Upgrading 2010 13" Macbook Pro - opinion required

[Sickly Grin]

Specs
Intel Core Duo 2 2.4 GHz
4 GB RAM DDR3
320 GB Serial ATA HD

My Macbook Pro has gotten quite old, marks its five-year anniversary in a couple of months. I have plans in the future (end of this year, maybe next one) to buy a new Pro, but until then I was thinking of making a little upgrade to my current one.

I was thinking of replacing the RAM with 8 GB and the HD with a 250 SSD both from Crucial, in addition to replacing the battery from Apple since it has been rendered nearly useless at this point. Everything should cost me around €350, more or less, and I think that's quite a decent price, as it obviously also raises the laptop's value when/if I decide to sell it afterwards.

I just wanted a general opinion from some of you. Is it worth upgrading? Also, I am currently running Snow Leopard as Yosemite was too slow when I tried it. Do you think that with the upgrade Yosemite will run faster and smoother?

Thanks in advance.

 

[alex0002]

From the sounds of things you obviously need the battery so get that.
Install the battery and SSD, then take another look at the performance.

If you think it is still too slow, then take a look at memory usage in Activity Monitor ... more details in this thread.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1756865/

 

[Bbafett]

I have the same computer. I decided to put in a 256 gb ssd and move the internal hdd over to the optical bay. Big improvement on that. Did the ram too but not ask of a jump on that. It will be fine for another few years. Runs great on Mavericks.

 

[glenthompson]

The need for more RAM depends on the apps you run. Run activity monitor and run your normal tasks and see what the memory pressure is. The SSD will make the largest difference is speed.

 

[Mik3F]

If you put an SSD into it, Yosemite will run fine.

It runs perfectly on my 2011 with SSD and it is also running fine on my 2010 with standard HDD

 

[maflynn]

I was thinking of replacing the RAM with 8 GB and the HD with a 250 SSD both from Crucial,

What are you running and what does the activity monitor say about your resources, i.e., you may not actually need more ram.

I'd go with the SSD, that's a no brainer because that will definitely boost the performance,. Ram may help as well, but it is dependent on what apps you use and how many of them are open at once.

 

[Sickly Grin]

Well, in general I only use my laptop for navigating the web, streaming, Skype calls, playing videos, listening to music and working on documents. Sometimes minor Photoshop things, and I could use iMovie a bit more often. I realize 4 GB of RAM could and should be enough, but I'm inclined to add the extra RAM just to make the machine more powerful.

Thanks for the input, anyway. It's good to know that Yosemite should run fine after I'm done with the upgrade. That was perhaps my major concern.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote above:
[[ I realize 4 GB of RAM could and should be enough, but I'm inclined to add the extra RAM just to make the machine more powerful. ]]

I'd put a new battery in it, and an SSD, and leave it at that.

It's almost five years old and I believe you already said that you'll be in the market for a new one before too long?

In that case, just spend the residual amount needed to spruce up the old one a bit, but don't go overboard on it.

The SSD will contribute -FAR MORE- of an improvement in performance, vis-a-vis adding RAM, in any case...

 

[Sickly Grin]

Ignore.

 

[Sickly Grin]

*bump*

So, I think I'll go with what most of you suggested, i.e. only a SSD and battery upgrade, no RAM. Before, I proceed, I had two questions I was wondering if you could answer for me:

1. Here's the Activity Monitor data from what I usually use. Do you think it's normal? It has about 1.8 GB of free memory, so I would say 4 GB is enough and there's no need to upgrade to 8 GB. Opinions?

2. This is the SSD I plan to buy. Will it fit to my MacBook Pro? From the comments I've read, apparently it should, but I'm just asking here to be firmly assured.

Cheers.

 

[Mik3F]

That SSD will be fine, I have it in my 2011 model

 

[smartalic34]

Yosemite will run great with an SSD and/or more RAM added to your machine. Your CPU can handle the new OS just fine, it's the supporting parts that are lacking. Once you upgrade to Yosemite, if you're still noticing performance issues after adding the SSD, the RAM will definitely do the trick.

My family member's 2009 13" MBP was crawling on Yosemite with 2GB RAM. Took it to 8GB (still has HDD) and it flies.