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This model is one of the easiest to work on that Apple has made since they went to metal cases. I've owned it for about 7-8 years now, and it's the best computer I have ever owned. The cable is prone to vibration wear over time-3 to 5 years and it can cause symptoms that mimic a failing hard drive. In that model, replace the hard drive cable at the same time you replace the drive. Now my negotiated link speed for the SSD is a very nice 6GBps: The "slow" in this model is because it was an entry-level model and Apple installed a less expensive 3GBps hard drive even though the logic board has a 6GBps drive interface: Now it is ready to use in under four seconds. Slow boot times and load times are gone! PS Elements used to take 15- 20 seconds to load. A year ago I pulled the slow 500 GB SATA II (3GBps) mechanical hard drive and replaced it with a 500GB SATA III (6GBps) SSD from Other World Computing. I upgraded my A1278 to 8GB as soon as its warranty ran out and noticed no big speed difference. Changing the mechanical hard drive for an SSD will make it neck-snappingly faster.
HOW TO UPGRADE 2012 MACBOOK PRO RETINA MAC

RAM ffromr the local "sell-it-cheap" store or web site may not work. An A1278 is the non-Retina model so, with RAM from a trusted Mac RAM vendor, you can get to 16GB.
