Upgrade MBP 13" (late 2011) before upgrading OSX?

[strawbale]

Hi,

A friend of mine has a 13" MBP (https://everymac.com/systems/apple/...8-13-late-2011-unibody-thunderbolt-specs.html) still unning on 10.7.5 (...) and uses Skype for 'work from home'. Recently (the old version of) Skype stopped working for her, so she asked me what to do.
I know the late 2011 model can run High Sierra, but how (slow) would it run on her MBP? Would upgrading the RAM to 8GB speed things up or will the spinning disk be/remain the main hurdle?

Any advice much appreciated!

PS: alternatively, I'll try downgrading her Skype using an old version from here (and unticking auto-update): https://skype.en.uptodown.com/mac/old

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Hi,

A friend of mine has a 13" MBP (https://everymac.com/systems/apple/...8-13-late-2011-unibody-thunderbolt-specs.html) still unning on 10.7.5 (...) and uses Skype for 'work from home'. Recently (the old version of) Skype stopped working for her, so she asked me what to do.
I know the late 2011 model can run High Sierra, but how (slow) would it run on her MBP? Would upgrading the RAM to 8GB speed things up or will the spinning disk be/remain the main hurdle?

Any advice much appreciated!

PS: alternatively, I'll try downgrading her Skype using an old version from here (and unticking auto-update): https://skype.en.uptodown.com/mac/old

Depending on her usage more RAM may help but yes its the spinning disk that's the real issue I suspect, thats the upgrade I always recommend first.

 

[robvas]

It shouldn't be much slower, but with 4GB and a regular HD it's not very fast to begin with!

 

[Fishrrman]

OP asked:
"I know the late 2011 model can run High Sierra, but how (slow) would it run on her MBP? Would upgrading the RAM to 8GB speed things up or will the spinning disk be/remain the main hurdle?"

RAM isn't going to help very much. Very little to nothing at all.
What WILL help a great deal is changing the internal platter-based hard drive to an SSD.

Then EVERYTHING will run much better.
This is cheap and easy to do, and will be the best improvement you could make.

 

[EugW]

8 GB with HD: Slow
4 GB with HD: Even slower
8 GB with SSD: Fast
4 GB with SSD: Fast with lighter usage

I’d try upgrading to SSD first and then upgrading to macOS 10.12 Sierra or 10.13 High Sierra. The RAM upgrade can be done later if desired.