MacBook Pro Rehab

[bohous]

Mid 2010 MBP (MC374LL/A)
2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB
250 GB Hard Drive
 
A couple of days ago I was going to start this thread to ask if it's worth upgrading the RAM from 4gb to 8gb while I was replacing the dying battery. Since then I have been getting intermittent buzzing/static from what I assume is the hard drive. The click on the track pad is also a little wonky but I think that can be adjusted once inside. 
 
Quick and dirty math looks like I can get everything for under $200 bucks, which is obviously cheaper than a new laptop. However, I'm still stuck with an outdated processor and I would eventually like to upgrade to Yosemite, which I think I can do anyway. 
 
I'm mainly just using this thing to browse the web, email and manage media, but I do spend a good amount of time with it. As much as I would like to get a shiny new MacBook Air I can't justify the cost for my limited needs and I really hate the idea of a cheap W8 machine. 
 
Anyway, I've busted into laptops for repair before but never the MBP. Anything I should know? Should I even do this?

 

[The_Powa_of_Seiji_Ozawa]

Absolutely worth upgrading the RAM to 8gb and the HDD to a SSD. I did so on a late 2008 Macbook Pro (the first unibody version I think) for a family computer for doing basic stuff like what you described, and the processor is not a bottleneck at all. In fact, with the SSD, this thing runs faster than one of the computers at work which is newer (a 2012 Macbook Pro with a regular HDD and 4gb RAM).

 

[derekson]

You can honestly probably sell that machine for a couple hundred bucks and then spend a few hundred more and get a used or refurb MacBook Air if you so desire. Used MacBooks sell for more than you would think.

 

[crystalline]

Absolutely worth upgrading the RAM to 8gb and the HDD to a SSD. I did so on a late 2008 Macbook Pro (the first unibody version I think) for a family computer for doing basic stuff like what you described, and the processor is not a bottleneck at all. In fact, with the SSD, this thing runs faster than one of the computers at work which is newer (a 2012 Macbook Pro with a regular HDD and 4gb RAM).

Yes for the price you can't beat the computer you'll get by going to 8GB and a SSD. If you want to spend more selling it and upgrading to a newer MBP is also possible (just be aware that RAM is not upgradeable on newer MBPs).

 

[NortheasternPJ]

Definitely go with the 8gb and the SSD. I did this on my last laptop and it felt like a brand new computer. It went from basically about to being thrown out to being amazed how fast it was. 

 

[bohous]

Thanks for the input. It sounds like doing the upgrades is the way to go. I wasn't factoring in how much I could get from selling my MBP when investigating the purchase of a MB Air, which is significant. It looks like I could get about $400 bucks for the MBP and Apple has a refurb Air for $759. Only 128gb of storage though, which would mean dumping a lot of pics and music to cloud storage I guess so I would really be paying a premium for form factor.
 
I don't have install disks anymore but it looks like I can create one using USB. Any other advice other than the obvious Time Machine Backup before jumping in? Any recommendations on sources for SSD or SSHD? This one from Tiger Direct looks like a good deal.

 

[Hagios]

Upgrading memory is pretty easy. I did it recently for my 2011 MBP.
 
I also re-installed OS X and that made a huge performance difference.

 

[mt8thsw9th]

Speaking of rehab, I have a late-2012 MBP retina that I'll be selling soon (upgraded to the 16GB i7), and while it is in good shape, the screen has a bit of wobble to it. I found out how this can be fixed, but the problem is the pentalobe screws got a little stripped when I upgraded the hard drive to 240GB. Does anyone know where I could get this fixed on the cheap? Should I just sell it as-is?

 

[SeoulSoxFan]

Did you know about Apple's "flat fee" repair?
 
Doesn't cover upgrades of course, but I had to get the entire MB & battery replaced on my 17" Macbook Pro (yes, the old "17 beast) and cost me a little over $300 for the whole deal.
 
Some Apple dudes (um, Geniuses) don't mention this so be sure to ask proactively.

