MacBook Pro 2.0

Published on October 6th, 2012
If you haven’t looked at getting a Solid State Drive (SSD) for your older MacBook Pro (or any other computer for that matter), then I highly suggest you do so.

My MacBook Pro has served me well. Bought in mid-2010, it first assisted me in maintaining the website and designing things for my old employer.

Six months after that, my part-time gig at The Next Web blew up. I was suddenly a full-time blogger, taking my MacBook Pro all over the UK and Europe, using it to file superfast reports on the very latest developments in the technology industry.

With an Intel i5 processor, 4GB RAM and 300GB hard drive, it was enough but it wasn’t what I was able to call a battlestation. When opening Chrome, resizing images and switching between tabs to be the first to publish, it was noticeably laggy and I often found myself at the mercy of the spinning beachball.

Apple’s focus has shifted over the years and now all of its devices are shifting towards solid state drives and all sorts of digital fanciness. I’d skipped the MacBook Air and I certainly didn’t have the money for a new Retina MacBook Pro, but I had to do something.

Over the last week I made sure I did.

Armed with some feedback from Twitter, colleagues and friends, I jumped on to Amazon.co.uk (with a free one-month Prime membership) and set about ordering what I hoped would breathe some life back into my ageing MacBook Pro.

This included:

Last night I spent a couple of hours installing the parts, taking time to remove the optical bay (DVD drive) and replacing it with the new SSD drive. By doing this, I can continue to utilise the old hard drive and keep my old photos, music and media without filling the faster SSD drive.

Once it was all fixed in place (it’s a fiddly process, I won’t lie), I cloned the old hard drive, copying the data over to access my applications and important system files. Then I set the Mac to automatically boot from my new SSD drive, rebooted and waited.

I didn’t have to wait long – Mountain Lion booted in less than 7 seconds (probably took between 20-30 seconds before). Cloning the hard drive might not have been the best approach as I had to set up my apps again, but it gave me the chance to start fresh and set up my Mac with far less bloat.

I’m at the point where I can load 10-15 apps in a matter of seconds when I hit their dock icons, Chrome is snappy (for once) and everything is a whole lot faster.

Many people said “welcome to the future” when I tweeted news of my upgrade. I think those words describe the experience perfectly, it’s like having a brand new Mac.

(Oh, and it cost me less than £130 – I consider that a major win.)

Image Credit: Marcus Crafter/Flickr

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