A New Life For An Older Mac: My mid 2012 MacBook Pro seemed to be getting sluggish. The little wheel of death seemed to be going on more and more as I tried to use various programs to...

busmaster2 Loc: College Point NY

My mid 2012 MacBook Pro seemed to be getting sluggish. The little wheel of death seemed to be going on more and more as I tried to use various programs to process my photos. Luckily to the rescue came my son who knows all things in the gadget realm whereby he told me to replace my hard drive with a Solid State (1TB), as well as upgrading my RAM to 16GB which was not possible when I first purchased the computer. To the point, Aperture has become so blazingly fast and responsive that it feels like a brand new computer...it never worked this well before. So for about 500 bucks I got in effect a new computer..A Mac no less! Just some musings.

Bill Munny Loc: Aurora, Colorado

Where did you buy the hard drive and RAM?

Fotoserj Loc: St calixte Qc Ca

Curious

NoSocks Loc: quonochontaug, rhode island

well done! Never give up on a Mac. The hard drive (conventional) in my iMac shit the bed. It's so old that Apple won't even work on it anymore. Off to the aftermarket repair shop and in two weeks I had it back with a new hard drive, all my files restored, and the machine generally tuned up. I thought the data recovery was going to be a fortune, but it was under $200. All in, it was a $350 bill and I have almost a new computer.

Rongnongno Loc: FL

Well, the upgrades made is pass over to the PC nirvana...

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

I can't imagine running current software to edit images from current cameras (with lots of megapixels), on a 4 yr old 16 gb dual core computer with video memory that is shared with the OS and applications to drive a resolution of 1280x800 px. It is definitely better than one that is not upgraded, but I am not so sure that putting $500 towards this thing is the best use of your money.

Just for kicks, I took a look at what a similar current machine would cost:

15.6" 1920x1080 IPS display
Intel Skylake i7 6700HQ
16 gb ram (upgradeable to 32gb)
2 gb VRAM on separate graphics card
1 tb m.2 SSD with room for 3 more drives -
Windows 10

$1200 - with a 2 yr parts and lifetime labor warranty.

I dunno about you, but I think the editing experience on even this entry level machine has to be better than a 4 yr old MacbookPro. But at the end of the day you ended up with a Mac and that has made you happy. Enjoy it!

busmaster2 Loc: College Point NY

Gene51 wrote:

I can't imagine running current software to edit i... (show quote)

I would imagine that the proof of the pudding would be the speed at which operations take place. Almost instantaneously is good enough for me...and I saved 700 bucks in the process.

WessoJPEG Loc: Cincinnati, Ohio

busmaster2 wrote:

My mid 2012 MacBook Pro seemed to be getting slugg... (show quote)

Mines doing the same thing, wheel going around and around.

WessoJPEG Loc: Cincinnati, Ohio

busmaster2 wrote:

I would imagine that the proof of the pudding would be the speed at which operations take place. Almost instantaneously is good enough for me...and I saved 700 bucks in the process.

WessoJPEG Loc: Cincinnati, Ohio

NoSocks wrote:

well done! Never give up on a Mac. The hard drive (conventional) in my iMac shit the bed. It's so old that Apple won't even work on it anymore. Off to the aftermarket repair shop and in two weeks I had it back with a new hard drive, all my files restored, and the machine generally tuned up. I thought the data recovery was going to be a fortune, but it was under $200. All in, it was a $350 bill and I have almost a new computer.

Mine is a laptop can I have a new hard drive installed on it?

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

busmaster2 wrote:

My mid 2012 MacBook Pro seemed to be getting slugg... (show quote)

I have the same computer, and I put a Samsung 500GB SSD into it about a year ago. Not only is it faster, but I don't worry about damaging the hard drive by moving it when it's running. One downside was replacing a 750GB HDD with a 500GB SSD. It really doesn't matter, though, because I don't use it for storage. For the way I use it, I couldn't justify the cost of a 1TB drive. Off hand, I don't know how much memory it has, but it's sufficient for my needs.

jzehaz Loc: Pleasantville, NY

I have been upgrading my families MACs for years using the upgrade kits sold by Macsales / Other World Computing. I have installed solid state drives, memory and fans in laptops to keep them running like new. As long as I can update the OS I feel it is worth it to spend a few dollars to keep my MACs running. If you do it yourself you can save quite a bit of money - and OWC sells kits that are self explanatory. Here is a link to their site.
https://www.macsales.com/

WessoJPEG Loc: Cincinnati, Ohio

jzehaz wrote:

I have been upgrading my families MACs for years using the upgrade kits sold by Macsales / Other World Computing. I have installed solid state drives, memory and fans in laptops to keep them running like new. As long as I can update the OS I feel it is worth it to spend a few dollars to keep my MACs running. If you do it yourself you can save quite a bit of money - and OWC sells kits that are self explanatory. Here is a link to their site.
https://www.macsales.com/

Thank you very much, I will check it out, God bless you.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

jzehaz wrote:

I have been upgrading my families MACs for years using the upgrade kits sold by Macsales / Other World Computing. I have installed solid state drives, memory and fans in laptops to keep them running like new. As long as I can update the OS I feel it is worth it to spend a few dollars to keep my MACs running. If you do it yourself you can save quite a bit of money - and OWC sells kits that are self explanatory. Here is a link to their site.
https://www.macsales.com/

As the Macs get newer, there is less you can do inside them.

NoSocks Loc: quonochontaug, rhode island

Gene51 wrote:

I can't imagine running current software to edit i... (show quote)

That's all very nice but, in the end, you have a Windows computer. No thanks.