 

[B H Kim]

Take a look at the OWC (macsales.com) kits for replacing MacBook optical drives with SSD's.  I replaced the optical drive in my 2011 MacBook Pro a few years ago with a 128 GB SSD and used it as my start-up/application disk, with all of my data/files on the spinning HD.  I got most of the speed/performance improvements of an SSD but it was a lot cheaper than relying on it as my only internal drive.

 

[The_Powa_of_Seiji_Ozawa]

Thanks for the input. It sounds like doing the upgrades is the way to go. I wasn't factoring in how much I could get from selling my MBP when investigating the purchase of a MB Air, which is significant. It looks like I could get about $400 bucks for the MBP and Apple has a refurb Air for $759. Only 128gb of storage though, which would mean dumping a lot of pics and music to cloud storage I guess so I would really be paying a premium for form factor.
 
I don't have install disks anymore but it looks like I can create one using USB. Any other advice other than the obvious Time Machine Backup before jumping in? Any recommendations on sources for SSD or SSHD? This one from Tiger Direct looks like a good deal.

 
Right now the sweet spot for SSDs is around the half-TB level. But if even larger amounts of storage space are still something you want to maintain, there is also the WD Black hybrid drive. Unlike most other "hybrid" drives which have a dinky amount of SSD space (like 64 megabytes, seriously) appended to a regular 1 TB platter drive, these WD Blacks have a large, real SSD (ie 128 gig) appended to a 1 TB regular platter drive. So you can put all your OS stuff, boot stuff, programs, and frequently used items on the SSD, and then use the regular hard drive (which shows up as a separate drive) for your archival stuff.
 
On SSDs, keep in mind that if you upgrade to Yosemite and beyond, MacOS makes it harder for you to use the SSDs TRIM technology on any non-Apple drives, which is the drive's way of dealing with garbage collection on the drive to maintain performance over time. There are some workarounds to enable TRIM, but every time the OS is updated you risk crashing your computer unless you disengage the TRIM workaround before updating and rebooting. It is a pain in the ass. Enabling TRIM is not necessary for all drives, some have a built in way of dealing with garbage collection. I believe the Samsung Pro drives don't need TRIM. The Crucial drives claim they don't need TRIM. Same goes for the drives sold by OWC.

 

[bohous]

The WD Black is an interesting option. Since it's not really a hybrid, it would be partitioned which is great in theory (same with BH Kim's suggestion of 2nd drive in the optical slot). However would I still be able to restore from my Time Machine backup with partitioned drives? I know with the WD I can only restore up to the 128gb available on the SSD and I have just about maxed out the 250 I have now. I guess I could separately backup my photos and then delete to save space and then re-upload onto the HDD partition. Considering we share iPhoto and iTunes across 3 user accounts on this computer it seems like it could be a bit of a pain in the ass to reconfigure everything and would defeat the benefit of having a Time Machine backup.
 
 
EDIT: thanks for the info on TRIM. One of my motivations for upgrading is that I want to be sure I can run the latest OS going forward and this could be a stumbling block. 

 

[Couperin47]

The below is a good summary of the issues of trim with a MacBook Pro. Today you would want a Samsung 850 EVO series drive as the 840's turned out to have hardware issues with the nand used.
 
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/macbook-pro-ssd-trim,3538.html

 

[The_Powa_of_Seiji_Ozawa]

The below is a good summary of the issues of trim with a MacBook Pro. Today you would want a Samsung 850 EVO series drive as the 840's turned out to have hardware issues with the nand used.
 
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/macbook-pro-ssd-trim,3538.html

 
The Samsung 840 Pro's don't have the nand problem, do they? I thought they were ok.

 

[Couperin47]

 
The Samsung 840 Pro's don't have the nand problem, do they? I thought they were ok.

 
Correct, it's the EVO tlc nand that was 'a bridge too far', Samsung used it without a through understanding of the differing long term charge decay issues. The 840 Pro line didn't use those.

