Slow MBP

[louislsh]

I want to ask is it common for my old MBP to run slow?
I am running OS maverick on
2.4ghz Intel Core 2 Duo
4 gb 1067 mhz ddr3
NVIDIA Geforce 320M 256MB
OSX 10.9

I just installed Photoshop which took quite some time.
I got to wait for the laptop to response to my clicks which i find it slow.
This old mbp have not been using for quite sometime.

I find that after upgrading from my Snow leopard, it run quite slow.

 

[PetPet]

Did you just complete the installation?
It's normal. Spotlight is re-indexing your files.
Give it sometime to complete reindexing.

 

[louislsh]

Thanks,i upgrade from snow leopard quite long ago. which i find very slow since then and have not use this MBP.
Recently download maverick, so i shall give it some time and see how it goes.

 

[chehjin]

my machine is older and I do not feel the lag you described in photoshop but then again, this could be subjective.

but right off my head, you should consider using SSD or bump up your ram to speed up your mac. Even a bump from 5400 hdd to 7200 will help a bit.

also, you could run check permissions and a check on the hdd as well. maybe your hdd is spoiling, so its slowing down.

 

[louislsh]

Thanks chehjin , Never crossed my mind it could be anything with the HDD.
It's indeed better to change to an SSD rather than buying a new machine.

 

[softbunlet]

Thanks chehjin , Never crossed my mind it could be anything with the HDD.
It's indeed better to change to an SSD rather than buying a new machine.

Gotta make sure it's really the HDD slowing it down...

If you end up buying a new Macbook Pro or Air after the SSD, you can't put the SSD anywhere as they don't use the SATA connector.

(Unless you buy the 13" non-retina. An external Thunderbolt case for the SSD works too. But most people don't do this. )

 

[chehjin]

looking at his specs, i'm quite confirm the main bottleneck is the HDD (especially if he still using stock one) 2nd would be ram.

 

[havetobuy]

Thanks chehjin , Never crossed my mind it could be anything with the HDD.
It's indeed better to change to an SSD rather than buying a new machine.

u hav absolutely no idea ow much is yr embed ssd replacement gonna cost?
try around $600...

 

[chehjin]

u hav absolutely no idea ow much is yr embed ssd replacement gonna cost?
try around $600...

he is using the old unibody mbp, he can get the normal 2.5" SSD, which will be half of what you are proposing

 

[kwok0037]

u hav absolutely no idea ow much is yr embed ssd replacement gonna cost?
try around $600...

So many ssd and it's getting so much cheaper than the past. I recommend the corsair neutron gtx 240gb because I'm using it now and I switched from a year already. I have the same specs as you and I felt that I'd just changed a new Mac after the 8gb ram & ssd upgrade + external cleaning. Definitely recommend you to upgrade too. Altogether cost me less than $450.

 

[louislsh]

So many ssd and it's getting so much cheaper than the past. I recommend the corsair neutron gtx 240gb because I'm using it now and I switched from a year already. I have the same specs as you and I felt that I'd just changed a new Mac after the 8gb ram & ssd upgrade + external cleaning. Definitely recommend you to upgrade too. Altogether cost me less than $450.

Thanks all and I have changed to a Samsung EVO 120gb SSD, on a tight budget and will use external hard disk for anything else.
Didn't managed to get the 2 X 4gb ram that I wanted as Fuwell out of stock and didn't felt safe getting other brands other than strontium.
Although later I dismantle and found out mine is using Hynix brand, should just hoot the Hynix from bizgram.
Anyway, after a fresh installation, it feel much faster now. Although not the 5 times faster the sales person was telling me about.

 

[chehjin]

Thanks all and I have changed to a Samsung EVO 120gb SSD, on a tight budget and will use external hard disk for anything else.
Didn't managed to get the 2 X 4gb ram that I wanted as Fuwell out of stock and didn't felt safe getting other brands other than strontium.
Although later I dismantle and found out mine is using Hynix brand, should just hoot the Hynix from bizgram.
Anyway, after a fresh installation, it feel much faster now. Although not the 5 times faster the sales person was telling me about.

i think he is assuming you went from SATA to SATA III but in actual fact, most likely you are at SATA 2 only, which should be a 2 times improvement. (On paper)

i think later get the ram upgrade should feel even more slightly faster. of cos, don't expect miracles la.

 

[MevolutionX]

Gotta make sure it's really the HDD slowing it down...

If you end up buying a new Macbook Pro or Air after the SSD, you can't put the SSD anywhere as they don't use the SATA connector.

(Unless you buy the 13" non-retina. An external Thunderbolt case for the SSD works too. But most people don't do this. )

SSD uses a sata connector too. LOL!

 

[chehjin]

SSD uses a sata connector too. LOL!

he is referring to the latest 2013 macs where the SSD is customed make and connected directly via PCIe. these kinds of SSD is very expensive to buy