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Speed Up 2010 MBP?

satchmo said:
Also remember that your 2010 MBP is SATA II and may not reap the benefits of a more expensive and faster SATA III SSD.
Of course you can always repurpose the SSD to any future MBP. :)
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I was thinking that exactly, If I do down the road want to get a new laptop I always have this SSD.
 
Speed Up 2010 MBP?

A crucial m500 or mx100 will be more than good enough for sata2 and are cheaper than the 840 evo which will only give its performance benefit in a 2011/12 mbp.

It's truly worthy of the word amazing for the first time you boot off a solid state drive from an old spinner.

You will never go back, in homes with clients who have multiple pc or Mac it usually sets a snowball of upgrades off replacing all their spinners.
 
karboN.6 said:
I wouldnt mind spending the extra 100$ if samsung is that much better (850 pr0) also i saw crucial ram, i am not tech savy, is that company good? It is rated #1 on amazon.. and my storage capacity is 250gb and i have 33gb free.

I dont know if this can help with anything but
Processor: 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory: 4 FB 1067 MHz DDR3
Startup Disk Macintosh HD
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 320M 256 MB

But also would i need to install an upgraded fan if i upgrade to 8gb of ram?

EDIT: I have checked the Crucial SSD and it looks great as well, honestly I dont know the difference between the Samsung 850 Pro and the Crucial MX100 512 gb SSD .. I really appreciate your help
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I went with the 850 Pro because it has a 10 year warranty.
 
556fmjoe said:
I went with the 850 Pro because it has a 10 year warranty.
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thank you that is what i was thinking and it seems like alot of people are liking the harddrive.. but i thinki am going to stick with the crucial for now because i will probably be updating my mbp in the upcoming years and then I will go all out.

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Gav Mack said:
A crucial m500 or mx100 will be more than good enough for sata2 and are cheaper than the 840 evo which will only give its performance benefit in a 2011/12 mbp.

It's truly worthy of the word amazing for the first time you boot off a solid state drive from an old spinner.

You will never go back, in homes with clients who have multiple pc or Mac it usually sets a snowball of upgrades off replacing all their spinners.
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thank you for all of your help i really appreciate it very much. I just created a thread about RAM would there be anyway you would be able to advise me on which one. I am literally clueless and intimidated by all of this tech.
 
karboN.6 said:
But also would i need to install an upgraded fan if i upgrade to 8gb of ram
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With such low prices, you'd be nuts not to upgrade both the HDD and RAM at the same time :)

I put in 8Gb RAM (before they'd tested 16Gb) and an OWC SSD (no need for any trim support) and it was like a new machine. With those two mods, I've added an extra year, possibly two to the life of the machine. I'm using the latest Photoshop, InDesign and Premiere and they run as well as the early i5/i7 MBPs with the stock HDD and RAM. It's that much of a difference.

There's no need for fans, no need for any mods, I just plugged it in and away I went. As it is a 4 year old machine now you may have a hot battery like mine that needs replacing but that should be considered separately. You may even want to do that before upgrading the parts yourself.

macbook1.png


macbook2.png
 
The Guv said:
With such low prices, you'd be nuts not to upgrade both the HDD and RAM at the same time :)

I put in 8Gb RAM (before they'd tested 16Gb) and an OWC SSD (no need for any trim support) and it was like a new machine. With those two mods, I've added an extra year, possibly two to the life of the machine. I'm using the latest Photoshop, InDesign and Premiere and they run as well as the early i5/i7 MBPs with the stock HDD and RAM. It's that much of a difference.

There's no need for fans, no need for any mods, I just plugged it in and away I went. As it is a 4 year old machine now you may have a hot battery like mine that needs replacing but that should be considered separately. You may even want to do that before upgrading the parts yourself.

Image

Image
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yeah mine does run a little hot sometimes but that would suffice changing the battery? I just thought it ran hot. And you can have both hard drives installed at once on the computer?
 
karboN.6 said:
yeah mine does run a little hot sometimes but that would suffice changing the battery? I just thought it ran hot. And you can have both hard drives installed at once on the computer?
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If it's just a little hot, don't worry. If it's very hot and you see short battery life and quick charging with a hot bottom, then the battery is on the way out. You'll also get a warning under your battery menu icon. Don't let me scare you, the battery is a separate issue from normal warmth on the bottom of the case and it will be obvious when it starts to go! :)

You can buy a drive doubler from OWC which allows you to replace the DVD drive with another drive, whether it's the original HDD or a new SSD, or any combo. I replaced my original drive with a new WD black, then kept that there and replaced the DVD with an SSD.

The other guys in the thread are right, more RAM and an SSD will give you a new computer.
 
karboN.6 said:
yeah mine does run a little hot sometimes but that would suffice changing the battery? I just thought it ran hot. And you can have both hard drives installed at once on the computer?
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If yours runs hot you can always invest in a can of compressed air and blow any rubbish out of the heat-pipe grilles which are at the end of the twin fans. The fans can be removed easily with two/three screws and flicking off the connector on the logic board for each one and that will give you plenty of airspace to vacuum any rubbish out, do one at a time.

