What is the best, newest possible upgrade possibility for my MacBook Pro 17inch mid 2010 with 2.53 GHz Intel Core i5 ? Latest OS possibility and even upgrade the hardware ?
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
MacBook Pro 17″, macOS 10.13
There's not much you can do to improve application compatibility. Basically it is a question of whether there are things that you could do that would make you happier running the applications that you already have.
The real upgrade would be to replace your 17" mid-2010 MacBook Pro – a laptop introduced fifteen years ago – with a current Mac notebook. Say, a 15" M4 MacBook Air or a 14" or 16" M4-family MacBook Pro. A new Mac notebook would be much more powerful and compatible with current applications than the one that you have.
Also lighter. Your Mac weighs 6.6 pounds. Even the heaviest current Mac notebooks – the 16" MacBook Pros – weigh in at 4.7 pounds, nearly two pounds lighter. A 15" M4 MacBook Air is a bit short on ports, but would weigh only 3.3 pounds – half as much as your machine!
Software
The newest compatible operating system for a 17" mid-2010 MacBook Pro is macOS 13.* (High Sierra) – which your tag line seems to indicate that you are already running.
Identify your MacBook Pro model - Apple Support
High Sierra is seven major versions behind the current version of macOS (Sequoia). Application vendors such as Microsoft and Adobe abandoned support for High Sierra long ago – and Serif (Affinity Photo/Designer/Publisher) has also abandoned support for High Sierra, though more recently.
High Sierra is not even good enough to run the current versions of Firefox and LibreOffice, although at least there, you can still get older versions that run on High Sierra. Firefox 115 ESR is still getting "critical security updates" – although not for long. High Sierra's version of LibreOffice is unsupported but probably works fairly well.
Mozilla Support – Firefox users on macOS 10.12, 10.13 and 10.14 moving to Extended Support Release
The Document Foundation Wiki – versions of LibreOffice for old and current operating systems
Hardware
According to MacTracker, that Mac can take up to 8 GB of RAM. I would recommend buying RAM only from Other World Computing, as Macs can be picky about RAM, and the other "go to" supplier (Crucial) seems to have exited the Mac RAM business. Do not order the 16 GB kit on the following OWC page. It is for "MacBookPro7,1 only" and that's a model identifier for a different model than the Mac you own.
Other World Computing – OWC Memory Upgrades For MacBook Pro (Late 2008 - 2010)
Your Mac has a SATA drive bay for a 2.5" SATA notebook drive. If you are still using a mechanical hard drive, you might want to replace it by a SSD. However, the interface is a 3.0 Gbps SATA-II one, not a 6.0 Gbps SATA-III one. That means you shouldn't drop in just any old SSD. Once again, I'm going to point you at OWC, because they are aware of the issue and are selling drives meant to work well with that old SATA-II interface.
LowEndMac – Watch Out for SATA III Drives in SATA II Macs and PCs
Other World Computing – OWC Solid State Drives For MacBook Pro 13", 15" & 17" (Mid 2010)
It once was possible to add USB 3.0 ports to your Mac by taking advantage of the ExpressCard/34 slot. I am not sure if you can still find any new or used cards, of a reliable brand, that are compatible with your Mac, since that market has been dead for over a decade.
An example: SonnetTech – Legacy Products – USB 3.0 ExpressCard/34 Adapter [no longer available]
There's not much you can do to improve application compatibility. Basically it is a question of whether there are things that you could do that would make you happier running the applications that you already have.
The real upgrade would be to replace your 17" mid-2010 MacBook Pro – a laptop introduced fifteen years ago – with a current Mac notebook. Say, a 15" M4 MacBook Air or a 14" or 16" M4-family MacBook Pro. A new Mac notebook would be much more powerful and compatible with current applications than the one that you have.
Also lighter. Your Mac weighs 6.6 pounds. Even the heaviest current Mac notebooks – the 16" MacBook Pros – weigh in at 4.7 pounds, nearly two pounds lighter. A 15" M4 MacBook Air is a bit short on ports, but would weigh only 3.3 pounds – half as much as your machine!
Software
The newest compatible operating system for a 17" mid-2010 MacBook Pro is macOS 13.* (High Sierra) – which your tag line seems to indicate that you are already running.
Identify your MacBook Pro model - Apple Support
High Sierra is seven major versions behind the current version of macOS (Sequoia). Application vendors such as Microsoft and Adobe abandoned support for High Sierra long ago – and Serif (Affinity Photo/Designer/Publisher) has also abandoned support for High Sierra, though more recently.
High Sierra is not even good enough to run the current versions of Firefox and LibreOffice, although at least there, you can still get older versions that run on High Sierra. Firefox 115 ESR is still getting "critical security updates" – although not for long. High Sierra's version of LibreOffice is unsupported but probably works fairly well.
