While RAID 0 is fully valid on cMBP as (at least for 2012) it has two full-speed SATA 3 (6Gbps) ports, APFS boot volume requirements in Big Sur/Monterey have thrown a large wrench into the equation. Mojave (and with greater difficulty, Catalina) are the last versions of macOS that can be booted from a RAID volume currently, thus if Monterey and modernity is the goal via OCLP (which is wonderful), RAID can't be part of that. HOWEVER, if you're sticking with
*officially* supported macOS versions,
yes, RAID 0 is doable and does provide a performance uplift in many highly i/o intensive workflows. Editing video on a budget? Yup.
Although possible, you're left with a 2012 that is 2/3 the speed of a stock 2013– early 2015 MBP.
Wrong thread for this kinda pooh-poohing, though you're welcome to do it anyway. This is a thread about upgrading/modernizing cMBP even though it's "old". While you're correct if comparing apples to apples (ha), a 15" 2012 will STILL be faster than a 13" 2015 and SLIGHTLY faster than a 13" 2016/17 in many scenarios (given 2012 has a good ssd), as process node improvements only go so far when we're talking 4 cores 8 threads vs 2/4. Obviously metal acceleration is another discussion, but in this instance talking purely CPU grunt workloads.
It is less expensive to upgrade a later machine but that's not so hot as I found out when I replaced the AHCI in our 2013 — although GB tests recorded a 3x RW increase, the overall real world performance increase was barely noticeable. Even better, buy a 2017 or later if you have the real need for speed.
It really just depends on the workflow and usage...some will benefit, some won't. Just because it doesn't matter for your situation, that's not universally true. Battery life is ALSO a concern, some upgrades (like OWC's Aura N for example) use less power while being faster and higher capacity. Replacing one of the awful Sandisk 128GB SSDs from the '13-15s with NVME provides a pretty huge snappiness upgrade, have done it many times and customers have noticed *hard*. Going from SSUBX to NVME is much less noticeable. 2018 or later, yes correct (speed), as 13" got quad core cpus in 2018.
As for all of your RAID 0 bla, bla, bla on these, how many would notice a real world performance increase over simply replacing that terrible HDD with an SSD? For the record, I've replaced hundreds over the years. The initial R/W speed boost is great but nearly doubling it adds almost nothing in real world performance. There is no YouTube video that can change my mind having upgraded as many Macs as I have over the years.
Yup, I've also replaced many, many sad HDDs with SSDs in Macs over the years, as I'm sure many members here have. It simply depends on the workload, some r/w heavy ones benefit greatly from more i/o, but for normal browsing and such you're right, little difference will be felt if any.
You are entitled to your opinion that the money is well spent while destroying the one thing that makes these valuable in the secondary market (a working Superdrive) but I don't believe it. The original point I was making is still the most valid. I've earned that opinion and am entitled to it.
I pulled my USB disc drive out of a drawer a few weeks ago to rip a disc I found in another drawer...other than that, hasn't been used in years. Not sure what the obsession with Superdrive is as they go for less than $15 on eBay, but if it's so important to you and you've done the upgrade for fun, keep it and sell it with the machine? (Also, no *destruction* occurs...it's a plug and play modification. Can be un-modded by un-plugging.) Sheesh, it's a discussion forum - nobody gets a "most valid point" trophy (though tbh an MVP badge would be neat af) best of luck to you in your MVP endeavors.