Slide it out, and install the same way both new 8GB sticks of memory. The memory is even simpler to upgrade, remove the original memory sticks by losing the side arms, it pops up. Simply remove the bracket, install the new SSD with the original spaces and reinstall the bracket. The HDD is there held in position by a simple bracket. Thankfully these generations of laptops are very easy to upgrade, you simply remove the back panel, unplug the battery and there you have it.

Much better than the original 500GB SATA2 5400RPM spinning hard drive only capable of running at ~75MB/s or the Apple supplied SSD going at 175MB/s. The drive selected is a Kingston SSDNow V400, model SUV400S3B7A/480G, a 480GB capacity SSD that offers maximum speeds of 550MB/s reads and 500MB/s writes. The memory selected is Kingston 8GB, model KCP313SD8/8, two sticks of 8GB DDR3 PC3-10600 at 1333MHz will be compatible and offer the maximum memory compatible with the system. Looking at devices, specs and all, we ended up selecting the following memory and SSD model that are both pushing the computer to the limit of its performances. Even Apple only maxed out this computer at 8GB of memory. Two modules of 16GB each seems interesting but it’s not compatible with this computer. Same culprits for the memory, you must select compatible memory going at the proper bus speed and respect the limits of the computer. For example, it makes no sense to get a SATA3 class SSD since the hardware only supports SATA2. The challenge with such a computer is to find the best hardware, the fastest one, without diving into features that are not compatible or not supported by the laptop. It’s not a bad thing since these are the things that have the most impact on this kind of upgrade. The board, CPU and GPU are all soldered so we can only update the memory and disk. For the rest, it’s still a fully functional laptop that is just in need of a few great touches by Geeks like us. If you do not consider the latest macOS release for which he cannot benefit from NightShift, his computer was still able to be updated to the latest macOS version albeit with some limitation like AirDrop and clipboard syncing not being present. This laptop came with 4GB of memory and a spinning hard drive. Tyler has an old faithful MacBook Pro 13” from 2011. Depending on your base configuration, it might even take it from barely usable to lightning fast and almost up to par with recent computers.

If it’s a few years old, chances are you can still upgrade the disk and the memory which will give it a great boost in performance. Often we have an aging computer and sometimes it’s not the best idea to simply replace it.

Replace hard drive macbook pro 2011