I have a 2012 and LP works perfect, if you don't use the CD, you can add a ssd with a cheap enclosure, so you can have all your sounds inside and not carry an external. I got the original in that and an ssd to be the system drive.
https://www.amazon.com/Optical-SuperDrive-Adapter-Unibody-2012-etc/dp/B004FM4UGE
Here’s an example of the caddy I was taking about.
Mine had the same problem twice so I just use a SuperDrive to SATA tray for my SSD and pulled the SATA cable out completely.
Okay, here's a much better alternative for most people. You presumably took out a larger spinning disk out of your laptop to upgrade to SSD. Consider replacing your optical drive with a drive caddy like this, and install your old drive in it. Then move all of your larger files like your iTunes library, movies, photos, etc to the secondary drive to clear off the SSD. No cloning required, and it's a total cost of around $9.
I have had the hdd cable be the problem more than once.
I say try that first as its cheap, failing that all that is left is the logicboard.
Is the optical drive detected? Something like this would let you plug the ssd (or hdd) into the optical drive bay.
Im not sure of the availability of the 2010 cables.
Had this same model before upgrading to the base M1 MacBook Air. What I did was replaced the HDD with two SSDs and upgraded the RAM to 16gb.
The first SSD went into the HDD spot and I bought a disk drive to SSD caddy kit [here](https://www.amazon.com/Optical-SuperDrive-Adapter-Unibody-2012-etc/dp/B004FM4UGE)
With this update I was able to run Catalina no problem and used it as a daily driver for light photo editing, programming and CSGO.
DVD drives are typically only held in by a single screw, and then they are friction connected to SATA on the motherboard. You can get an adapter like this one that slots into the DVD drive slot - make sure to get the right size. Some older laptops have 9.5mm slots instead of this 2.5mm. Here's a 9.5mm caddy in case you have one of those.
The adapters are generic - you can find dozens of them with different brand names.
They come with a generic faceplate but I pop that off and take the faceplate off the optical drive and just attach it, so the laptop ends up looking like it did before, except the optical drive doesn't exist.
The caddy comes with four screws and a little screwdriver so just friction fit your 2.5 inch SSD or hard drive (may need a slight push) and then screw in the four screws. There have been instances where the computer manufacturer does not allow the bios to recognize another drive there but it's rare.
Also, as a bonus, you can get an adapter like this connect to your now-removed optical drive and you have yourself an external optical drive should you ever need it.
if you don't need the optical drive, you can replace it with this here : https://www.amazon.com/Optical-SuperDrive-Adapter-Unibody-2012-etc/dp/B004FM4UGE
yes this should work and if you don't need your dvd drive you can replace it with this and then use your old drive as storage or buy a cheaper drive and use that.
Yeah it's a Sata Drive. Any of the standard disc bay to 2.5" converter kits should work fine. Good luck.
https://www.amazon.com/Optical-SuperDrive-Adapter-Unibody-2012-etc/dp/B004FM4UGE
I'm using just 240 gb for operating systems and i put 2 tb hdd 7200 rpm on this caddy or use a external hard drive
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004FM4UGE/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fab_iMKDFbZCJ9HVQ
Here's a link to one, some combination of those search terms should net you the right thing!
Very important comment here from someone who did this before:
The Optibay where the DVD drive/SuperDrive is has a slower speed than the HD bay where the factory HDD is. The SSD speed will be limited in the Optibay. I would recommend putting SSD (boot drive) in the HD bay and the factory HDD in a HD caddy like this one.
Use ifixit repair guide for installing 2nd HDD. Too lazy to find link. You got this.
You’re going to want to attach the SSD to comp before installing it to make sure it works and has the data copied first. So you’ll need a SATA to USB cable/enclosure (I’d lean cable since you won’t be replacing the drive in this scenario and won’t need an enclosure to make the drive an external one). this cable will do the trick.
Attach SSD to comp via cable, restore via TimeMachine or Carbon Copy Cloner to the drive (copies your HDD to SSD essentially). Then test boot from SSD while it’s still attached peripherally. If all goes well then I’d swap it in place of the HDD and put HDD in caddy.
Oh and you can get an external enclosure for SuperDrive in case you still use CDs/DVDs.
For difficulty check the ifixit for hard drive replacement. I’d say overall not difficult for either. https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+13-Inch+Unibody+Early+2011+Hard+Drive+Replacement/5119
It’s certainly worth it, whether you need 16gb or ram or that big of an ssd is a judgement call. I put in a 256gb sad and 16gb ran into my 2011 17” and it still works like a dream. I also put in a 1tb HD’s in the cdrom spot with something like below so that a smaller ssd would work. Only thing to look at is the data speed as my cdrom spot was only sata2.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004FM4UGE/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_0WyLBbXD41KQM
If your Mac is from 2012 and has 4 gigs of RAM, then it's one of the older generation models before the "retina displays" came out. The mid-2012 models do not have soldered RAM and do not have a soldered SSD. I am sure of this because the 2012 retina models all came with at least 8GB of soldered RAM.
Your Mac's RAM and storage are user upgradable. You can put a standard 2.5in 256GB SSD to replace the HDD and upgrade the RAM to 16GB (DDR3, not DDR4). You can even remove the optical drive and re-use your existing HDD for media storage with the help of a "caddy." Total cost would be <$200.
It's a very easy task to do even if you've never done anything of the sort before. Thankfully in your generation of Macs, Apple designed the layout in such a way that those components are easily serviceable. You just need to pop the bottom cover off and you can immediately access the HDD/RAM. Unfortunately you need a special screwdriver/bit to remove the back cover, but that's only a few dollars as well.
If you are local to Atlanta, I'd be more than happy to lend you my pentalobe screwdriver or even guide you through the process. If you supply the components I'd even replace them for you, for free. The process takes less than 5 minutes, but setting up the OS on your SSD would take a little bit longer.
An Ivy Bridge i5 is still easily powerful enough to last you throughout undergraduate courses at Tech. For any intensive rendering you'd potentially have to do, you can just use the Vlab. Your laptop probably feels slow now merely because it does not have an SSD and only has 4GB of RAM.
If you are dead set on buying a new computer, I would not recommend the current generation of MacBook Pros, nor the regular MacBook. They have many soldered components and there is almost no way to service or upgrade them by yourself. If anything goes wrong, you have to send it to an authorized Apple repair specialist and it will cost you a lot of money. Money doesn't seem to sound like an issue for you, but any midrange $500-$800 laptop with a quad-core, at least 8GB of RAM, and at least a 256GB SSD will get the job done.
You can also sacrifice your DVD player for another hard drive. My 2011 MBP has a 256Gb SSD & a 750Gb WD Black for storage. Is awesome.
I upgraded my 2011 MBP with a 120gig Corsair Force 3 SSD and it was one of the best upgrades I I've done. I removed the Optical Drive and took out the 500gig drive that came with the Mac and put it into the leftover space with the help of this HDD caddy. This caddy required a lot of modification, you can read my review here.
My MBP boots up in 17 seconds flat right now, just a bit slower than my friends i7 MBA that boots at ~16 to 16.5 seconds. Final Cut Pro 7 loads in about two seconds, compared to my schools i5 iMac's that load FCP7 in about 5 to 6 seconds. Photoshop loads in about 1 to 2 seconds. Starcraft II runs phenomenally, and on all ultra settings. I am not a huge gamer, but I like to boast about that to my friends who rag on Mac's ;)
If you are interested in hearing more about my upgrade just let me know and I'd be glad to ellaborate for you. The moral of the story is, upgrade that shit!
edit: Spelling