I need your opinions and advice.

[Alfredo Isaac]

Hello, all! Newbie here on the MacRumors forums. So here's the deal where I'd tremendously appreciate your advice.

I have a Macbook Pro 13'' from late-2011. And I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT. Yes, it is still working very well, apart from the battery which obviously has completed its cycles (I've been using it with the charger most of the time since it stopped working about 5 years ago).

Its performance has been outstanding throughout the years and I really like this computer. I 've been doing heavy creative work in it since I purchased 9 years ago. But for obvious reasons, it's been getting slower and slower by the day. It still works perfectly and I still use it heavily every day. I teach online lessons on it on Zoom, do graphic design on Photoshop, edit videos on Premiere Pro, record audio and music on Logic Pro, and so on. The computer just keeps on going but at almost 9 years of age... I've been wondering how much longer would it last.

I guess the main dilemma is... Would it be worth it to invest in replacing some of its key components? Like expanding RAM, changing the hard drive to a solid one, replacing the battery and maybe replacing the video-card with a new one? I did the numbers and all of this would cost me around $300-400 dollars and it could greatly improve its performance . Whereas buying a new one would cost me an arm and leg. However, there's the chance that even with all of those improvements, one day some key component will crash and make it forever unusable.

What would you do? Would you invest in enhancing the computer or would you save that money to buy a new one in the event that it would stop working in the future?

PS. The current features of the computer are still the factory ones from 2011:

500 SATA HD
2.4 GHz Intel Core i5
4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Intel HD Graphics 3000 384 MB

Thanks in advance for your advice!

 

[throAU]

What would you do? Would you invest in enhancing the computer or would you save that money to buy a new one in the event that it would stop working in the future?

I'd switch to a new machine, or MAYBE switch to an SSD in the interim (it's relatively cheap). Be aware though I have personally had issues upgrading a 2011 like that with an SSD - make sure you are fully up to date with macOS and any EFI updates before pulling your old drive out! The one I was dealing with had a dead hard drive and getting macOS onto the thing without the EFI being up to date before that (it had been running mavericks!) was really freaking annoying.

But there are things that you can't upgrade that are starting to get long in the tooth: The HD3000 GPU and the Sandy Bridge CPU. Non-Retina display and the speakers on new machines are MUCH, MUCH better.

The CPU/GPU do not include acceleration for modern video codecs, Metal is not supported in new versions of MacOS. You don't have USB-C ports, you've got old version of Bluetooth, Wifi, etc.

If its still working, that's great but I wouldn't be spending too much money on it because you really will get a significant boost in a lot of things from a new machine. Also, investing money in a 9+ year old machine is a roll of the dice - it may die and then you've spent money on stuff that won't necessarily work in a new machine.

This is what tends to happen over a decade

Personally, I feel that the 2011 13" Pro was one of the best machines apple ever made, but time does move on...

 

[avz]

Put it this way: the re-sale value of your machine is quite low, so you are probably going to keep it. With that in mind you should upgrade RAM, get SSD and replace a battery. GPU is not upgradable, unless you find a reasonably priced working logic board from the Mid-2012 13 inch MacBook Pro.

 

[iluvmacs99]

Hello, all! Newbie here on the MacRumors forums. So here's the deal where I'd tremendously appreciate your advice.

I have a Macbook Pro 13'' from late-2011. And I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT. Yes, it is still working very well, apart from the battery which obviously has completed its cycles (I've been using it with the charger most of the time since it stopped working about 5 years ago).

Its performance has been outstanding throughout the years and I really like this computer. I 've been doing heavy creative work in it since I purchased 9 years ago. But for obvious reasons, it's been getting slower and slower by the day. It still works perfectly and I still use it heavily every day. I teach online lessons on it on Zoom, do graphic design on Photoshop, edit videos on Premiere Pro, record audio and music on Logic Pro, and so on. The computer just keeps on going but at almost 9 years of age... I've been wondering how much longer would it last.

I guess the main dilemma is... Would it be worth it to invest in replacing some of its key components? Like expanding RAM, changing the hard drive to a solid one, replacing the battery and maybe replacing the video-card with a new one? I did the numbers and all of this would cost me around $300-400 dollars and it could greatly improve its performance . Whereas buying a new one would cost me an arm and leg. However, there's the chance that even with all of those improvements, one day some key component will crash and make it forever unusable.

What would you do? Would you invest in enhancing the computer or would you save that money to buy a new one in the event that it would stop working in the future?

PS. The current features of the computer are still the factory ones from 2011:

500 SATA HD
2.4 GHz Intel Core i5
4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Intel HD Graphics 3000 384 MB

Thanks in advance for your advice!

Those are minimal specs for a machine that age. 16Gb of ram, 500Gb Samsung EVO SSD and a NEW BATTERY will help restore performance with High Sierra, which is the last OS you can run on this Macbook Pro. The reason I highlighted NEW BATTERY is because your Macbook will slow down if it has a dead battery or no battery. You can install a different GPU but adding an eGPU like a Sonnet Breakaway Puck (the cheapest and smallest) and run a hack called Purge Wrangler to access the external eGPU for your movie rendering acceleration. The only 2 items you can migrate over to the new Macbook Pro if this one kicks the bucket would be your new SSD which you can put inside a USB-C enclosure and the eGPU.

Is it worth refurbishing? I used to work in a computer recycling facility where we routinely refurbish 2011 and 2012 Macbook Pros. Aside from updating the EFI which thankfully we have a setup to help ease the pain, the Macbooks had been good and we very rarely get returns. The only 1 or 2 out of the 100s we refurbished came back with a dead motherboard. So when you open up the machine, make sure to clean out the dust from the fans. If you are up to repasting the CPU, then it will help extend its life a bit longer. I have a Macbook Pro 17" which I bought for $10 that was dead, rebuilt it and is now working wonderfully and fast with a SSD and enough memory. The newer Macbook Pros are more fragile than the older with the exception of the 2020 model. The butterfly keyboard has a reputation of failing. Hope this helps.

 

[Fishrrman]

I wouldn't spend $300-400 on a 9-year-old MacBook Pro.
I wouldn't spend $100 on it!

I'd say, "thanks for the years of service, friend, now it's time for a break..."
and then
I'd buy something new.

 

[rhett7660]

I am in the same boat, with the same computer. I did upgrade the SSD a few years back, but it is time sadly. Going to be getting a 13" MBP 2020...