Macbook Pro 13" mid 2012 Ram and hard drive upgrade

Hi,

Memory, 1.35V RAM and SSD you are considering to get are working on your MacBook Pro.

I'm using 1.35V, RAM spec sheet says it is 1.35V which is the new 22nm DDR3L format RAM on mid 2012 13inch MacBook Pro with no problem.

I recommend reconsidering your interest in Corsair RAM.

Like Kingston, they have two tiers of RAM quality. Their upper tier stuff is typically OK in Macs. The lower tier from either company often causes problems in Macs. I've been here a long time and have seen too many cases where misbehaving Macs stopped misbehaving when Corsair or Kingston RAM value-RAM was removed and replaced with RAM from Crucial† or OWC. I will not buy RAM from anyone but those two.

My Mid 2012 13-inch non-Retina MBP has run OWC RAM for five years and an OWC 6GBps SSD for just over two year. It works without any issue at all.

The real problem I see is that the RAM market is very price sensitive and resellers usually do not stock the higher-price tiers. People using the higher tier most commonly must buy factory-direct and pay more. It is easier to use Crucial or OWC that we all know works rather than trying to figure out for a web site if yo are buying the "right stuff" from Corsair or Kingston.

† -- Disclosure: my son works as an engineer for the parent company of Crucial but neither he nor I get any compensation for my participation here. I recommended Crucial RAM long before he graduated from university.

The kit that Crucial sells as guaranteed Mac compatible is CT2K8G3S160BM. I doubt it's any different, but that's just the way they sell it. I've bought a "generic" Crucial pair of memory modules, and they worked just fine. I've also bought directly from Crucial using their memory finder. They came up with some specific "build number" for my machine, but the module I received wasn't really machine specific. Theoretically anything with the proper specs should work.

Also - you asked a question about "low memory" which I'm guessing you're asking about the "3L" designation. That just means low (1.35V) voltage compatible. All PC3L memory is supposed to be 1.5V (standard voltage) backwards compatible. The factory modules in my mid-2012 are SK Hynix PC3L, so at least they work in a 1.5V system.

orugantister wrote:

2.SSD upgrade can i use the following one

Crucial BX500 480GB 2.5" SATA 3D Desktop/Laptop SSD/Solid State Drive

480GB Crucial BX500, 2.5" SSD, SATA 3.0 (6Gb/s), Micron 3D NAND, 540MB/s Read, 500MB/s Write

I would avoid the BX500 series and go with the MX500 series instead. The BX500 series is a budget economy model SSD which has a very small write cache and no DRAM so write performance can be just as slow as a traditional hard drive at times. For a few dollars more the MX500 performs much much better.

Hi,

Yes, they are working on Mid 2012 13inch MacBook Pro.

If the Crucial website provided you with that exact part number for the memory using either the Crucial Advisor Tool or the Crucial System Scanner Tool, then you should be Ok. However, my search reveals this is the kit you should get as it mentions Mac compatibility:

https://uk.crucial.com/gbr/en/macbook-pro-%2813-inch-and-15-inch%2C-mid-2012%29/CT3373650

Here is the main Crucial page for the MBPro (mid-2012) options:

https://uk.crucial.com/gbr/en/compatible-upgrade-for/Apple/macbook-pro-(13-inch-and-15-inch%2C-mid-2012)

dwb wrote:

Avoid the Samsung 860 series. The 850 and 860 series are known to have issues with older Macs. They are SATA 3 drives and should be able to communicate with the slower SATA 2 interface but have a history of not being able to. Strongly recommend Crucial Tech or OWC (macsales)

The mid-2012 model uses a SATA III controller.

I forgot to mention to make sure to replace the internal hard drive cable when you upgrade to the SSD. The hard drive cable in this particular model has an extremely high rate of failure especially.

HWTech wrote:

I forgot to mention to make sure to replace the internal hard drive cable when you upgrade to the SSD. The hard drive cable in this particular model has an extremely high rate of failure especially.

Depends on the model. Apple had two revisions to the drive connector, and made the ribbon material thicker.

Avoid the Samsung 860 series. The 850 and 860 series are known to have issues with older Macs. They are SATA 3 drives and should be able to communicate with the slower SATA 2 interface but have a history of not being able to. Strongly recommend Crucial Tech or OWC (macsales)

No problem with many years of use w/ 1) Samsung 850 Pro main drive and 2) EVO as backup drive.

In 2009, 2011, & 2012 mackbook pros.

I am running the same Crucial MX series for many years (5, 6?) with no hint of failure. And they have upgraded the technology to correct issues with the SSDs of that era. I would fully recommend Crucial MX series.

The RAM should come with a compatibility guarantee. I'm not really a stickler for any particular brand of memory, although I would generally recommend "First tier" memory if available. That was the only kind of memory modules Apple ever used or sold, although they no longer deal with removable memory modules. Right now that's only Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron - as most of the world's memory manufactures have exited the business. All three have complete memory modules available for industrial sale. Some resellers (like OWC) resell them, but with their own sticker, which marks who is offering a warranty on the module.

Check around here you'll see tons of complaints about the EVO 850 with unibody MBPs. Typically they worked just fine for weeks, even months and then suddenly stopped booting the computer. When that happened, in most cases the user found it impossible to reformat the drive and/or reinstall or restore the drive while it was in the computer. Replacing the SATA ribbon did nothing. But put the drive into a USB enclosure and it was just fine.

Had this happen with my own 2010 MBP. Tried installing it in my wife's 2012 MBP same deal. Up until that point I'd thought the people complaining were dealing with bad cables or defective drives. In fact Samsung was sending people out replacement drives thinking the drive must be defective. Then suddenly someone noticed that the Samsung site had changed their compatibility list to just Windows computers.