I’d noticed that my 2011 MacBook Pro didn’t appear to run as quickly as when I first purchased it in 2011.  I tried reinstalling the Operating System and various other tricks and to no avail.  The reality is that newer computers seem to run much faster and that’s because manufacturers have change storage from clunky old mechanical drives to Solid State Drives (Using memory chips instead of mechanical plates and motors), many these days some with a Combination Hard Drive with some Solid State Capability, to get the best of both worlds, large storage capability and the performance boost of Solid State Memory!

I was debating whether to purchase a new MacBook as my work provided MacBook Pro was significantly quicker to use and it suppose to have the same processor speeds…

After researching the best type of SSD that was compatible with my model of MacBook on the internet, the 1TB Samsung EVO 840 would be perfect, gaining extra storage space from my 750Gb Mechanical HD and (hopefully faster performance too)!

My hard drive was backed up using Apple Time-Machine, and so I set about upgrading my MBP.

The video below shows how you can do this at home.

Once the upgrade was complete, it is important to run the Apple Hardware Test and reset the PRAM (Hold down Option+ALT+P+R and power on, wait for the second set of dings) and then hold down Option and D whilst pressing power on to boot into the Hardware Test Mode.  The test may ask you to connect to the internet to download the latest version.

The test took around 4 minutes to complete and reported that all my hardware including the new SSD Drive passed.  Yay! 🙂

I then rebooted into recovery mode (CMD + R) to reinstall the operating system, and then restore my files from a time machine back up.  This whole process took a few hours to complete, and so it’s not an upgrade you should perform in a rush.

I’m really impressed with the speed and performance of my MBP, the experience is like having a brand new computer.  The MBP boots up in around 3-4 seconds, applications like Photoshop and Microsoft Office start almost immediately.

Using the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test, the new HD performs at 520mbs Read and Write rates, and best still where my aging battery would last about 3-4 hours on a full charge, the lower power consumption of the Samsung EVO 840 means I get around 6-7 hours usage on a full charge (Note Usage will vary depending on what applications you are running).

Overall, if you are thinking of investing in a new computer, take a look at upgrading to an SSD drive, it’s made a significant difference!

                          
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