macbook pro 13" mid 2009

Golf1.6 · 21 Oct 2018 at 18:04

Hey

my wife has a really old mid 2009 macbook pro 13, it's got a mechanical drive and has an old OS on it (the safari on it does not support up to date ssl so a lot of websites wont work).

The workaround is to use firefox on it. More on that later.

Is it worth throwing money at this, getting a new SSD, getting a new battery for it to bring it up to modern standards. Need it just for browsing the net, watching films and youtube.

Or is the machine just too old to cope with those demands?

Also is it worth updating the OS on it?

ChrisD. · 21 Oct 2018 at 19:04

A new SSD would breathe a massive lease of life into it.

deusexlumina · 21 Oct 2018 at 21:36

Put an SSD in mine and made it much better

Emlyn_Dewar · 22 Oct 2018 at 08:34

SSD, new battery and the latest version of OSX it supports.
Will easily handle the thing you mentioned.

Maccy · 22 Oct 2018 at 09:27

SSD will transform it, did the same to my 2009 MBP earlier this year.

Golf1.6 · 23 Oct 2018 at 01:48

Thanks, ordered an SSD, on a budget so got 256gb, which is fine as the current HD is 256GB and has 60GB free space. I dont suspect it will need more than 256gb any time soon.

It is running on OS Lion, is it worth putting in El Capitan?

Feek · 23 Oct 2018 at 07:35

Update it to the latest OS it will support.

Golf1.6 · 25 Oct 2018 at 18:58

got it on elcapitan and put in a £34 second hand ssd (crucial 500 240GB), it runs beautifully now. Boot and app launch is great.

Not sure if I need some ssd tools to make the clusters certain size (as you do with windows). I used carbon copy cloner (free trial) to copy the contents of the disc over.

Dont want to throw any more money at this, this is my wifes online shopping laptop. It's got 4GB ram (8GB is quite pricey for this laptop), battery runs for just 1 hoiur. But it's safer than using a rubbish aftermarket battery than can blow up/catch fire.

shiver · 28 Oct 2018 at 00:43

Golf1.6 said:
Not sure if I need some ssd tools to make the clusters certain size (as you do with windows). I used carbon copy cloner (free trial) to copy the contents of the disc over.

Dont want to throw any more money at this, this is my wifes online shopping laptop. It's got 4GB ram (8GB is quite pricey for this laptop), battery runs for just 1 hoiur. But it's safer than using a rubbish aftermarket battery than can blow up/catch fire.

No need to set anything, it'll run sweetly providing it doesn't get too full.

As for RAM, 4GB is probably fine. macOS is very good at memory compression and that particular MacBook Pro will open eat up 256MB of it for the GPU.

snow patrol · 11 Nov 2018 at 00:44

i'm running a 2009 macbook pro. Upgraded it with an ssd and it's fine! It could certainly use a new battery, but i have no problem just keeping it plugged in when i'm using it. I wouldn't use it as my main lightroom/editing computer, but for general day to day use, i can't fault it. ssd makes a huge difference for sure