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Upgrade to El Capitan Yes or No?

Upgrade to El Capitan?

  • Total voters
    46
C

Cyberpower678

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 28, 2015
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So I have a mid 2012 MacBook Pro w/ Retina display 15", a solid 750 GB SSD, and a 2.7 GHz i7 Processor with a Turbo up to 3.7 GHz and 16 GB of RAM.

When I decided to download El Capitan, I couldn't install it because I was formatted with MBR, thanks Windows. (Yes, I use Windows too)

So I backed up both partitions with images, reformatted the entire disk, put the Mac image back on, hacked the windows image back on, but now I'm asking myself should I upgrade.

I see the reviews average at best. Even if I didn't upgrade reformatting to use GUID was simply common sense, (I mean who uses MBR these days).

Most people complain about the speed of the OS, or incompatibilities. So I ask those who upgraded, with similar tech specs, how do you like El Capitan? What are your problems and what do you like?

For those with an older MacBook Pro with a standard HDD, how is El Capitan working for you?
 
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I suggest you read some of the posts regarding El Cap 10.11.4 freezes that a lot of people are experiencing , me included.

Thats why i returned baxk to using Yosemite till the freeze issue has been fixed.
 
akkers said:
I suggest you read some of the posts regarding El Cap 10.11.4 freezes that a lot of people are experiencing , me included.

Thats why i returned baxk to using Yosemite till the freeze issue has been fixed.
Click to expand...
I always make an block-block image copy of my OS before upgrading. It seems the freeze issue seems to be related to 2015 models. I know mine is older, but I see no mention of 2012 models being affected. Thanks for the input.
 
Cyberpower678 said:
I always make an block-block image copy of my OS before upgrading. It seems the freeze issue seems to be related to 2015 models. I know mine is older, but I see no mention of 2012 models being affected. Thanks for the input.
Click to expand...
Mine is just one year older. 2014 model. But freeze is still there, completely random.

I suggest, if you are happy with Yosemite and don't desperately need new features in El Capitan, DO NOT UPGRADE.
 
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Cyberpower678 said:
I always make an block-block image copy of my OS before upgrading. It seems the freeze issue seems to be related to 2015 models. I know mine is older, but I see no mention of 2012 models being affected. Thanks for the input.
Click to expand...
I use a mid 2014 model 13 inch rMBP. So no, it does not only affect 2015 models.

Maybe you give it a shot and then we shall know.
 
We're what, a few months away from Death Valley, or whatever?
If I'd waited this long, I'd wait a the extra months. Otherwise you'll just find yourself asking yourself the same quetion in short order after updating.

What the heck, "Fuji"? That's not in California, unless they mean the overly sweet apple variety.
 
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MacGizmo said:
You have an i7 processor, 16GB RAM and an SSD drive... I see no reason not to.
Click to expand...
It would seem that the freezes occur with newer MacBooks as a result in a Inter Driver bug, one theory. The newer models use the Intel HD 5000 while I have the predecessor (4000). Perhaps that's what makes the difference. I'm going to try the upgrade. I have an image backup of my Mac OS so I can easily restore my system to the way it was.
 
Cyberpower678 said:
It would seem that the freezes occur with newer MacBooks as a result in a Inter Driver bug, one theory. The newer models use the Intel HD 5000 while I have the predecessor (4000). Perhaps that's what makes the difference. I'm going to try the upgrade. I have an image backup of my Mac OS so I can easily restore my system to the way it was.
Click to expand...
So first thoughts, the upgrade was smooth. It's super fast, no freezes yet, and starts up 2x faster than Yosemite on my Mac. No bugs at present. I love the upgrade.
 
Cyberpower678 said:
I'll report any bugs I find with my Mac. Has anyone with a HDD installed this? What kind of performance do you get?
Click to expand...
Performance with a HDD is fine.

Part of the problem so many people have with traditional disk systems these days is through treating them like an SSD.
If you know their limitations, and can tweak the system to work with those limitations, there's not much of a performance drag compared to an SSD, at least for average or mundane usage.
 
beebarb said:
If you know their limitations, and can tweak the system to work with those limitations, there's not much of a performance drag compared to an SSD, at least for average or mundane usage.
Click to expand...

