Should I buy a new mac

[Lion114]

Lately I thought if I need to upgrade my MacBook Pro 2012 mid 13'

I really looked into it and after I upgraded my MacBook I don't see any reason why to spend almost 2000$ on a new one

This is my current hardware

2.5 Ghz i5

16gb ram

Samsung evo 850 250gb SSD

Intel HD 4000

Retina display not bothers me,and I really don't care from the Touch ID bar

My use is really for work,internet,parallels.

I'm not a gamer never played games and I'm not using photoshop...



What will make it worth to upgrade? Or what so good between the new ones compare to mine

 

[bbrks]

Nothing....stay where you are...I am sure there are much better ways to spend those 2.000 extra

 

[Lion114]

Nothing....stay where you are...I am sure there are much better ways to spend those 2.000 extra

Hello
Thank you for your fast reply
That's what I thought but my question is was it worth this upgrades? Will the mac stay good for few years from now,or there is a lot differences between mine to the new ones that will make mine slow soon as the processor ?

 

[generationfourth]

If you're happy with your machine keep it. I ran my 2011 15" MBP up until last week when it finally died. I had thrown a SSD and new battery in it and was using it hard day in and day out for freelance design work.

The only thing that bothered me was the non retina screen. If anything you could purchase an external monitor for home use if you want screen real estate. I was happy with my 2011 because it worked flawlessly with my 27" thunderbolt display. Quite honestly if you did a blind test on me and switched out my 2011 mbp, or my new 15" tbMBP I couldn't tell a difference in performance (for my type of work). Actually I could tell if it were the tbMBP because mine is plagued with problems and I'm returning it.

 

[jerryk]

The issue I had with the 2012 13" is the low res screen. After awhile it really bother me. So I upgraded to a 2015 15".

But, the 13" really tempted me. The screen on the 13" rMBP is a huge change from the 2012 13", which always seemed a bit blurry to me. And the 2016 MBP 13" is the next step up.

 

[Lion114]

The issue I had with the 2012 13" is the low res screen. After awhile it really bother me. So I upgraded to a 2015 15".

But, the 13" really tempted me. The screen on the 13" rMBP is a huge change from the 2012 13", which always seemed a bit blurry to me. And the 2016 MBP 13" is the next step up.

To be honest screen res don't bother me,most of the time I plug it to my tv.

 

[jerryk]

To be honest screen res don't bother me,most of the time I plug it to my tv.

If you are going to use an external monitor than there is really no reason to upgrade. When connected to a TV, Portability is not an issue, you probably use a external keyboard/mouse, so all you have left is the core computing parts, and these are not a big change.

 

[Lion114]

If you are going to use an external monitor than there is really no reason to upgrade. When connected to a TV, Portability is not an issue, you probably use a external keyboard/mouse, so all you have left is the core computing parts, and these are not a big change.

i saw someone posting video that he upgraded he's macbook pro 2012 mid with 2 SSD HARD DRIVE.

one on the Cd rom and one he replaced he's normal HDD.

when he tested with black magic he got a crazy result of 1000 MB write and read

with 1 ssd he got result of 500 mb read and write..

so i though if i will do it with extra SSD different brand and different size. will it make a difference and make my computer even faster? i though maybe putting san disk one with 120GB on it.

so will it make a difference or just will give me extra 120GB if i will merge them on disk utility..?

 

[ZapNZs]

If you are not going to benefit from the retina display or the retina display + touchbar, then purchasing another 13-inch is not justifiable (unless perhaps you wish to upgrade your display to one of ultra high resolution.) The CPU advancements since your generation have not been tremendous IMO, and the real-world performance benefits of the machine may be limited. While the RAM has gotten somewhat faster, the iGPU has made tremendous strides, and SSDs have jumped to about 5 times what your EVO does, the real-world benefits of these advancements for the work you described are debatable in regards to financial justifiability. In sum, it is a lot of money for what may not be a lot of gain.

If you are unhappy with the performance you are getting, then upgrading to a 15-inch (which has a quad core CPU) or another quad core laptop is justifiable, IMO. With virtualization, those 2+2 extra cores can make a big difference, and especially if you are running multiple VMs simultaneously or more intensive Apps in the guest OS'.
[doublepost=1489001370][/doublepost]

i saw someone posting video that he upgraded he's macbook pro 2012 mid with 2 SSD HARD DRIVE.

one on the Cd rom and one he replaced he's normal HDD.

when he tested with black magic he got a crazy result of 1000 MB write and read

with 1 ssd he got result of 500 mb read and write..

so i though if i will do it with extra SSD different brand and different size. will it make a difference and make my computer even faster? i though maybe putting san disk one with 120GB on it.

so will it make a difference or just will give me extra 120GB if i will merge them on disk utility..?

I assume using a SSD in the main bay and a second SSD in the CD bay (both SATA III SSDs) he set up a RAID0?

