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Archive 2014 · Upgrading 2010 Macbook Pro

  
 
Weasel_Loader
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Upgrading 2010 Macbook Pro


I have a mid 2010 Macbook Pro Core i7. I've noticed the past three months or so that my LR and PS are painfully slow (boot up and render photos). Had my sights on a new 27" iMac 5k, but now rethinking of upgrading to a 1TB SSD and throw in another 4GB of RAM for 8GB total. I use a 27" Apple display which I'm quite happy with, so this upgrade would be much cheaper and give me another few years of processing.

Anyone recommend a SSD brand for Macbook Pro?



Dec 18, 2014 at 01:52 PM
howardm4
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Upgrading 2010 Macbook Pro


you'll love it. I put SSDs into some old 2006 MBPs and they are still chugging along doing office-y and spousal kind of work.

I put an OWC in one and a Sandisk in the other. Overall, I prefer the performance of the Sandisk.

You might want to re-think the size vs. how long you're going to keep it as 1TB can be pretty expensive.



Dec 18, 2014 at 03:06 PM
Weasel_Loader
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Upgrading 2010 Macbook Pro


Thanks for the advice. I'll check out OWC and Sandisk. I'm pretty close to filling my current 500GB. I'd rather just do the 1TB and not have to worry.

What route did you go with copying your current data onto the new SSD?



Dec 18, 2014 at 03:21 PM
howardm4
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Upgrading 2010 Macbook Pro


I used SuperDuper and a $25 USB-SATA bridge and left it run overnight. Then you can just open the chassis, remove the old, install the SSD and it should immediately boot.


Dec 18, 2014 at 03:44 PM
Weasel_Loader
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Upgrading 2010 Macbook Pro


Awesome! Thanks for the tip.


Dec 18, 2014 at 03:52 PM
gdanmitchell
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Upgrading 2010 Macbook Pro


Weasel_Loader wrote:
I have a mid 2010 Macbook Pro Core i7. I've noticed the past three months or so that my LR and PS are painfully slow (boot up and render photos). Had my sights on a new 27" iMac 5k, but now rethinking of upgrading to a 1TB SSD and throw in another 4GB of RAM for 8GB total. I use a 27" Apple display which I'm quite happy with, so this upgrade would be much cheaper and give me another few years of processing.

Anyone recommend a SSD brand for Macbook Pro?


I think that the extra memory might be useful — 4 GB is quite a small amount for modern systems. I'm less certain that the SSD would really speed things up that much for LR and PS, since disk access isn't so much the issue with them.

Dan



Dec 18, 2014 at 10:23 PM
Weasel_Loader
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Upgrading 2010 Macbook Pro


Good point, but if I'm not mistaken, 8GB is RAM is the maximum my 2010 Macbook Pro takes?


Dec 18, 2014 at 11:36 PM
Phil McNeil
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Upgrading 2010 Macbook Pro


8GB and i7 should be plenty. Lightroom is not super RAM hungry. Photoshop, Final Cut Pro and the like are much more RAM dependent, Lightroom is really a big database. The SSD will help speed things up a bit. The other biggie is to keep more space on the internal hard drive. Getting close to full on the 500GB drive could be hurting speed.

In my setup, my LR catalog lives on the internal SSD hard drive and I import photos to the internal HD as well. However, after the photos are not in current use (for me after a month or so), I send them of to live on an external drive. This keeps my internal drive down to no more than 50% filled.




Dec 18, 2014 at 11:53 PM
Weasel_Loader
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Upgrading 2010 Macbook Pro


That makes perfect sense why my LR has slowed down dramatically over the last few months (as I am getting close to 500GB limit). Thanks for the advice.


Dec 19, 2014 at 12:26 AM
Alan321
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Upgrading 2010 Macbook Pro


It is unfortunate that you have neither thunderbolt nor usb 3 on the 2010 MBP for speedy external storage. That would be reason enough for me to get a 1TB SSD but then I can afford to do that. They're expensive compared with HDD prices now but not compared with HDD prices several years ago.

