Considering upgrading 2010 MBP with an SSD or 8gb memory

Cleisthenes · 21 Apr 2015 at 16:00

So, from the title which do you think would be best if I could only do one?

Have any of you guys done it?

Do I need certain tools to open the laptop, is it hard to do?

All help appreciated, thanks.

tom_e · 21 Apr 2015 at 16:17

SSD all the way, you won't really notice the extra RAM day to day. The SSD will make it feel like a new machine.

Cleisthenes · 21 Apr 2015 at 16:32

Cool, thanks. Just had a little look at guides and it looks rather easy.

Blackhawk47 · 21 Apr 2015 at 18:10

If it is anything like when I upgraded the HDD on my macbook unibody then it is pretty simple. I did need to buy a set of torx screw drivers though.

Cleisthenes · 21 Apr 2015 at 18:13

Blackhawk47 said:
If it is anything like when I upgraded the HDD on my macbook unibody then it is pretty simple. I did need to buy a set of torx screw drivers though.

I have some torx allen keys already so that shouldn't be a problem.

Much appreciated for the advice.

Emlyn_Dewar · 22 Apr 2015 at 12:48

I put an SSD in my 2010, with 4gb memory and it made quite a difference. Definitely go for the SSD over memory, but with 4gb I'd stick to Mavericks.
Found Yosemite to be a reasonable downgrade when I tried it.

Edit: Extremely easy task also.

Remove screws, replace drive. Be careful with the ribbon cable though, I'd bought my Macbook as faulty, and it was the ribbon cable to blame.

Cleisthenes · 22 Apr 2015 at 12:49

Emlyn_Dewar said:
I put an SSD in my 2010, with 4gb memory and it made quite a difference. Definitely go for the SSD over memory, but with 4gb I'd stick to Mavericks.
Found Yosemite to be a reasonable downgrade when I tried it.

Good point regarding the the OS, I was wondering whether Yosemite might might it a bit slow. Did you get Mavericks from a third party site?

Emlyn_Dewar · 22 Apr 2015 at 12:54

I still had the Mavericks download, from when it was originally downloaded through the App Store. There is a tool around, to create a bootable USB from this.

I'm not sure where the best place to get it these days are, but would probably be against forum rules to discuss anyway...

Is yours the 13" 2010 model? Memory looks to be a bit of a pain in these, as the Nvidia chipset doesn't like higher speed memory. I've been in 2 minds to move to 8gb on this machine.
http://www.softnology.biz/tips_macbookpro.html

Cleisthenes · 22 Apr 2015 at 12:56

Emlyn_Dewar said:
I still had the Mavericks download, from when it was originally downloaded through the App Store. There is a tool around, to create a bootable USB from this.

I'm not sure where the best place to get it these days are, but would probably be against forum rules to discuss anyway...

Is yours the 13" 2010 model? Memory looks to be a bit of a pain in these, as the Nvidia chipset doesn't like higher speed memory. I've been in 2 minds to move to 8gb on this machine.
http://www.softnology.biz/tips_macbookpro.html

It's for my sister as she knows next to nothing about computers and is complaining that her laptop is slow.

But yes, it is the 13".

panthro · 26 Apr 2015 at 10:58

I'm going to do the same thing. Did the 8gb ram upgrade a couple of years ago and think it will really benefit with an ssd. What are the recommended brands?