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Replacing Older Macbook Pro

M

MacBookpro2011

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 19, 2017
133
70
Ontario, Canada
Considering replacing my 2011 MacBook Pro laptop with a new one and was looking or opinions. The 13" inch I have used all these years worked fine for photography and general surfing etc but the battery life is not so good; spinning wheel alot so maybe its time to just buy one. Is their a big difference between a 13" macbook pro verus a 13" Macbook Air.
 
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I'll ask the "usual" question: Are you looking to buy? Have you replaced HDD with SSD? If you're happy with it, and you haven't already, an SSD (and a new battery) will make this system perform better than new.
 
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Still using the same hard drive it came with. Was considering new, maybe a new SSD would get rid of the spinning ball. Never thought or upgrading to SSD and a new battery. Is this a DYI job or better to just bring it into the local Apple store.
 
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I had a nearly unusable Mac Mini from 2011 that came with the world's slowest 5400 RPM 500GB drive and only 2GB RAM. Replaced the RAM long ago, but was stuck with the sluggish HDD. I put a 500GB SSD in to replace the HDD and it was like a brand new machine with decent performance. The change was incredible. My 2012 MBP got a new SSD as well and the difference was surprising.
 
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MacBookpro2011 said:
Still using the same hard drive it came with. Was considering new, maybe a new SSD would get rid of the spinning ball. Never thought or upgrading to SSD and a new battery. Is this a DYI job or better to just bring it into the local Apple store.
Click to expand...

I put a Crucial SSD in my 2009 MBP and also later replaced the battery in it with one from OWC. Both were easy DIY.
 
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MacBookpro2011 said:
maybe a new SSD would get rid of the spinning ball.
Click to expand...
Almost certainly. The last several versions of Mac OS X make increasing use of read/writes to the disk. This is something that SSDs excel at. Plus, you have a 7+ year old laptop HDD, which near/at end of life.
MacBookpro2011 said:
Is this a DYI jo
Click to expand...
I don't think Apple will do this. A local shop that knows Apple could easily do it. So could you, if so inclined.
- Take advantage of instructional resources like iFixit.com.
- Take note that many of the small screws on the bottom go in a a slight angle.
- Get a disk dock, or cable that can hold a raw drive. Use something like Time Machine, or Carbon Copy Cloner to back up current to new disk.
- Once complete, swap new disk into laptop.
- Be very gentle with disk ribbon cable. I've done this procedure dozens of times, and never had a problem, but this is a weak spot.

If you're happy with your machine, this is a good way to give it a mid-life kicker.
 
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For your use case I would either wait until this fall for the rumored 13" MB Air update or upgrade your old machine. The new 2018 MB Pro is expensive and overkill for what you've described.

I've been using a 2011 MB Pro 13 for the last 7 months as I waited for the quad core 2018 MB Pro 13 update. The SSD upgrade transformed the machine. I also upgraded from 4GB to 8GB. It ran High Sierra surprisingly well at 4GB, so start with the SSD if you're on a budget. The OWC battery upgrade was the big disappointment. Its expensive and the batteries are not as good as OEM. Expect 4-5 hours of life.
 
For what you describe, you should absolutely keep using your current laptop with a new battery and SSD drive. It is beyond simple to replace them, have a look at iFixit's website. Batteries vary in price from £30-£100. I would definitely get a high end one so you get proper power and trustworthy build. I hear NewerTech/OWC are good. For SSD hard drives consider the Samsung 850 EVO 500gb 2.5 inch Solid State Drive, now only around £100. You are basically looking at a new machine for £200 if you buy the best battery/drive combination. You've just saved two or three grand.

If your current set up is running slow, another solution is to do a clean wipe and install High Sierra as a new system, then reinstall the software you need. That usually fixes most slow downs that are not drive related.

