I found this laptop on Craigslist for $130. I added new RAM (16gb), a 256GB SSD & updated the macOS to Ventura via Open Core Legacy Patcher & it works like a charm! This will now be my backup laptop
I love these Unibody MacBooks. I have done this to both 13 and 15 inch 2012 MacBook Pro's plus 2012 i7 Mac mini. All have SSD and maxed out RAM they are very powerful and very usable in 2022. OCLP is a great tool .
Yes, OCLP is fantastic! I could live without the new OS features, but having some modern level of security patches and the ability to update your web browser is absolutely essential. So glad there's a way to keep these machines running.
Same =) MacBook Pro non retina 2012 i7 with 1tb evo 870 SSD on Monterey is amazingly fast! I'm android dev and do other side projects that work amazing. The also amazing thing I got lucky with my MacBook Pro was I'm the second owner and the first owner rarely used this laptop! The battery only has originally 110 cycles on it, the screen is perfect and I put screen protector on so I don't get key inprints, the only thing with this laptop is the bottom paly is scuffed from not having laptop case and scratch on front next to apple. Just skinned her and wow. Bought in 2022 back in jan for 300 and the best money I have spent!
I just watched this video and the new iMac video on your channel. Excellent. Subscribed and liked I know your video is 2 years old now. Do you think a 2012 MBP i5 with SSD and 8gb ram is can handle Sonoma or sequoia? Love your channel man
I got a macbook 13 inch i5, with 16 gb 1600mhz ddr3, 256 gb ssd and new battery for 110 euro total. Is this in 2023 a bargain? I use it for Garageband for music production and some light coding.
That wouldn't even be bad pricing for a PC laptop of that era, and it seems like an excellent price for a MacBook since they tend to hold resale value much better. I know it's an older model, but with that config it is an incredibly competent system still! I think you got excellent value for your money! Congrats!!
I did consider doing a Linux "crossgrade". I was thinking about doing it on an older model that doesn't support Monterey... Basically something that isn't very usable by modern standards due to lack of Mac OS support.
Ya, those A400 aren’t great. For light general use, they’re cheap, they perform OK, they get the job done. Certainly better performers out there. I am planning some older stuff. I have newer iMac GPU upgrade video coming next, but the back to a vintage one. Will either be Macintosh Plus restore, or Apple IIe testing (and restore if necessary). Been looking for a IIe for a long time and finally got one! What era of old tech are you most interested in seeing?
@@rebootretro yes they aren’t great at all.For usb flash drives I nearly always use Kingston but my first experience with Kingston ssd’s put me off their ssd’s totally. Looking forward to your other video. I have a few PPC macs here and always wonder if anything can be really done with them or are they just too old now so it would be nice to see some videos on PPC.
@@pattskatoey3139 For basic general use, I find they're reliable enough; I've installed MANY dozens of these, and don't recall any particular failures. I'm assuming your complaint is mostly with lack of DRAM cache? A big hit to performance for sure. PPC is probably too old to daily drive. There used to be TenFourFox browser to bring modern browsing, but I think they canned that project (I could be wrong). I do have a B&W G3 tower planned for restoration down the road. I'm also excited for a G4 Cube I have, but don't have a power supply for it yet. Its difficult, but I do try to keep diversity in content as far as eras. I really find all the eras very interesting, and try to get a good mix to keep things interesting. You're definitely right though, I'm definitely due for a PPC era video for sure!
Nice video, thanks! I have a 15” MacBook Pro 9,1 (mid-2012) and I keep getting errors and not able to install its latest officially supported Mac OS or with Monterey with OCLP… it gets about half way and then says there was an error or that there is a problem with the installer. Any tips?
Thanks! The most common issues that caused that error for me were incorrect system date (causes the cert validation to fail, but the generic error doesn't tell you this), USB key issue (even if it isn't faulty, try a larger one - some people have reported issues with 16GB ones despite them being large enough), incorrect file system used (HFS+ instead of APFS - the patched installer allows you to install on the wrong file system while I think the genuine installer prevents this), and lastly OpenCore not built correctly or not built for the correct model (double check your model, rebuild, and if still not working try a different OCLP version - maybe a previous version if you are on the latest, or the latest if you're on a previous version). Unfortunately I'm not aware of a specific thing that causes this, but I've definitely seen it. In modern day, companies have moved to "kind" errors which tell you nothing, vs "scary" ones that provide actual troubleshooting information. Your machine should be fully compatible, might just take some trial and error to figure it out.
Thanks for the reply. I have already tried everything you mentioned to no avail… but I’ll I keep trying, lol🤪 I am now attempting to install Catalina via internet recovery 🤞🤞 I plugged in ethernet cable and used command+option+R… hopefully that will work and I can then get OCLP on there and onto Monterey🤞😎🤞
I haven't tried Ventura yet, but reports say it works fine on the 2012 MBP. 8GB RAM should be plenty for basic use. I do believe that a 2012 requires less patching for Monterey, making it more "vanilla" if that matters to you; it could mean Monterey would be slightly more stable, however I've not seen any reports of major problems either. I suspect you'll be fine to run Ventura, although I can vouch that Monterey does run pretty near perfectly on that machine. Both OSes are still supported, so you'll be getting security updates and patches, which is what's most important.
I found this laptop on Craigslist for $130. I added new RAM (16gb), a 256GB SSD & updated the macOS to Ventura via Open Core Legacy Patcher & it works like a charm! This will now be my backup laptop
Nice find! At a $130, you can't go wrong!