 

[The_Powa_of_Seiji_Ozawa]

The WD Black is an interesting option. Since it's not really a hybrid, it would be partitioned which is great in theory (same with BH Kim's suggestion of 2nd drive in the optical slot). However would I still be able to restore from my Time Machine backup with partitioned drives? I know with the WD I can only restore up to the 128gb available on the SSD and I have just about maxed out the 250 I have now. I guess I could separately backup my photos and then delete to save space and then re-upload onto the HDD partition. Considering we share iPhoto and iTunes across 3 user accounts on this computer it seems like it could be a bit of a pain in the ass to reconfigure everything and would defeat the benefit of having a Time Machine backup.
 
 
EDIT: thanks for the info on TRIM. One of my motivations for upgrading is that I want to be sure I can run the latest OS going forward and this could be a stumbling block. 

 
Not sure about the way the WD Black design would effect Time Machine. But I can speak from experience on the TRIM issue. I initially was running it with the TRIM enabled when I had Mavericks, but starting with Yosemite it became more problematic to continue due to the kext issue introduced in this OS. So I decided to run the SSD without TRIM. Honestly I don't see a performance difference so far, and it's been a while now. By the time it might be an issue (if at all) I will have probably moved onto a new drive and computer by then.

 

[bohous]

I have to admit a lot of this TRIM/kext/nand stuff is beyond me but I have been reading up on it quite a bit since yesterday. What I'm learning is that there seems to be quite a bit of contradictory information out there, particularly regarding the Samsung drives, and whether or not TRIM Enabler is recommended or necessary. It sounds like the Crucial drives and OWC Mercury line have a "garbage collection" feature that should keep it cleaned up enough for a casual user like me without TRIM enabled (what TPoSO said) and hope for the best. My concern would be what happens down the road with OSX updates and compatibility.The "safe" play would probably be to just replace with a new HDD and hope to get a few more years out of it. 

 

[The_Powa_of_Seiji_Ozawa]

I have to admit a lot of this TRIM/kext/nand stuff is beyond me but I have been reading up on it quite a bit since yesterday. What I'm learning is that there seems to be quite a bit of contradictory information out there, particularly regarding the Samsung drives, and whether or not TRIM Enabler is recommended or necessary. It sounds like the Crucial drives and OWC Mercury line have a "garbage collection" feature that should keep it cleaned up enough for a casual user like me without TRIM enabled (what TPoSO said) and hope for the best. My concern would be what happens down the road with OSX updates and compatibility.The "safe" play would probably be to just replace with a new HDD and hope to get a few more years out of it. 

 
I've gone the SSD route with two Macbook Pros (one a Crucial drive, the other a Samsung 840 Pro) and both have TRIM inactive (I just rely on their internal garbage collection), and I have observed no problems whatsoever. I honestly think the best play for you would be to get a 512gb SSD (should be big enough for most of your storage needs?) from Crucial, OWC, or the new Samsungs, so it would give you the performance boost you need, you wouldn't need to worry about TRIM, and it would work seamlessly with your Time Machine so that in the event you do have drive problems you will have everything backed up effortlessly. If you really need more storage for archival stuff that wouldn't be accessed often then perhaps you could put that stuff on a cheap external USB drive (which you can connect to the Time Machine if you wanted). This is the  exact route I have taken myself and couldn't be more satisfied.

 

[bohous]

 
I've gone the SSD route with two Macbook Pros (one a Crucial drive, the other a Samsung 840 Pro) and both have TRIM inactive (I just rely on their internal garbage collection), and I have observed no problems whatsoever. I honestly think the best play for you would be to get a 512gb SSD (should be big enough for most of your storage needs?) from Crucial, OWC, or the new Samsungs, so it would give you the performance boost you need, you wouldn't need to worry about TRIM, and it would work seamlessly with your Time Machine so that in the event you do have drive problems you will have everything backed up effortlessly. If you really need more storage for archival stuff that wouldn't be accessed often then perhaps you could put that stuff on a cheap external USB drive (which you can connect to the Time Machine if you wanted). This is the  exact route I have taken myself and couldn't be more satisfied.

 
 
This is likely the direction I'll go. Thanks for all the help.