Here's the right as an example

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+15-Inch+Unibody+Mid+2010+Right+Fan+Replacement/3034

If it still runs hot after cleaning out you may need the logic board removed and get the thermal paste re-done and the contact plates for CPU and GPU shined up with Chrome polish and cleaned thoroughly afterwards before applying the paste but that's in the minority of cases, usually a good clean out does the trick. If I ever have to do an Optibay upgrade I do this as a matter of course as the logic board is removed anyway.
 
The Guv said:
If it's just a little hot, don't worry. If it's very hot and you see short battery life and quick charging with a hot bottom, then the battery is on the way out. You'll also get a warning under your battery menu icon. Don't let me scare you, the battery is a separate issue from normal warmth on the bottom of the case and it will be obvious when it starts to go! :)



You can buy a drive doubler from OWC which allows you to replace the DVD drive with another drive, whether it's the original HDD or a new SSD, or any combo. I replaced my original drive with a new WD black, then kept that there and replaced the DVD with an SSD.



The other guys in the thread are right, more RAM and an SSD will give you a new computer.
Click to expand...



Gav Mack said:
If yours runs hot you can always invest in a can of compressed air and blow any rubbish out of the heat-pipe grilles which are at the end of the twin fans. The fans can be removed easily with two/three screws and flicking off the connector on the logic board for each one and that will give you plenty of airspace to vacuum any rubbish out, do one at a time.

Here's the right as an example

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+15-Inch+Unibody+Mid+2010+Right+Fan+Replacement/3034

If it still runs hot after cleaning out you may need the logic board removed and get the thermal paste re-done and the contact plates for CPU and GPU shined up but that's in the minority of cases, usually a good clean out does the trick.
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Thank you guys so much for these responses, I would seriously not know what to do at all! I will clean them out soon and I am looking for the 850 pro on 1TB on sale for Black Friday maybe I can get a great deal! I really want a 1tb so I can always trasnfer it to a new MBP if I get one. I will let you guys know how my computer will be running! Is there any tests that I can do Before to see how it is running before and after? (I found one but it's not for Yosemite)
 
karboN.6 said:
I really want a 1tb so I can always trasnfer it to a new MBP if I get one.
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Just remember that the new laptops have a different type of SSD and the current crop of MBP aren't compatible with the 2.5" sized drive in the 2010 model. You could always chuck it into an external case though...
 
karboN.6 said:
Thank you guys so much for these responses, I would seriously not know what to do at all! I will clean them out soon and I am looking for the 850 pro on 1TB on sale for Black Friday maybe I can get a great deal! I really want a 1tb so I can always trasnfer it to a new MBP if I get one. I will let you guys know how my computer will be running! Is there any tests that I can do Before to see how it is running before and after? (I found one but it's not for Yosemite)
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lol - if you had a 2011/2 I would say get the 850 Pro it is a faster drive but with SATA 2 on the 2010 it's overkill. Crucial M500 is sufficient for 1tb and will be a lot cheaper than an 850 Pro. Though if you were looking at perhaps upgrading the 2010 to a 2011/2 perhaps the more expensive drive may be useful.
 
Gav Mack said:
lol - if you had a 2011/2 I would say get the 850 Pro it is a faster drive but with SATA 2 on the 2010 it's overkill. Crucial M500 is sufficient for 1tb and will be a lot cheaper than an 850 Pro. Though if you were looking at perhaps upgrading the 2010 to a 2011/2 perhaps the more expensive drive may be useful.
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Thanks alright I will have to wait for a new comp in a few years to get the nice SSD I will stick with the crucial m100 and get the 512gb! Thanks for the help as I know nothing about speeds and anything with computers

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The Guv said:
Just remember that the new laptops have a different type of SSD and the current crop of MBP aren't compatible with the 2.5" sized drive in the 2010 model. You could always chuck it into an external case though...
Click to expand...


Thank you I will keep that in mind and not go crazy with my SSD purchase! I'll go crazy with a new computer:)
 
karboN.6 said:
Thanks alright I will have to wait for a new comp in a few years to get the nice SSD I will stick with the crucial m100 and get the 512gb! Thanks for the help as I know nothing about speeds and anything with computers

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Thank you I will keep that in mind and not go crazy with my SSD purchase! I'll go crazy with a new computer:)
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The MX100 is a great budget drive up to 512Gb, but if you need more size bearing also in mind that SSD's prefer to run less than 75% full go for the M500 1tb.

As the other poster says when you do get a newer model keep your original HDD for the old Macbook Pro and the SSD with a USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt enclosure becomes a very high speed external drive. They do have a resale value too as they'll go in pretty much any PC or laptops, barring the new Mac range of course.

