Old Macbook Pro

[xray-specs]

Is it possible/smart to upgrade to El Capitan? Currently running 10.8.5 on this:

• MacBook Pro (purchased mid-2010, though it's supposedly an "Early 2011" model)
• Model Identifier:MacBookPro8,2
• Processor Name:Intel Core i7
• Processor Speed:2.3 GHz
• Number of Processors:1
• Total Number of Cores:4
• L2 Cache (per Core):256 KB
• L3 Cache:8 MB
• Memory:8 GB

10.8.5 has been good and dandy. The important softwares that I use are most of the graphic side Adobe CS 5 Suite (PS, IL, ID, etc.) and SketchUp Pro.

Curious if I'll see any solid benefit to upgrading or if I should just stay put and wait for new hardware which I'll be purchasing next year. Not big on creating new technical problems for myself

Best I can tell, I can load it on this machine, but I feel like I see conflicting reports on how well it behaves on these older MBPs. Looking before leaping.

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

 

[simon lefisch]

Is it possible/smart to upgrade to El Capitan? Currently running 10.8.5 on this:

• MacBook Pro (purchased mid-2010, though it's supposedly an "Early 2011" model)
• Model Identifier:MacBookPro8,2
• Processor Name:Intel Core i7
• Processor Speed:2.3 GHz
• Number of Processors:1
• Total Number of Cores:4
• L2 Cache (per Core):256 KB
• L3 Cache:8 MB
• Memory:8 GB

10.8.5 has been good and dandy. The important softwares that I use are most of the graphic side Adobe CS 5 Suite (PS, IL, ID, etc.) and SketchUp Pro.

Curious if I'll see any solid benefit to upgrading or if I should just stay put and wait for new hardware which I'll be purchasing next year. Not big on creating new technical problems for myself

Best I can tell, I can load it on this machine, but I feel like I see conflicting reports on how well it behaves on these older MBPs. Looking before leaping.

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

I'm running El Cap on my late 2011 15" MBP and it runs great. Take in mind that a lot of software may not be compatible yet so check before pulling the trigger. Otherwise, I think it's great. My MBP runs fast and smooth. I also have the modded BT card installed so I can take advantage of Airdrop/Handoff (mainly Airdrop).

If you want, you could always create a separate partition on your MBP, download El Cap from the App Store, create a bootable USB installer and install 10.11 on the second partition. This will allow you to test out any apps you use on the new OS without interrupting your workflow. Then if all is well, either update to 10.11 and delete the test partition, or continue using the test partition as your main partition. If you do the latter, you may have to clone the test partition to an external drive, wipe you main partition and clone back as I believe OS X doesn't let you delete the main partition.

 

[mattDC5R]

Its running brilliantly on my older than that MBP (2.8 C2D). Seeing how well it runs on this older hardware, personally i wouldn't have any concerns installing it on a mac with a Core i(X) series processor. Software compatibility aside that would be though.

 

[satinsilverem2]

Is it possible/smart to upgrade to El Capitan? Currently running 10.8.5 on this:

• MacBook Pro (purchased mid-2010, though it's supposedly an "Early 2011" model)
• Model Identifier:MacBookPro8,2
• Processor Name:Intel Core i7
• Processor Speed:2.3 GHz
• Number of Processors:1
• Total Number of Cores:4
• L2 Cache (per Core):256 KB
• L3 Cache:8 MB
• Memory:8 GB

10.8.5 has been good and dandy. The important softwares that I use are most of the graphic side Adobe CS 5 Suite (PS, IL, ID, etc.) and SketchUp Pro.

Curious if I'll see any solid benefit to upgrading or if I should just stay put and wait for new hardware which I'll be purchasing next year. Not big on creating new technical problems for myself

Best I can tell, I can load it on this machine, but I feel like I see conflicting reports on how well it behaves on these older MBPs. Looking before leaping.

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

if you are still running a spinning disk then I would highly suggest you upgrade to a SSD. you more than likely have either a 500gb or 750gb hard drive which you can replace with a comparably sized sad for around 150-200 dollars. I think its still worth while to upgrade the processor is still more than capable of dealing with todays workloads. While not as important I would also consider upgrading your ram to 16GB especially if you are running the larger Adobe programs.

 

[xray-specs]

I'm running El Cap on my late 2011 15" MBP and it runs great. Take in mind that a lot of software may not be compatible yet so check before pulling the trigger. Otherwise, I think it's great. My MBP runs fast and smooth. I also have the modded BT card installed so I can take advantage of Airdrop/Handoff (mainly Airdrop).

If you want, you could always create a separate partition on your MBP, download El Cap from the App Store, create a bootable USB installer and install 10.11 on the second partition. This will allow you to test out any apps you use on the new OS without interrupting your workflow. Then if all is well, either update to 10.11 and delete the test partition, or continue using the test partition as your main partition. If you do the latter, you may have to clone the test partition to an external drive, wipe you main partition and clone back as I believe OS X doesn't let you delete the main partition.

Really great advice! Thanks tons for the overly helpful suggestions. More than I could have expected. Now if I can just figure out what to get rid of to make room for a partition...

 

[xray-specs]

Its running brilliantly on my older than that MBP (2.8 C2D). Seeing how well it runs on this older hardware, personally i wouldn't have any concerns installing it on a mac with a Core i(X) series processor. Software compatibility aside that would be though.

Wonderful! Thank you for chiming in! Glad to hear you had no trouble. Thanks!

 

[xray-specs]

if you are still running a spinning disk then I would highly suggest you upgrade to a SSD. you more than likely have either a 500gb or 750gb hard drive which you can replace with a comparably sized sad for around 150-200 dollars. I think its still worth while to upgrade the processor is still more than capable of dealing with todays workloads. While not as important I would also consider upgrading your ram to 16GB especially if you are running the larger Adobe programs.

I'm Running an SSD fortunately. While it's 8GB Ram, it does the trick well enough -besides, I'm not really sure that's increasable from what I remember... Worth checking I suppose. The SSD is a Godsend though, glad I purchased the machine with that initially. BIG leap forward from the old spinners. Thanks tons for your advice!

 

[simon lefisch]

I'm Running an SSD fortunately. While it's 8GB Ram, it does the trick well enough -besides, I'm not really sure that's increasable from what I remember... Worth checking I suppose. The SSD is a Godsend though, glad I purchased the machine with that initially. BIG leap forward from the old spinners. Thanks tons for your advice!

2010 can only handle 8GB if I remember correctly.

As far as the partition, if you can make about 20GB of room, that would be a good start. You should be able to increase as you go.

 

[xray-specs]

2010 can only handle 8GB if I remember correctly.

As far as the partition, if you can make about 20GB of room, that would be a good start. You should be able to increase as you go.

Awesome. Thank you. As it turns out, one of the biggie softwares that I use is advising against El Capitan (SketchUp Pro). So I'm going to see if 10.10 is any good and if it's even possible to acquire it at this point. Thoughts on this by chance?