 

[bohous]

 So I have this Crucial BX100 in my cart but saw this PNY 480GB CS1111 pop up on Slickdeals for only $139 after rebate (plus I think there is a $10 coupon available). Can't find a lot of info on the PNY but that's a great price. Any opinion on these? 

 

[Couperin47]

 So I have this Crucial BX100 in my cart but saw this PNY 480GB CS1111 pop up on Slickdeals for only $139 after rebate (plus I think there is a $10 coupon available). Can't find a lot of info on the PNY but that's a great price. Any opinion on these? 

 
PNY stuff is slow, always slow, 2nd tier memory. You're going to live with this for years. On SSD always restrict yourself to Samsung, Intel, Crucial, OCZ or Plextor. The few bucks you save aren't worth it for the performance and reliability you give up.

 

[NortheasternPJ]

Apple now support in third party TRIM in 10.10.4

http://www.macissues.com/2015/07/01/how-to-enable-trim-on-third-party-ssds-in-os-x/

 

[bohous]

Apple now support in third party TRIM in 10.10.4

http://www.macissues.com/2015/07/01/how-to-enable-trim-on-third-party-ssds-in-os-x/

 
 
Thanks, I'll keep monitoring this and see how it's working out before giving it a try myself though.
I've been waiting for a good deal on a Samsung 850 EVO for my rehab. Amazon now has it for $161 which is pretty good, although apparently they can drop to $150 or less. Regardless, my wife's phone went for a swim in the toilet over the weekend so looks like the tech budget will be going toward a full freight replacement phone for now. Stupid wife.

 

[bohous]

Finally got around to this. 
New Samsung 850 EVO 500gb SSD
8gb RAM
New battery
 
Unbelievable how fast and quiet it is now. It's like a new computer for <$260 bucks. Thanks for the help. I guess the next step is Yosemite.

 

[Ferm Sheller]

bohous, thanks for starting this thread.  I was going to start one like it.
 
I have the same machine that you described in the OP and I'm looking to install ibooks Author.  The trouble is, my machine is running Snow Leopard and ibooks Author isn't compatible with Snow Leopard.  (You need Mavericks or higher, I believe.)  I am hesitant to install Yosemite because I fear what is might do to the machine's performance (which is currently acceptable but could be better, I guess).
 
Would you mind giving me information about what you did, either in this thread or by PM?  It appears that you did everything yourself, so I'd be interested in hearing where you purchased your hardware (complete with links to the exact products, if you don't mind) and whether you think whether it would be wise for a computer dummy like me to attempt to do the upgrades myself.  I am mechanically inclined, but I don't have any experience whatsoever building/upgrading computer hardware.  If I'm better off using a professional, it would be great to know if you (or anyone else) could recommend a shop in eastern MA.

 

[bohous]

This was my fist time upgrading a hard drive so it was all new to me and in the end I was amazed at how easy it was. It's totally a DIY job if you are comfortable with a tiny screwdriver and can follow instructions.
I bought this Samsung 850 EVO 500gb SSD , which I was able to find for $150 on an eBay daily deal via Slickdeals.
Also bought this battery and 8gb memory.
 
The only other piece of hardware you need would be a SATA adapter cable to clone your old hard drive to the new one. I was able to borrow one from a friend but the one I linked to will work. If you don't own a decent set of little screwdrivers this is a good excuse to buy one. IIRC I think in addition to a small Phillips I needed  a T6 torx and maybe a tri-tip for the battery. 
 
To clone my old hard drive I used Carbon Copy Cloner. It makes a bootable copy of your old hard drive so you don't need to reinstall your OS and restore from backup. Basically it makes the new SSD plug and play.
 
I just watched a few different YouTube videos to see the cloning software in action. This one is good.
Same for seeing how to install the new SSD and RAM.
 
Hope this helps. 
 
Edit to add that the UI for the current version on Carbon Copy Cloner is a little different than the video but it's easy enough to figure it out.

 

[Ferm Sheller]

Thank you!  I'll have a look and decide whether I want to attempt this.  I appreciate your help.