Upgrade old laptop or get a new one

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Level 1

8 points

Upgrade old laptop or get a new one

I own a mid 2012 13" Macbook Pro. Lately I experienced an issue where my keyboard didn't respond for 2 minutes no matter what I did, it also starts up quite slow. My friend recommended upgrading to a SSD for a faster performance but being the huge gamer I am I would also want to upgrade the ram and the graphics card (or get an external one). Otherwise I could buy myself a new gaming laptop all together and just dual boot Windows and Mac OS onto it. I would love some opinions, thinking about getting an ASUS ROG GL552 or if you have any other recommendations or maybe I should just stick to this laptop and upgrade it.

MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.4)

Posted on Jun 29, 2016 4:46 AM

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Answer 1

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,329 points

Jun 29, 2016 5:21 AM in response to Sorentix

A unresponsive keyboard is a hardware or software problem and it is not a reason to get a new MBP unless it cannot be resolved. That is a fault that must be investigated, defined and resolved.

A 2012 MBP can accept up to 16 GB RAM and installation of an SSD will enhance the performance. The best places for Mac compatible RAM are OWC and Crucial. The same is applicable for SSDs.

If games are a top priority, then a MBP is not the best choice. MBPs have never been consider 'good' game machines. A properly configured PC would be a far better selection.

Ciao.

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Answer 2

dwb

Level 7

33,298 points

Jun 29, 2016 7:11 AM in response to Sorentix

Upgrading a 2012 MBP with an SSD (Crucial Tech & OWC are the two sources I’d look to for SSDs) is a great way to improve the performance. El Capitan can run quite well on a 2012 computer with an SSD but a conventional hard drive, especially a 5400 RPM drive, is a big bottleneck. Unless you run large programs like Adobe Photoshop 8GB of RAM is sufficient. Upgrading the GPU isn’t possible and I’ve not been impressed with what I’ve read about external GPUs in terms of performance. In fact, if you are looking for a good gaming notebook you don’t want to look at a Mac notebook.

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Answer 3

alex7375

Level 3

702 points

Jun 29, 2016 9:17 AM in response to Sorentix

I have the same MBP. I did the upgrade 500gb. SSD and 16gb. Of memory. My MBP performs great now.

Apple is coming out with a NEW line of MacBooks in the fall of 2016 so many people are holding off on buying a new MBP until then.

I Used a Samsung Evo 850 ( 500gb. ) SSD and 16gb of Crucial memory.

It cost me about $200

However you can do this for less if you use a less expensive smaller capacity SSD like the OCZ Trion 150-series SSD.

Just remember to enable trim support for your SSD.

Once you have OS-X installed on the new SSD open the terminal app and enter this command "sudo trimforce enable". YEs, Yes, and reboot.

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