Mid 2012 MacBook Pro, Upgrade and Repair?

championruby on 18/07/2016 - 17:00

Hi guys,

So my girlfriend has a Mid 2012 Macbook Pro, and it is just so incredibly slow now. The charger jack is broken so i have to go get that fixed, which will be around $200. I was thinking of maybe replacing the hard drive with an SSD and upgrading RAM from 4GB to 8GB to speed it up. Would this be worth it? Or would it be better to just buy a new Macbook Pro, although i don't have 1k+ to pay for a working Macbook right now.

Cost wise, would it be worth to getting the charger jack repaired, as well as upgrading the HDD to an SSD and adding some more RAM?

Thanks in advance.

Computing

Comments

  • someguycalledpaul on 18/07/2016 - 17:42

    Hi,

    Is this macbook pro the retina model?

    Essentially Mid 2012 is the point where the old style of upgradable Macbook ended.

    In the retina models
    - the ram is soldered directly onto the logic board.
    - the harddrive is replaceable but not straightforward.

  • marcusv on 18/07/2016 - 17:55

    Even though it is out of warranty take it to an Apple Store, be polite and ask for a quote. I took my mid-2012 in earlier this year because the hard drive cable was stuffed. They ended up replacing the cable and put in a brand new hard drive as well free of charge.

    If it is the older model RAM is easily replaced yourself, you can actually go up to 16GB even though they recommend 8Gb

  • cDNA on 18/07/2016 - 18:17
    -4

    Buy a Dell Latitude 14 from the dell outlet for <$1000. Problem solved.

    I am being presumptuous here, but seems like she needs a laptop for nothing more than photos, videos, web browsing and word processing.

    Best battery life, excellent build quality, excellent keyboard and trackpad, new hardware and dirt cheap.

    • MrMcHairyHead on 18/07/2016 - 19:39

      but seems like she needs a laptop for nothing more than photos, videos, web browsing and word processing.

      How can you infer that other than sexism? OP made no mention of what she uses it for.

      • cDNA on 18/07/2016 - 21:33
        -3

        I just assumed she was an average AUstralian woman. Probably uses an iphone too.
        Oh boo hoo. Sexism.
        I am probably right you social justice lefty

        • MrMcHairyHead on 18/07/2016 - 22:30
          +1

          So, sexism.

        • cDNA on 18/07/2016 - 23:09
          -3

          @MrMcHairyHead:

          The truth.

          Pretty easy to deduce that from a female apple user.

        • MrMcHairyHead on 19/07/2016 - 13:05

          @cDNA: Wow you're a sexist (profanity). Also I'm a programmer doing Computer Science postgrad and I use a Mac, are you saying that I actually only use it for facebook and that I imagined all the programming I do on it?

          The girlfriend could be a rocket scientist for all we know.

        • cDNA on 19/07/2016 - 17:23

          @MrMcHairyHead:

          How many dudes are in your average class?

        • MrMcHairyHead on 19/07/2016 - 18:18

          @cDNA: What does that have to do with OP's girlfriend? You're a (profanity) sexist. Rethink your life.

  • stratbargain on 18/07/2016 - 19:56
    +1

    ~$180 to upgrade to a 256GB SSD and 16GB of ram and it will last you at least another couple of years. Although $200 for a new charger jack and another $150 for a new battery (if needed) and you're probably starting to get into new laptop territory.

    That said, I've got a 2012 Macbook pro with I7, 16GB and SSD and it handles everything I can throw at it. You will notice a huge difference going to an SSD and upgrade in ram. It will be night and day.

  • altomic on 18/07/2016 - 23:50
    +2

    I just upgraded my macbook pro mid 2012 i5 to a 256gb SSD and 16gb ram.

    bought the ram from this deal for AU$66

    and the SSD from this SanDisk SSD Plus 240GB deal for $76.80 .

    removed the CD/DVD super drive and replaced it with a SSD in a caddy which i grabbed from aliexpress for US$2.63 delivered

    here is a comment i made about the installation.

    It starts faster and doesn't hang any more.

    I left the original HDD in and just use that as file storage.

    a little fiddly, but if you're swapping out the optical drive and adding RAM then you're half way there.

    if you can score similar prices then you could have the whole thing done for under $200

    Do mean the charging jack/port on the macbook? or the charging cable itself?

    you can buy the charger jack from aliexpress for US$5 delivered

    And here is an ifixit guide for how to replace the charger jack

    • coco1458 on 18/07/2016 - 23:53
      +1

      Agreed! There's so many cheap parts out there and with an upgrade under $200, that's a steal!
      Also worth mentioning is probably a new battery as well. I purchased mine from BetterBatt, ships quick and works just as well as the OEM

    • maybeamacy on 19/07/2016 - 01:33
      +1

      +1

      I had a non-retina 13" i7, 750GB Early 2012 MBP. Upgraded to a 480GB Sandisk Extreme Pro SSD and the startup/shutdown times were amazing. Computer eventually had other faults and Apple replaced it with a 2015 Retina 13" with an i7/1TB SSD upgrade. Can I tell that I changed computer? Besides the screen and weight, the speed feels the same.

      If it were me, I definitely would upgrade the SSD over upgrading to a new MBP (feels the same to me)

    • Hoju on 19/07/2016 - 07:32

      Wow legendary post.

      Out of interest that ram deal seems pretty superb but I don't see too many upvotes. Half price grainwaves get more +
      Is that because it's not that hard a deal to find, or just appealed to a small market? Not sure if I should hang out for a similar deal or just give up because I missed out on that one. Everything I'm seeing online now is around the $10/gb ram price mark.

      Also altomic did you sell off the old optical drive or just hold onto it? Wondering if they have any value these days.

      • altomic on 19/07/2016 - 09:17
        +1

        Smaller market for ram. I'd been scoping out ram for a month and had even posted a find me a bargain post about inexpensive RAM and then Scotty's deal popped up. Amazon UK just had a similar deal pop up last week. So the ram deals are there if you want to save and are happy to wait for a deal.

        If you need that internal caddy and power jack from China then you'll be waiting 4-6 weeks for delivery. That gives you time to watch for another amazon deal (UK or us) and their postage is a lot faster.

        I'm going to sell the optical drive. I think I have a spare external caddy somewhere so may sell together. Actually, I never used the optical drive so I can only assume it works. But will test once I find that caddy.

        I'll also sell the 4GB (2x2) of ram.

  • Lockieasy on 19/07/2016 - 11:24

    First, take it to the Apple store and get your Mac assessed. They might fix the issue free of charge if it's a known issue. Happened to me twice.

    Otherwise I recommend checking out iFixit before you do anything.

    Using their guides I replaced the battery (purchased from BattDepot) and upgraded the RAM (purchased from RamCity) from 4GB to 8GB on my Early 2011 Macbook Pro at a fraction of the price!

    You should also do a complete reformat. I recently did my first reformat since buying the thing 5 years ago and everything runs so much faster, wish I had done it earlier.

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