a built in DVD writer and I think is the last MBP that has easily user upgradeable/replaceable storage (HDD), memory and battery. It is just a shame that although I believe it is still a supported product as it was last sold new in 2016, Apple decided not to support it under Big Sur.

Therefore my suggestion would be replace the HDD with an SSD and upgrade the memory, then re-install Catalina or if
you need 32 bit app compatibility, install Mojave.

Cheers,
Richard.

 

[miq68]

Hello Miq68,

I have exactly the same model MBP. I replaced the HDD with a 500GB WD Blue SATA SSD and replaced the existing 2 x 2GB RAM SODIMMs with 2 x 4GB. It runs Catalina very acceptably for fairly basic tasks such as email, word processing, web browsing, simple photo editing and audio editing.

IMHO this model MPB is one of the best as it has a very good keyboard, a built in DVD writer and I think is the last MBP that has easily user upgradeable/replaceable storage (HDD), memory and battery. It is just a shame that although I believe it is still a supported product as it was last sold new in 2016, Apple decided not to support it under Big Sur.

Therefore my suggestion would be replace the HDD with an SSD and upgrade the memory, then re-install Catalina or if
you need 32 bit app compatibility, install Mojave.

Cheers,
Richard.

Thanks for the input.

 

[miq68]

Hello Miq68,

I have exactly the same model MBP. I replaced the HDD with a 500GB WD Blue SATA SSD and replaced the existing 2 x 2GB RAM SODIMMs with 2 x 4GB. It runs Catalina very acceptably for fairly basic tasks such as email, word processing, web browsing, simple photo editing and audio editing.

IMHO this model MPB is one of the best as it has a very good keyboard, a built in DVD writer and I think is the last MBP that has easily user upgradeable/replaceable storage (HDD), memory and battery. It is just a shame that although I believe it is still a supported product as it was last sold new in 2016, Apple decided not to support it under Big Sur.

Therefore my suggestion would be replace the HDD with an SSD and upgrade the memory, then re-install Catalina or if
you need 32 bit app compatibility, install Mojave.

Cheers,
Richard.

Thanks for the input.

 

[Jack Neill]

I have same machine, SSD/16Gb ram/Big Sur will make it feel brand new.

 

[268unlock]

Can I use any ddr3 memory sticks for this or s specific brand