Macbook Pro mid 2012, anyone upgraded RAM and drive?

B

bigboy529

Expert Member
Joined
Apr 23, 2012
Messages
2,927
Reaction score
99
Location
Pretoria
Hi all
Anyone out there who's still running a mid 2012 MBP who upgraded the 4 GB RAM to 8 or more GB and put in a SSD to replace the 512 GB HDD? From what I see the component upgrade itself is easy to do on this specific model, but I want to know how usable this made your machine?

Asking for a friend who can get this machine for R5000, do you think buying this will be worthit?
Use will be every day office work, browsing etc, watching movies and such, so nothing hectic.
 
It's very easy to do, I upgraded my old macbook from 4gb to 16gb, replaced the 500gb drive with a 256gb solid state, and put the 500gb into the cd-rom bay for additional storage (who uses cd's anymore..)
 
Joker said:
It's very easy to do, I upgraded my old macbook from 4gb to 16gb, replaced the 500gb drive with a 256gb solid state, and put the 500gb into the cd-rom bay for additional storage (who uses cd's anymore..)
Click to expand...



Are you still using it, what OS are you running and how is it performing? Current owner says it's not handling Sierra very well, but I'm sure the SSD and more RAM will sort that out.
 
Yip, still using mine with 16GB RAM upgrade and a ssd replacement. Working great.
 
Joker said:
Yup still using it with Sierra, no problems at all - also you'll need a set of Torx screwdrivers/keys for the HDD replacement steps.

Ram upgrade steps: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+15-Inch+Unibody+Mid+2012+RAM+Replacement/10772
HDD upgrade steps: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+15-Inch+Unibody+Mid+2012+Hard+Drive+Replacement/10761
Click to expand...



Sorry for the questions can probably Google, does it use some very specific RAM and SSD or are the prices average?
 
My missus has been using my old 2011 for a while now with 8gb of ram and a 120/500gb fusion drive.

Screen-Shot-2017-05-16-at----2017•05•16---16.23.jpg

Clearly she's ignored the OS updates but I doubt it would have any problems running 10.12.
 
Performance wise it's great - without question only buy it if you can upgrade to an SSD though; night and day..
 
Did this upgrade on one of these a few months ago, MASSIVE increase in performance... It's like a new machine.

Edit: used the crucial memory as above, and a samsung 750 evo ssd
 
Last edited:
mister said:
Did this upgrade on one of these a few months ago, MASSIVE increase in performance... It's like a new machine.

Edit: used the crucial memory as above, and a samsung 750 evo ssd
Click to expand...

Don't have a Mac, but added a 500gb 750 evo to my HP laptop and its loooooovely.
 
Another +1, 16GB RAM and SSD, running Sierra - did the upgrade years ago though, so used to it now - but it was/is a night and day difference. At R5k, you will get a very useable machine with those upgrades.
 
I too agree with the above. I have an Early 2011 Core i5 Mac and when I got it, it was as standard 4GB Ram and 500gb HDD. Threw in 16GB Ram and a 512GB SSD and as stated above, the difference is night and day. Makes a world of a difference. I hardly recall how life was before the upgrades and yes Sierra will run fine.

Sidenote: does anyone know how much a system like this can fetch maxSnapshot.jpg?
Contemplating moving on up to a retina screen machine.
 
bigboy529 said:
Hi all
Anyone out there who's still running a mid 2012 MBP who upgraded the 4 GB RAM to 8 or more GB and put in a SSD to replace the 512 GB HDD? From what I see the component upgrade itself is easy to do on this specific model, but I want to know how usable this made your machine?

Asking for a friend who can get this machine for R5000, do you think buying this will be worthit?
Use will be every day office work, browsing etc, watching movies and such, so nothing hectic.
Click to expand...

​

I've done this about 5 times. I am always putting 2 x 8GB RAM chips and 2 x SSD in. It is about 10 minutes work if you have the tools ready.

*edit* I run a windows VM inside Sierra for full time development. It is great that this 6 year old machine runs so well.
 
Last edited:
And another +1

2012 MBP. upgraded to 8GB Ram and 500GB SSD. Ran the HDD for a year but the machine become slow, SSD woke it right up.
 
Yup, if I remember correctly Apple says officially they support up to 8gigs of RAM, but mine ran just fine with 16gigs. Pop in an SSD and remove the CD ROM and put in a nice HDD there then you have a beast machine that wouldn't run out of steam anytime soon - except graphical work of course.
 
Conventional wisdom is to put the SSD in the optibay and leave the HDD where it is.
 
Rickster said:
Howcome?
Click to expand...

There's a sudden motion sensor on those models - from what I've read it only controls HDDs running off that SATA port. I'm willing to give those reports the benefit of the doubt. As long as both SATA ports support the same throughput then it makes little difference.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X