I liked the OWC SSDs right up until my 17" MBP killed them. Only one still lives. I have no idea what did the killing because the same computer handles HDDs fine and the same SSDs lived happy lives as external drives. This sounds pretty bad but there is certainly no faulting OWC service. The OWC already have memory set aside for "over-provisioning" so you will get to use the full 480,000,000,000 bytes. Over-provisioning allows for failed memory blocks and lets the SSD even out the wear and tear so that the drive lasts longer and works faster.

I have used 480GB Sandisk SSDs but discovered too late that they draw far too much current to be used as external drives even on USB 3 ports. Check before you buy so that you don't get caught out - and that applies to any drive you buy.

I have used Samsung EVO SSDs too. Mine need a new firmware and I don't yet have the ability to apply it. They also needed me to set some of the capacity aside for over-provisioning.

Getting a huge SSD is great but also expensive. As prices are falling rapidly they will lose value just as rapidly. You might do better to buy a mid-size SSD and upgrade later if you want to or need to. The trouble is that a mid-size SSD will be a small SSD by the time you upgrade and then it will be less useful as an external drive for your next computer.

OWC (www.macsales.com) can sell you RAM and SSDs, and they have tested both in your model of MBP before they declared them compatible. They sell brackets that allow a second 2.5" drive to replace the optical drive. They also have installation instructions on their web site too.


Your 2010 MBP may or may not support SATA III (6 Gbps) interface for the main drive. I suspect not. The slower SATA II may reduce the maximum benefit that you will see from an SSD, but it will do that for HDDs too. The SSD will always be faster than HDDs if it is a compatible model with current firmware. Anything that bogs an SSD down will bog an HDD down even more, making the SSD even more beneficial.


I prefer CCC (Carbon Copy Cloner) to SuperDuper because when I tried SD a while back it was not suited to copying just specific files - only whole volumes and drives. CCC is (or was) more flexible than SD was.


If you are pushed for cash then get a large capacity HDD (1TB or more) that works at 7200rpm and has a big RAM cache on it. Create two volumes on it and just use the first one because that will be the fastest one. The second one is only for future expansion - if you use it then the drive heads will have to move a lot more and slow down data access.

I tried an HDD that has a small SSD built in but there was no real benefit for my usage. I was using too much different stuff too often for it to save the "frequently used" stuff in the SSD.

- Alan



Dec 19, 2014 at 04:38 AM
Emile Gregoire
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Upgrading 2010 Macbook Pro


I replaced my optical drive in my 17" MBP 2010 (i7, 8Gb RAM) with a 1TB regular 7200rpm harddrive that stores all my images and replaced the standard 500Gb internal harddrive with a 1TB SSD that has the OS on it, all applications and Lightroom's catalog. Works like a charm.

My SSD is a Samsung 840 EVO and works without a hitch. Unlike Alan I didn't need new firmware nor had to set some capacity aside. Plugged it in, cloned everything with Carbon Copy Cloner and installed Trim Enabler for trim support (enhances longevity of your SSD).



Dec 19, 2014 at 05:01 AM
Paul Gardner
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Upgrading 2010 Macbook Pro


I used Time Machine to backup to an external USB2 drive. I then installed an Intel 530 180GB SSD and used the Time Machine to restore using the option key during power on. I purchased an optical drive replacement adapter and installed a 1TB Samsung 850EVO in it. This revived my early 2009 15" 2.8 Ghz MBP and made it useable again. I no longer have any rotating machinery in house. Not the cheapest way to go but cheaper than a new MBP and it works great.


Dec 21, 2014 at 08:13 PM
gdanmitchell
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Upgrading 2010 Macbook Pro


Weasel_Loader wrote:
Good point, but if I'm not mistaken, 8GB is RAM is the maximum my 2010 Macbook Pro takes?


I didn't look it up, so you might want to do so, but that is my recollection. I have 8 GB in Apple laptops of that vintage and that is enough for almost anyone — though on a new machine I would probably spec 16 GB these days.

Dan



Dec 22, 2014 at 01:05 AM
gdanmitchell
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Upgrading 2010 Macbook Pro


Alan321 wrote:
I prefer CCC (Carbon Copy Cloner) to SuperDuper because when I tried SD a while back it was not suited to copying just specific files - only whole volumes and drives. CCC is (or was) more flexible than SD was.