I have the same MacBook Pro 15 inch has 16 gb of ram and 2.3 ghz core i7 and a 480 Kingston ssd
Yup, these really are great machines!!
I love these Unibody MacBooks. I have done this to both 13 and 15 inch 2012 MacBook Pro's plus 2012 i7 Mac mini. All have SSD and maxed out RAM they are very powerful and very usable in 2022. OCLP is a great tool .
Yes, OCLP is fantastic! I could live without the new OS features, but having some modern level of security patches and the ability to update your web browser is absolutely essential. So glad there's a way to keep these machines running.
Same =) MacBook Pro non retina 2012 i7 with 1tb evo 870 SSD on Monterey is amazingly fast! I'm android dev and do other side projects that work amazing. The also amazing thing I got lucky with my MacBook Pro was I'm the second owner and the first owner rarely used this laptop! The battery only has originally 110 cycles on it, the screen is perfect and I put screen protector on so I don't get key inprints, the only thing with this laptop is the bottom paly is scuffed from not having laptop case and scratch on front next to apple. Just skinned her and wow. Bought in 2022 back in jan for 300 and the best money I have spent!
I just watched this video and the new iMac video on your channel. Excellent. Subscribed and liked
I know your video is 2 years old now. Do you think a 2012 MBP i5 with SSD and 8gb ram is can handle Sonoma or sequoia?
Love your channel man
I got a macbook 13 inch i5, with 16 gb 1600mhz ddr3, 256 gb ssd and new battery for 110 euro total. Is this in 2023 a bargain? I use it for Garageband for music production and some light coding.
That wouldn't even be bad pricing for a PC laptop of that era, and it seems like an excellent price for a MacBook since they tend to hold resale value much better. I know it's an older model, but with that config it is an incredibly competent system still! I think you got excellent value for your money! Congrats!!
I just throw *nix on them, less work to patch the new os to not crash for old display drivers and such. but to each their own :P
One day you'll have have upgrade a MacBook from macOS to Linux, freeing it from its shackles.
I did consider doing a Linux "crossgrade". I was thinking about doing it on an older model that doesn't support Monterey... Basically something that isn't very usable by modern standards due to lack of Mac OS support.
I hate those A400 Kingston ssd drives. I still want to get my hands on an early 2012 MacBook Pro. We want to see more videos on old tech.
Ya, those A400 aren’t great. For light general use, they’re cheap, they perform OK, they get the job done. Certainly better performers out there.
I am planning some older stuff. I have newer iMac GPU upgrade video coming next, but the back to a vintage one. Will either be Macintosh Plus restore, or Apple IIe testing (and restore if necessary). Been looking for a IIe for a long time and finally got one! What era of old tech are you most interested in seeing?
@@rebootretro yes they aren’t great at all.For usb flash drives I nearly always use Kingston but my first experience with Kingston ssd’s put me off their ssd’s totally.
Looking forward to your other video.
I have a few PPC macs here and always wonder if anything can be really done with them or are they just too old now so it would be nice to see some videos on PPC.
@@pattskatoey3139 For basic general use, I find they're reliable enough; I've installed MANY dozens of these, and don't recall any particular failures. I'm assuming your complaint is mostly with lack of DRAM cache? A big hit to performance for sure.
PPC is probably too old to daily drive. There used to be TenFourFox browser to bring modern browsing, but I think they canned that project (I could be wrong). I do have a B&W G3 tower planned for restoration down the road. I'm also excited for a G4 Cube I have, but don't have a power supply for it yet.
Its difficult, but I do try to keep diversity in content as far as eras. I really find all the eras very interesting, and try to get a good mix to keep things interesting. You're definitely right though, I'm definitely due for a PPC era video for sure!
Nice video, thanks!
I have a 15” MacBook Pro 9,1 (mid-2012) and I keep getting errors and not able to install its latest officially supported Mac OS or with Monterey with OCLP… it gets about half way and then says there was an error or that there is a problem with the installer. Any tips?
Thanks! The most common issues that caused that error for me were incorrect system date (causes the cert validation to fail, but the generic error doesn't tell you this), USB key issue (even if it isn't faulty, try a larger one - some people have reported issues with 16GB ones despite them being large enough), incorrect file system used (HFS+ instead of APFS - the patched installer allows you to install on the wrong file system while I think the genuine installer prevents this), and lastly OpenCore not built correctly or not built for the correct model (double check your model, rebuild, and if still not working try a different OCLP version - maybe a previous version if you are on the latest, or the latest if you're on a previous version).
Unfortunately I'm not aware of a specific thing that causes this, but I've definitely seen it. In modern day, companies have moved to "kind" errors which tell you nothing, vs "scary" ones that provide actual troubleshooting information. Your machine should be fully compatible, might just take some trial and error to figure it out.
Thanks for the reply. I have already tried everything you mentioned to no avail… but I’ll I keep trying, lol🤪 I am now attempting to install Catalina via internet recovery 🤞🤞 I plugged in ethernet cable and used command+option+R… hopefully that will work and I can then get OCLP on there and onto Monterey🤞😎🤞
Is It Better to upgrade to monterey or ventura for mbp2012 8gb of RAM? Thankd
I haven't tried Ventura yet, but reports say it works fine on the 2012 MBP. 8GB RAM should be plenty for basic use. I do believe that a 2012 requires less patching for Monterey, making it more "vanilla" if that matters to you; it could mean Monterey would be slightly more stable, however I've not seen any reports of major problems either. I suspect you'll be fine to run Ventura, although I can vouch that Monterey does run pretty near perfectly on that machine. Both OSes are still supported, so you'll be getting security updates and patches, which is what's most important.
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