I have a mid-2010 MacBook Pro that has become a complete dog over the past year or so. Cost for upgrades is shy of $350 (16Gb RAM $120, NuPower Battery $100, 240Gb Mercury Electra SSD $130) from Other World Computing aka Mac Sales. New MacBook Pro running for $900-$1200. My question how much additional life will I get with the upgrade. I paid about $1200 for my MBP in 2010 so that's about $172/yr. If I get less than 3 yrs out of this upgrade I would be better off buying new. Thoughts?

I believe Apple has obsoleted that model, and my 2011 is next soon, so no more official support and it may not be compatible with future OS upgrades.
I would think long and hard about spending on it. Depends on your funds I suppose.

No expert, but I might try a complete backup and reinstall first, after running diagnostics on the HD.

Last year I put an SSD in mine and have maxed the Memory. Won't be spending any more on it.

quote:

Originally posted by cparktd:
I believe Apple has obsoleted that model, and my 2011 is next soon, so no more official support and it may not be compatible with future OS upgrades.
I would think long and hard about spending on it. Depends on your funds I suppose.

No expert, but I might try a complete backup and reinstall first, after running diagnostics on the HD.

Last year I put an SSD in mine and have maxed the Memory. Won't be spending any more on it.

I maxed my 256GB memory in 1.5 years next one bigger memory!
IOS alone take 50gb.
I bought a seagate terabyte external and moved a lot off the HD, solved my problem.
I think 5 years on a MBP is good anything beyond that is great. I wouldn't drop the $ as eBay will still get you decent $ and help with a new one. my 2 cents.

I vote replace after living with my older Mac products and upgrading.

I plan to convert to Surface Pro.

Probably best to upgrade. My mid-2012 is chugging along nicely with 10GB RAM and a 128GB SSD, but I'll look to sell it off by end of next year.

I have a 2012 with a 512 GB Crucial SSD and 16 GB of RAM from OWC. It more than chugs along, running Adobe CS6 and all the assorted little programs needed along with Creative Suite.

I have a 2011 with a 256 GB Crucial SSD and 16 GB of RAM that I use near my desktop for incognito browsing. It more than chugs along, too.

While I like a lot of products from OWC and have been ordering from them for 20 years or so, I like my Crucial SSDs. I have them in something like 10 Macs I support for myself, family and friends with zero troubles.

What are you getting for the $650 delta? Better display, faster processor, ability to have faster wi-fi.....

Is the old box worth anything? A couple of hundred towards the new one? A new one looks good.

When's Apples next MacBook update and buy the "Old" model.

Mid-2010 MBPs are the oldest models that Apple still supports, but I wouldn't put any money into upgrading one. I would personally buy a used MBP with at least USB 3.0 ports. I found a mid-2012 15" MBP with a hi-res anti-glare display on eBay for $700, replaced the 5,000 RPM spinning disk with an SSD, and I'm very pleased with it. (I thought that was an excellent deal 1 1/2 years ago since it turned out to be in near mint condition.)

If you do look at the used market, you might want to check out https://swappa.com/ which was a SIGforum suggestion. I haven't done business there, but I fine that looking through the listings there is a much "cleaner" experience than sorting through all of the listings on eBay.

Upgrade

One thing to keep in mind. The newer Apples are, for the most part, difficult to upgrade. Also look at the Apple refurbished store. That's where I purchased both my MBP's and one Ipad. Appeared to be brand new.

Mid 2010 MacBook pros have a bad video card (330m if I’m not mistaken). I’m surprised yours hasn't been crashing. It’s a well documented bug. Apple used to replace the board, but it only bought you time. Apparently Nvidia used bad solder on the board.

I got around the problem by slowing the clock speed of my card with an extension hack I found online. But at the end of the day it’s unstable.

Short answer - don’t put a dime in it.

I have a mid-2011 Macbook Pro.

I was considering putting in a 1TB SSD and RAM. But by the time I'm done doing that I'd have added another $600 to it.

It's gotten really slow lately. The current primary use is for class work, banking, etc.

If I bought a new one I would definitely be looking for a 15" or better. The 13" is not pleasant when doing homework and what not.

quote:

Originally posted by rh:
Mid-2010 MBPs are the oldest models that Apple still supports, but I wouldn't put any money into upgrading one. I would personally buy a used MBP with at least USB 3.0 ports. I found a mid-2012 15" MBP with a hi-res anti-glare display on eBay for $700, replaced the 5,000 RPM spinning disk with an SSD, and I'm very pleased with it. (I thought that was an excellent deal 1 1/2 years ago since it turned out to be in near mint condition.)

I like this advice. Get new enough to have USB 3.0 and a Thunderbolt port (which the 2012 has). A good site for checking the hardware specs of any Apple product (even vintage PowerPC models), including Macs, iPhones, peripherals, Apple Watches, and so on, is EveryMac.com
 

I have an early 2011 MBP, I7, 16gb. I recently wiped the hard drive and did a complete reinstall of the OS. Runs like new.

quote:

Originally posted by Spokane228:
Mid 2010 MacBook pros have a bad video card (330m if I’m not mistaken). I’m surprised yours hasn't been crashing. It’s a well documented bug. Apple used to replace the board, but it only bought you time. Apparently Nvidia used bad solder on the board.

I got around the problem by slowing the clock speed of my card with an extension hack I found online. But at the end of the day it’s unstable.

Short answer - don’t put a dime in it.

Only for those with discrete graphics and that card. The 13" doesn't have that option.

If your current Mac doing everything you need done without issue then it may make sense to upgrade what you've got. If you're doing something that requires more speed then it may make sense to purchase a newer Macbook. If you decide to buy check out the refurb site at apple.com. Get a great machine and save some money...

I don't have an opinion, but did see that Apple and Best Buy have "trade in" offers posted on their sites offering credit on an old Mac toward the purchase of a new one.

Just double-checked; it's the 2011 model that has graphics problems.

quote:

Originally posted by Leeann:
Just double-checked; it's the 2011 model that has graphics problems.

Good catch on the 13 inch model. Not sure what problems the 2011's have, but the mid 2010's (15 inch) have the issue I described.

7 year old computer??????? REPLACE!!!!!!