That is incorrect.

SD! does allow you to specify which files you copy — I have several backups to, for example, only copy image files or only copy a boot drive w/o image files.

So, that is not an advantage of CCC (which I've also used) over SuperDuper!.

Dan



Dec 22, 2014 at 01:09 AM
tcphoto
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Upgrading 2010 Macbook Pro


Why is your HD nearly full? I only leave images that I'm working on on my HD and stored all others on external drives. If you really need that much storage space OWC offers drives that will replace the DVD drive


Dec 22, 2014 at 12:18 PM
Kenneth Farver
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Upgrading 2010 Macbook Pro


you may want to go clear out some lightroom backups and clear some cache also to see if things speed up.
I never go below 100 gig of free space on my HD's.



Dec 22, 2014 at 12:54 PM
adamx12m
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Upgrading 2010 Macbook Pro


If I were buying another macbook it would be with 16gb regardless of casual or power user. OSX these days is taking up more memory and I find just having the basics open like the browser it consuming near 8gb limit I have in my 2013 macbook.


Dec 25, 2014 at 09:25 PM
mhp_sd
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · Upgrading 2010 Macbook Pro


I think you need to take a look at your needs and budget.

I went through a similar thought process with my MBP 17" mid 2009 about six months ago. I started with Daisydisc as a way to clean up backups and other space-occupying files. I was pleased with the speed bump that I got by swapping out my internal drive for a 480 SSD and by upgrading my memory to 8 GB. It seemed like a reasonable price for the improvement. Of course, 3 weeks later I started getting errors about my battery. This led to another expense.

As I started using Lightroom more extensively, I got more and more frustrated by the time it took to apply filters, presets and other manipulations.

I considered upgrading the machine to a faster Mac Pro of about the same era - but was concerned about the graphic output.

I am typing this on my new rMBP late-2013 (which supports multi stream thunderbolt 2.0 for 60 Hz 4k resolution). The speed improvement is wonderful, and while I miss the 17" screen, I love the ability to output to a 4k monitor.

The 17" MBP still is getting use as my office computer for word processing, Devonthink (database), and web browsing, but I'm not sure that I needed the performance increase of the SSD in that application. I probably would have been wise to just increase the memory and save the other $ towards the upgraded machine.

YMMV.



Dec 28, 2014 at 11:26 AM
Alan321
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · Upgrading 2010 Macbook Pro


Alan321 wrote:
I prefer CCC (Carbon Copy Cloner) to SuperDuper because when I tried SD a while back it was not suited to copying just specific files - only whole volumes and drives. CCC is (or was) more flexible than SD was.

gdanmitchell wrote:
That is incorrect.

SD! does allow you to specify which files you copy — I have several backups to, for example, only copy image files or only copy a boot drive w/o image files.

So, that is not an advantage of CCC (which I've also used) over SuperDuper!.

Dan

OK Dan. Thank you for that. I haven't used SD for some time and I don't recall what version it was. Can you pick specific individual files or does it just go down to folder level or file-type level ? If it has always had that feature then I have no idea why I could not get it to work for me because I'm very rarely that bad with software, except for Ps If SD handles specific files now then I will not mention it again as a limitation.

- Alan



Dec 30, 2014 at 04:30 AM
Alan321
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · Upgrading 2010 Macbook Pro


Even a 2011 MBP was about twice as fast in real terms as a 2009 MBP.

It's a shame that we cannot get a 4-core CPU in the 13" rMBP. If I was buying today with a view to not buying another in a hurry then I would definitely want a quad core i7 CPU to better suit future s/w improvements - assuming that Adobe really will get around to optimising Lr and Ps code. That requires at least a 15" rMBP because neither the 13" rMBP nor the Mac Mini qualify. Apple no doubt thinks that I'll buy a bigger and more expensive computer but they forget that I won't buy as often as if they had powerful and cheap alternatives.

- Alan



Dec 30, 2014 at 05:12 AM





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