I have a Macbook Pro 17" 2010, and I upgraded the drive and it works brilliantly. I don't see the need to constantly buy new computers if I can find ways to make the current machine work to a reasonable standard. The only things I'm missing out on that I could do with is faster rendering, 4K video editing and fast in/out data storage. Firewire 800 is a drag, but I can compensate rendering and data transfer by running overnight jobs. Meanwhile, I've got a lovely anti-glare 17" screen and a great keyboard that should keep me going for another two years. Ten years with one laptop is a great return.
 
The downside to using your 2011 is the lack of Mojave support. I bought a refurb MBP 2015 to replace my 2011, which is now a happy office Mac. A 512GB SSD fits right in, and makes it plenty fast.

You can use USB 3 on it by getting a used/old CalDigit 1 thunderbolt box; the USB3 ports in the CalDigit work just fine with the 2011.
 
I'm still using my MacBook Pro 17" late 2011 for web development and it's doing great! Maxed RAM to 16gb, switched HDD to SSD and removed optical drive to put a second HDD. My dGPU burned for the second time about a year ago, but I disabled it and I'm using exclusively the iGPU. Don't really need USB3, but I bought a USB3 adapter via ExpressCard on aliexpress. The last update is switch to Bluetooth 4, but the cards I found to replace are above the value I consider fair for the function. Still using logitech USB dongle and can't wake my MacBook with Apple Watch, but that's fine.
 
I would highly recommend replacing the hard drive with and SSD. It will make a drastic difference. Also, given that it seems you haven't made any modifications - bump up the RAM to 16gb as well.

If you're set on getting a new computer (I understand, I've been there) the only real viable option currently is the Macbook Pro. The macbook air is dated and is supposedly being replaced with a newer model at some point this year (possibly next year)

The only way I could recommend a Macbook Air currently is if you get a used one with max spec at a decent price.

Best of luck!
 
So I have ordered a new SSD and may as well upgrade the Ram, would 8 GB up from 4GB be sufficient for normal laptop use. Once both upgrades are done I will then switch up to Sierra from El Capitan.
 
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MacBookpro2011 said:
So I have ordered a new SSD and may as well upgrade the Ram, would 8 GB up from 4GB be sufficient for normal laptop use. Once both upgrades are done I will then switch up to Sierra from El Capitan.
Click to expand...

I have 2010 Mac book Pro 13" and upgraded to 8 GB RAM and 1 TB SSD long back. The difference is huge in performance and response time. I highly recommend before bailing on this and if you can wait for another year before upgrade.

Disclaimer and to be fair: Early today, I posted thread for advice on upgrading to latest MBP. In my case, I have maxed out on performance. Also I do not want to lose out on Mojave as 2010/2011 will not be supported. Hope it is helpful
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/replace-2010-mbp-13-with.2135378/
 
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MacBookpro2011 said:
So I have ordered a new SSD and may as well upgrade the Ram, would 8 GB up from 4GB be sufficient for normal laptop use. Once both upgrades are done I will then switch up to Sierra from El Capitan.
Click to expand...

About to do the same to a 2008 MacBook. It already has 8GB of RAM, going to take the SSD out of my 2009 iMac whose GFX card recently died. Thinking about doing the optical swap @leoborges did as well, but trying to decide if the $130 it would take to do that is worth it for a 10 year old machine. I'll probably install 3rd party firmware to enable at least High Sierra as well (stock is stuck at El Capitan). Anyway, super fun keeping these older Macs going! Good luck!
 
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MacBookpro2011 said:
So I have ordered a new SSD and may as well upgrade the Ram, would 8 GB up from 4GB be sufficient for normal laptop use. Once both upgrades are done I will then switch up to Sierra from El Capitan.
Click to expand...
I have a 2010 C2D MBP that I was tempted to trade of for a new one but put another 4 gig of ram in and it runs great now. very seldom any beach balls. I was going to also put in an SSD but it works so well now that I waited on that. I'm running Sierra just fine and I run Win 10 with it at the same time. No problem.
 
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Well I now have a new SSD running my 2011 MacBook Pro EL Captian, what a difference. Starts faster; everything runs cleaner and faster, not one spinning wheel on anything. Will now do a backup and download High Sierra before it disappears for download.
 
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