I'm curious what kind of tweaks?
 
MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2012) non-retina, 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7, 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3, 1tb WD Blue SSHD, OS X 10.11.4.

No problems.
 
As long as you reboot every week or two, it will run pretty smooth. Keep it running too long without a reboot, then things will bog down and start to have glitches, graphic issues and so on.
 
slapppy said:
As long as you reboot every week or two, it will run pretty smooth. Keep it running too long without a reboot, then things will bog down and start to have glitches, graphic issues and so on.
Click to expand...
Like what for example?

My laptop goes up to 4 months without a reboot.
 
Cyberpower678 said:
Like what for example?

My laptop goes up to 4 months without a reboot.
Click to expand...
Like what? Easy. Unable to keep the iMac to go to sleep. If it does, it keeps waking up every 5 or so minutes. iCloud icon on the side bar has the sync/download progress stuck, iTunes Home Sharing randomly stops working, external drives occasionally just ejects itself and you get a warning, rainbow pinwheel just goes on and on and on then everything is fine, then all of sudden, rainbow pinwheel goes on and on and on again...and more. lol reboot. All is well for a week or so.
 
slapppy said:
Like what? Easy. Unable to keep the iMac to go to sleep. If it does, it keeps waking up every 5 or so minutes. iCloud icon on the side bar has the sync/download progress stuck, iTunes Home Sharing randomly stops working, external drives occasionally just ejects itself and you get a warning, rainbow pinwheel just goes on and on and on then everything is fine, then all of sudden, rainbow pinwheel goes on and on and on again...and more. lol reboot. All is well for a week or so.
Click to expand...
I'll put that to the test. :p
 
Everyone's experience will be different. I for one have no probs with El Capitan on my late 2011 MBP. The only way to see if it work for you is to try it out yourself.

I suggest the following....
-If you have an extra external drive, download Carbon Copy Cloner (it's free for 30 days) and clone your current internal drive to the external drive.

-Update all your software, then update your internal drive to El Capitan and test it out. Check for software compatibility, freezes, etc.

If it all works just fine, then you're good to go. If you have probs, all you have to do is clone the image from the external drive back to the internal drive. You'll then be back on your previous OS like nothing happened. Only thing is to make sure you backup any files you created while on El Cap before cloning to the internal drive.

Simple as that. Good Luck!
 
simon lefisch said:
Everyone's experience will be different. I for one have no probs with El Capitan on my late 2011 MBP. The only way to see if it work for you is to try it out yourself.

I suggest the following....
-If you have an extra external drive, download Carbon Copy Cloner (it's free for 30 days) and clone your current internal drive to the external drive.

-Update all your software, then update your internal drive to El Capitan and test it out. Check for software compatibility, freezes, etc.

If it all works just fine, then you're good to go. If you have probs, all you have to do is clone the image from the external drive back to the internal drive. You'll then be back on your previous OS like nothing happened. Only thing is to make sure you backup any files you created while on El Cap before cloning to the internal drive.

Simple as that. Good Luck!
Click to expand...
Thanks, but I don't understand why no one uses Disk Utility which does a fantastic job at cloning the disk. It's what I use when I copy a disk before upgrading. It's 'the' way to do safe upgrading. :p
 
Ebenezum said:
I'm curious what kind of tweaks?
Click to expand...
Essentially turning off anything that'll make the HDD do unnecessary work.

Such as adding a bunch of folders to Spotlight's Privacy section if they don't contain user generated data, or they do contain frequently updating data (ex. a chat program's database, files for a virtual machine).
I used to have some issues with applications like Skype, until I added their application support folder to the privacy tab.

This next one is more maintenance, than a tweak though...

It's a good idea to use an application like iDefrag to reduce the fragment count of frequently accessed or larger files on occasion. It's on-line selected files defrag option is a good thing on occasion.
Just don't think it's a superhero that'll get your HDD going as fast as new, and don't run it too often, maybe once every 6 months should be fine.

There's no need to do a full defrag, with the size of today's disks, the downtime in order to do that is enormous and the comparable benefit is negligible, best to just use the on-line selected files mode once in a while.
Though OS X has active defrag for HDDs, it only deals with files less than 20MB in size.
 
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