 

[Lion114]

If you are not going to benefit from the retina display or the retina display + touchbar, then purchasing another 13-inch is not justifiable (unless perhaps you wish to upgrade your display to one of ultra high resolution.) The CPU advancements since your generation have not been tremendous IMO, and the real-world performance benefits of the machine may be limited. While the RAM has gotten somewhat faster, the iGPU has made tremendous strides, and SSDs have jumped to about 5 times what your EVO does, the real-world benefits of these advancements for the work you described are debatable in regards to financial justifiability. In sum, it is a lot of money for what may not be a lot of gain.

If you are unhappy with the performance you are getting, then upgrading to a 15-inch (which has a quad core CPU) or another quad core laptop is justifiable, IMO. With virtualization, those 2+2 extra cores can make a big difference, and especially if you are running multiple VMs simultaneously or more intensive Apps in the guest OS'.
[doublepost=1489001370][/doublepost]

I assume using a SSD in the main bay and a second SSD in the CD bay (both SATA III SSDs) he set up a RAID0?

yeah exactly to set up a raid. because you said my evo not that fast as the new ones so i though with another ssd i will get the same speed no? around 1000 mb READ AND WRITE
this is the video that i saw.

 

[treekram]

i saw someone posting video that he upgraded he's macbook pro 2012 mid with 2 SSD HARD DRIVE.

one on the Cd rom and one he replaced he's normal HDD.

when he tested with black magic he got a crazy result of 1000 MB write and read

with 1 ssd he got result of 500 mb read and write..

so i though if i will do it with extra SSD different brand and different size. will it make a difference and make my computer even faster? i though maybe putting san disk one with 120GB on it.

so will it make a difference or just will give me extra 120GB if i will merge them on disk utility..?

I also have the mid-2012 13" MBP and I have two 250GB 850 Evo's in a RAID configuration.

You need to have disks of the same size. Otherwise, the size you end up with is 2x the smaller disk size. Really, you should get two disks of the same size and same model - ideally bought at the same time. Manufacturers may change things in a particular model SSD over time. I also think it's best to have two disks that have about the same amount of writes that have been made to it.

While benchmarks may get you close or over 1000MB/sec., for real-world use, you may not notice any difference from what you currently have. The way that RAID 0 works is that it can read/write from both disks at the same time. However, the chunk size they use (I think it's 64K for El Capitan) is such that if your file is under that chunk size, it can only read from one disk anyway - there is no advantage gained, probably a little bit slower because of the RAID overhead. In my case, I have a DVR app where there are a couple of operations which are basically file copy operations and with large (usually 8GB or so) files, it is much faster than running the same operation on my other Mac which doesn't have RAID. I have a MySQL database application where I benchmarked several tasks which takes some time (usually several minutes) and some operations were slower, some faster than my 2012 Mini, which has very similar technology to the 2012 MBP (my 2012 Mini is quad-core but the operations I was running was on a single thread). So I kept that database on my 2012 Mini.

So, you shouldn't get too excited about the RAID possibility unless you have application(s) which can take advantage of how it works.

 

[jerryk]

i saw someone posting video that he upgraded he's macbook pro 2012 mid with 2 SSD HARD DRIVE.

one on the Cd rom and one he replaced he's normal HDD.

when he tested with black magic he got a crazy result of 1000 MB write and read

with 1 ssd he got result of 500 mb read and write..

so i though if i will do it with extra SSD different brand and different size. will it make a difference and make my computer even faster? i though maybe putting san disk one with 120GB on it.

so will it make a difference or just will give me extra 120GB if i will merge them on disk utility..?

The question is will you really notice the speed up from 550 to 1000 mb/sec. I sort of doubt it unless you do a lot of large file transfers, or run apps that read in big files. Most applications do not do this.

When I first put an SSD into a 2011 13 MBP it was night and day from when I had a rotational drives. Application launches dropped from 15 seconds to 1-2 seconds.

Then I got a 2015 15" rMBP with a SSD capable of 1.7 GB/sec. And Applications launched in under 2 seconds consistently. But the real life feel between my 2011 13 with the "Slow" 0.55 GB/sec SSD and my new 2015 15" rMBP with the 1.7 GB/sec, was about the same on application launch and even in a lot of applications. Because once you get to a second or so to launch an application, it is hard to notice any further improvement.

So spend the money to go with SSD Raid 0 if you really need the speed for the applications you run. But, I would expect most regular users would not notice the difference.

 

[Lion114]

The question is will you really notice the speed up from 550 to 1000 mb/sec. I sort of doubt it unless you do a lot of large file transfers, or run apps that read in big files. Most applications do not do this.

When I first put an SSD into a 2011 13 MBP it was night and day from when I had a rotational drives. Application launches dropped from 15 seconds to 1-2 seconds.

