Hello, I have been using 15" rMBPs for the past four years. Seldom used the 2010 17" (8GB RAM). For the past few days, I started to use it as my main computer. I found it slow. Updating from Snow Leopard to EI Capitan does not help. I read that there is a bug in Mail which slows down the system but I checked activity monitor, it is not on the list of CPU usage. I also don't use that app. Why the machine is slow slow? Is it because I get used to use the rMBPs with SSD?
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Why MBP mid 2010 17" with EI Capitan is so slow?
- Thread starter hajime
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That's exactly right. You get used to the much quicker response of the SSD. For some folks, going back to a spinning hard drive is almost painful.
If your 2010 17-inch is now your main machine, it may be worthwhile to change out to an SSD. The system will be much faster as a result. The SSD is limited to SATA2 speeds in your MBPro, so still not as quick as the rMBPro that you may have been using, but still a nice boost.
The difference would depend on what you do with your system.
Anything that you do that accesses the hard drive will be faster with the SSD.
There will be some difference for you as the SATA 2 will be more or less half the speed of SATA 3, and much slower on the newer systems that use PCIe bus for the SSD.
The SSD speedup will be much less noticeable when you do tasks that mostly use the CPU/GPU.
That does not mean that you will always be aware of an SSD that is somewhat slower. The rest of your system also won't be as quick as a newer system, as your chipset is about 3 generations behind current Macs.
"Is the speed difference noticeable" - Yes, for sure. It will be faster than it ever was with a spinning hard drive.
Anything that you do that accesses the hard drive will be faster with the SSD.
There will be some difference for you as the SATA 2 will be more or less half the speed of SATA 3, and much slower on the newer systems that use PCIe bus for the SSD.
The SSD speedup will be much less noticeable when you do tasks that mostly use the CPU/GPU.
That does not mean that you will always be aware of an SSD that is somewhat slower. The rest of your system also won't be as quick as a newer system, as your chipset is about 3 generations behind current Macs.
"Is the speed difference noticeable" - Yes, for sure. It will be faster than it ever was with a spinning hard drive.
See this earlier thread:
Is it worth to upgrade to SSD? MBP 17" Mid 2010
https://forums.macrumors.com/index....upgrade-to-SSD%3F-MBP-17%22-Mid-2010.1946239/
Is it worth to upgrade to SSD? MBP 17" Mid 2010
https://forums.macrumors.com/index....upgrade-to-SSD%3F-MBP-17%22-Mid-2010.1946239/
Switching user took over two minutes. After the desktop showed up, the HD continued to spin and the system was not responsible. Could this be a sign that HD is failure or just the way spotlight indexed the system?
Run a HD test such as BlackMagic speed test.
I have seen old laptop drives that still work but are very slow, 30-40MB/s peak speeds. Replacing them with a new drive that is achieving 90-100MB/s makes a huge improvement, and switching to an SSD will be even better.
Not sure if something physically wears out in the drives or what. You could have an old slow 250GB drive in there.
I have seen old laptop drives that still work but are very slow, 30-40MB/s peak speeds. Replacing them with a new drive that is achieving 90-100MB/s makes a huge improvement, and switching to an SSD will be even better.
Not sure if something physically wears out in the drives or what. You could have an old slow 250GB drive in there.
So true, especially now the 250gb range is cheap as chips. I don't use whirlygig drives at all now, my backup drive, my CC clone, all are SSD.
I have access to a 17" MBP at work, since they changed it for an SSD inside I must agree that the thing is noticeably more faster.
Me again.
I have the same machine except I have the original 512GB SSD. My 2015 rMBP is not much faster for most tasks.
Currently, I have a 2012 cMBP with a 500GB SSD; I gave my old 2008 MBP, with a 1TB HDD, to my wife (to try to wean her off Windows). I used the 2008 the other day and it felt like a dinosaur (this is compounded by it having El Cap as the OS).
Do you hate your wife or something? The 2008 is sooooooo easy to swap out HDD for an SSD. Show her you love her, put in an SSD already!!!!
Nah, but she actually uses the MBP so little (mostly uses iMac) that it's not really worth the upgrade, she's better off with the 7200rpm 1TB HDD that's in it.
An SSD will improve the performance of just about anything you put it in. I have a PowerBook G4 that I still use as my daily driver in my classroom (I'm a high school teacher), and recently put a 256GB SSD in it. It's certainly a noticeable difference 