

I upgraded to 1TB SSD and a 1TB HDD and moved to APFS once Catalina came along using the HDD as an in-machine daily clone backup drive (used SuperDuper until Big Sur negated the ability to easily create a bootable clone). I upgraded the SSD to a larger one and rolled the SSD and HDD into a FUSION drive using the tools apple made available to anyone comfortable with the command line, which I ran with zero issues for several years. I swapped out the super drive (CD/DVD burner) for an SSD (initially a relatively small one to just hold the OS). I upgraded the HDD several times (started life as a 256MB HDD). This machine has a full compliment of ports with NO dongles needed! I upgraded the ram over time to its max 16GB. This machine was the last of the totally user repairable notebooks Apple made. Without question, a fine example of solid engineering. My daughter gave me this machine as a christmas present in late 2012.

I am among those still using a mid 2012 non-retina 15" MBP.
