I bought my MacBook in 2011. I went with the Mac for the quality and longevity and I’d say by now that has panned out well. It did however start running slow about two years ago and became pretty unbearable in recent months, but in general it was in pretty good shape. Thought about getting a new one but then started looking into possible upgrades. Found I could upgrade the hard drive and RAM modules for about $100 (went to a solid state drive and from 4GB of RAM to 8GB). Looked up a tutorial on YouTube and did all the work myself! Runs like new and will hopefully keep my laptop around for several more years! 10/10! Consider this before buying new!
Edit: Also plan on selling the old parts. Will get some money back (probably about $40) for even more savings!
Edit 2: A couple people asked how I did this so here you go! Again I have a 2011 MacBook Pro so it may be different for you... sorry I couldn’t get the links to work :/
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I bought some RAM modules on amazon for $38: “8GB Memory Kit 2X 4GB for Apple.”
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And a solid state drive (way faster than the standard hard drive that came with my Mac) for $58: “Samsung 860 EVO 250GB 2.5 Inch.”
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Here’s the video that helped me to replace the RAM modules: https://youtu.be/sXGCOmDWAek
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And here’s the video hat helped me to replace the hard drive https://youtu.be/Md8grI-mGVA
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And here’s how I “cloned” my old hard drive so I could copy it to my new solid state drive for a seamless transition: https://youtu.be/lfJrAcnHN2g
I used an external hard drive instead of cloning directly to the new solid state drive though, so it took me an extra step or two.
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I did have to get a small torx screwdriver kit to access the hard drive in the laptop. I got it at Home Depot for $6
You’ll also need a tiny Philips head, like one you might use to repair glasses. I had one lying around.
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I ran into a couple misc. snags along the way, more specific to my situation, but nothing a quick google search couldn’t handle.
I recommend you create a backup, using Time Machine, separate from the cloning process if you can before you do anything.
You got this!!
April 11, 2019 at 07:08PM