Though with 8Gb and SSD, with cleaned out of dust and muck you'll probably be more than happy with it's performance for a good few more years yet.
 
karboN.6 said:
Thank you I hope so too! Just have to figure out if I need to buy carbon copy program
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A cheap USB 2.0 or 3.0 USB 2.5 inch enclosure will be fine. Put your new SSD inside, boot the MBP holding down option with enclosure connected and selecting the recovery partition and use Disk utility, select the SSD click the erase tab and format as HFS+ journaled. Once formatted you can copy the partition of your HDD to the SSD and when complete shut down the Mac and swap the drives over.

http://eshop.macsales.com/tech_center/index.cfm?page=/manuals/mac/clon_data.html
 
I have the same MBP as you (OP). I did a DIY Fusion drive with the smallest SSD I could get, and it's much faster!

I HIGHLY recommend getting your RAM & drives from OWC, they are guaranteed to work in Macs, and their brand RAM is lifetime warranty, they even give you a few $ if you send them your old apple RAM back. I've used them for RAM upgrades for years, I had a lemon mac, RAM went bad, they replaced it free. (And they have video instructions for upgrading your machine.) Also, OWC's customer service is in-house, so you call and get someone here in the USA, not overseas. Great tech support, (online chat or phone) also.

OWC data doubler replaces your optical drive...I put 44GB SSD in HDD slot, 750GB 7200RPM HDD in data doubler and found instructions to set up fusion drive, works great with Mavericks & no changes for Yosemite. Even with only 4GB RAM & 44GB SSD, boot time, app launch, most functions are much faster.

Next for me is to upgrade RAM. This model (MacBookPro7,1) can take 16GB, if they are the compatible chips: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Apple_MacBook_MacBook_Pro/Upgrade/DDR3

• Whatever SSD you get, keep in mind 6G/SATAIII models will not work at 6G speed in your mac, as your mac has 3G/SATAII max speed, so paying extra for an "EXTREME" 6G SSD will have no benefit.

you could just get an SSD right now $650 for 960GB: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/internal_storage/SSD/Mercury_Electra_3G_Solid_State
 
I updated my mid-2010 15" anti-glare hi-res MBP with 4GB of RAM, to 8GB and an SSD, and the SSD has made a huge difference in performance.

I updated the RAM a couple of years after I bought the MBP. The memory I used is Kingston KTA-MB1066K2/8G. As a matter of interest, the RAM chips on the Kingston modules are from the same Hynix series as the original OEM Apple chips, only greater density. The RAM update itself didn't make any noticeable increase in performance.

The SSD is a 240GB Crucial M500, that I had bought for a PC, but never used. I did the upgrade in August 2014. The original 500GB Apple Hitachi drive was only linking at SATA I speeds, so, not counting the SSD performance, just the increase from SATA I to SATA II was a big improvement.

Along with the SSD mod, I updated OS X from 10.6.8 to 10.9.4, then to 10.9.5. With Mavericks, the MBP now takes less than 10 seconds to boot, not counting password entry time. As an example, Numbers now starts before the first dock icon bounce completes. Also, I have trim enabled with Trim Enabler.

My Blackmagic test speeds are 265MB/s read and 245MB/s write, not fast by latest rMBP standards, but way faster than the original Hitachi at less than 100MB/s R/W speeds.
 
drambuie said:
I updated my mid-2010 15" anti-glare hi-res MBP with 4GB of RAM, to 8GB and an SSD, and the SSD has made a huge difference in performance.



I updated the RAM a couple of years after I bought the MBP. The memory I used is Kingston KTA-MB1066K2/8G. As a matter of interest, the RAM chips on the Kingston modules are from the same Hynix series as the original OEM Apple chips, only greater density. The RAM update itself didn't make any noticeable increase in performance.



The SSD is a 240GB Crucial M500, that I had bought for a PC, but never used. I did the upgrade in August 2014. The original 500GB Apple Hitachi drive was only linking at SATA I speeds, so, not counting the SSD performance, just the increase from SATA I to SATA II was a big improvement.



Along with the SSD mod, I updated OS X from 10.6.8 to 10.9.4, then to 10.9.5. With Mavericks, the MBP now takes less than 10 seconds to boot, not counting password entry time. As an example, Numbers now starts before the first dock icon bounce completes. Also, I have trim enabled with Trim Enabler.



My Blackmagic test speeds are 265MB/s read and 245MB/s write, not fast by latest rMBP standards, but way faster than the original Hitachi at less than 100MB/s R/W speeds.
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How can I test my speeds before and after I switch everything?
 
Last edited:
karboN.6 said:
My write and read speed haven't broken 50 mb/s am I looking At the right thing?
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If that's on the Blackmagic disk speed test, and you have a Hitachi drive, those speeds are probably valid. Check the SATA entry under Hardware in System Information. If it shows the negotiated link speed as 1.5Gb/s, there's the answer. That equates to 187.5MB.s flat out max, so with a 5400 RPM 2.5" drive you're probably lucky to even see half that. I can't remember my original HDD's speed, but it was significantly slower than 100MB/s.

If you can go from 50MB/s to 250MB/s or faster with an SSD, your MBP will seem like a new machine.

One thing, be careful with your letter case when dealing with size and speed abbreviations. M means mega, or million, and m means milli, as in 1/1000th. Also, B means bytes and b means bits. It can be confusing to readers, depending on context, especially between MB and Mb. The former is eight times larger.
 
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