Then I got a 2015 15" rMBP with a SSD capable of 1.7 GB/sec. And Applications launched in under 2 seconds consistently. But the real life feel between my 2011 13 with the "Slow" 0.55 GB/sec SSD and my new 2015 15" rMBP with the 1.7 GB/sec, was about the same on application launch and even in a lot of applications. Because once you get to a second or so to launch an application, it is hard to notice any further improvement.

So spend the money to go with SSD Raid 0 if you really need the speed for the applications you run. But, I would expect most regular users would not notice the difference.

i definitely don't do something like that.
so i think i will be fine with one...
what any other upgrades i can make?
other than that you guys don't see any reason to get a new macbook? you think mine is fine? is the processor difference between mine and the new ones are that big?

 

[jerwin]

is the processor difference between mine and the new ones are that big?

You could always go for the geekbench approach:

2866/5446
3594/6999 (for a base model macbook pro with two thunderbolt 2 ports)

about 25% speedier.

I like my performance improvements to be over 100%, myself. I don't buy new machines very often.

But the more important question to ask yourself is:

"what will the new machine allow me to do that I can't already do myself."

For some people, the thunderbolt 3, the touchbar, the faster networking speed, the retina screen and the enhanced intel graphics (though why not get a 15 inch instead?) are really compelling reasons to get a new machine. Perhaps the lighter weight.

And for other people, they aren't.

 

[ZapNZs]

I also have the mid-2012 13" MBP and I have two 250GB 850 Evo's in a RAID configuration.

You need to have disks of the same size. Otherwise, the size you end up with is 2x the smaller disk size. Really, you should get two disks of the same size and same model - ideally bought at the same time. Manufacturers may change things in a particular model SSD over time. I also think it's best to have two disks that have about the same amount of writes that have been made to it.

While benchmarks may get you close or over 1000MB/sec., for real-world use, you may not notice any difference from what you currently have. The way that RAID 0 works is that it can read/write from both disks at the same time. However, the chunk size they use (I think it's 64K for El Capitan) is such that if your file is under that chunk size, it can only read from one disk anyway - there is no advantage gained, probably a little bit slower because of the RAID overhead. In my case, I have a DVR app where there are a couple of operations which are basically file copy operations and with large (usually 8GB or so) files, it is much faster than running the same operation on my other Mac which doesn't have RAID. I have a MySQL database application where I benchmarked several tasks which takes some time (usually several minutes) and some operations were slower, some faster than my 2012 Mini, which has very similar technology to the 2012 MBP (my 2012 Mini is quad-core but the operations I was running was on a single thread). So I kept that database on my 2012 Mini.

So, you shouldn't get too excited about the RAID possibility unless you have application(s) which can take advantage of how it works.

Could you verify something for me...?

With RAID 0, as the data is striped but lacks parity, should one drive fail, then most-or-all data on both drives is lost, and repopulation isn't a possibility, correct?

 

[treekram]

Could you verify something for me...?

With RAID 0, as the data is striped but lacks parity, should one drive fail, then most-or-all data on both drives is lost, and repopulation isn't a possibility, correct?

Yes - that's my understanding - all data is lost (half the data obviously still exists but you can't put it back together in a coherent fashion).

 

[Spudlicious]

Lately I thought if I need to upgrade my MacBook Pro 2012 mid 13'

I really looked into it and after I upgraded my MacBook I don't see any reason why to spend almost 2000$ on a new one

This is my current hardware

2.5 Ghz i5

16gb ram

Samsung evo 850 250gb SSD

Intel HD 4000

Retina display not bothers me,and I really don't care from the Touch ID bar

My use is really for work,internet,parallels.

I'm not a gamer never played games and I'm not using photoshop...



What will make it worth to upgrade? Or what so good between the new ones compare to mine

If you have the urge to splurge and can afford to do so, then splash out. Time is hunting you down, and dead men enjoy no new toys.

 

[KieranDotW]

I'm in a similar position
I bought my mid 2012 13" MBP on launch day and it's been my only machine ever since (a quarter of my life, amazing if I put it that way)
I've upgraded to 8GB ram and a 256GB SSD

Right now my hold ups are the battery life (I'm still using the original battery so I have to charge 2-3 times a day), the screen for sure (I'm a graphic designer) and some issues with CPU (I can't run anything newer than CS6 without crashing every 15 minutes)

At the same time, I can't justify buying a new MBP yet, especially after the price boost and all the issues I've heard about the 2016s. I don't want to run my machine until the day it dies since I'm hoping to get some resale value for it, but I'll definitely wait until the next MBP update.

Honestly for the first time I'm also considering jumping ship. The surface pro 4 and surface book look so nice for my needs, I might see what upgrades are in store for those as well

 

[Badrottie]

No need to upgrade until your MacBook is dead OR next version of macOS will not support your MBP then you know what to do next.