Mozilla Support – Firefox users on macOS 10.12, 10.13 and 10.14 moving to Extended Support Release
The Document Foundation Wiki – versions of LibreOffice for old and current operating systems
Hardware
According to MacTracker, that Mac can take up to 8 GB of RAM. I would recommend buying RAM only from Other World Computing, as Macs can be picky about RAM, and the other "go to" supplier (Crucial) seems to have exited the Mac RAM business. Do not order the 16 GB kit on the following OWC page. It is for "MacBookPro7,1 only" and that's a model identifier for a different model than the Mac you own.
Other World Computing – OWC Memory Upgrades For MacBook Pro (Late 2008 - 2010)
Your Mac has a SATA drive bay for a 2.5" SATA notebook drive. If you are still using a mechanical hard drive, you might want to replace it by a SSD. However, the interface is a 3.0 Gbps SATA-II one, not a 6.0 Gbps SATA-III one. That means you shouldn't drop in just any old SSD. Once again, I'm going to point you at OWC, because they are aware of the issue and are selling drives meant to work well with that old SATA-II interface.
LowEndMac – Watch Out for SATA III Drives in SATA II Macs and PCs
Other World Computing – OWC Solid State Drives For MacBook Pro 13", 15" & 17" (Mid 2010)
It once was possible to add USB 3.0 ports to your Mac by taking advantage of the ExpressCard/34 slot. I am not sure if you can still find any new or used cards, of a reliable brand, that are compatible with your Mac, since that market has been dead for over a decade.
An example: SonnetTech – Legacy Products – USB 3.0 ExpressCard/34 Adapter [no longer available]
Definitely do not spend any money on hardware upgrades. The 17" models were known to develop GPU failures over time. I would be concerned about the health of the laptop's hard drive after all these years. Installing an SSD would improve performance, but not all SSDs will work well on those older computers. In fact the best option these days would be the OWC Mercury Electra 3G SSD since it is a SATA II based SSD. I'm not fond of the current version of this particular OWC SSD, but it would be the most compatible SSD today since Crucial is no longer selling the MX500 SSD (ignore the Crucial BX500 SSD as it is pure junk).
@MrHoffman's suggestion to install & use Linux is a good option for extending the useful life of the old computer if you are willing to learn a new non-Apple OS. The OS is current and has access to many popular web browsers (Firefox, Vivaldi, Brave, Google Chrome). Plus there is lots of free open source software within the Linux distribution's software repositories. I've never used ElementaryOS so I don't know how "Mac" compatible it is. I know a co-worker has installed Linux Mint on many 2007-2015 older Macs (especially the 2007-2010 ). Most Linux distributions can be made to boot a Mac, but some may not be able to do this easily/automatically without some manual intervention.
You can usually try out many Linux distributions by selecting the "Live" option when booting the Linux installer. It will be very slow since it is loading & running everything in memory and/or from a very slow USB stick. The performance once installed to the internal drive will be much better. 4GB of RAM will allow Linux to run well when using a web browser.
Before installing Linux, make sure to create a bootable macOS 10.13 High Sierra USB installer using the instructions in the following Apple article and making sure to verify the macOS USB installer will actually boot the laptop.
Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support
If you really want to stay with an SSD-upgraded macOS 10.13 configuration, you’ll probably need to use a web browser with older-version support, and you’ll have increasing difficulties with network connections and related in general.
As for another approach, that Intel Mac will probably be able to run a BSD UNIX, or a Linux distribution such as elementary OS, if you want newer UNIX or UNIX-like software available for that hardware.
Thank you very much for your time and interest. Very detailed knowledge you brought to me about the subject. As you said; I am only using this Mac for reading, writing and some old versions of Adobe. My only concern was about the security while browsing the internet and after some research I learned that Apple ‘s own security support continues. Thank you again and wishing you success !
ouzcoskun wrote:
after some research I learned that Apple ‘s own security support continues.
The most recent Apple security update I could find for High Sierra was Update 2020-006, released on November 12, 2020.
Apple security updates (2020 to 2021) - Apple Support
Safari 13.1, which came out on March 24, 2020, runs on High Sierra. (The latest version of Safari is 18.4. It came out on March 31, 2025 and requires Ventura or better.)
Safari Release Notes | Apple Developer Documentation
Here's an article from a third-party Web site about other security-related files that Apple updates "silently".
The Eclectic Light Company – Silent High Sierra night: security settings files in macOS High Sierra
Looks like High Sierra may have fairly recent XProtect definitions, but beyond that, I'm not seeing a whole lot of security support in the way of patching security vulnerabilities.
Thank you.
What are the best upgrade options for my MacBook Pro 2010?
