(Part 2) Best products from r/AppleWhatShouldIBuy

I have a couple of Western Digital My Passport drives that I use for movies and such. I would recommend buying one exclusively for Time Machine and using that to back up. Then buy one for your other random stuff. Time Machine doesn't like sharing drives, although you can if you partition it. But the drives are so inexpensive that it's easier to just buy one exclusive drive for it. Mine are 2TB and cost around $80-90:

WD 2TB Black My Passport for Mac Portable External Hard Drive - USB 3.0 - WDBCGL0020BSL-NESN https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00WJOVCOS/

WD 2TB Black My Passport for Mac Portable External Hard Drive - USB 3.0 - WDBP6A0020BBK-WESN https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LQQH8E2/

Those are preformatted for macOS. You can buy the regular one too, but at least for Time Machine you would want to reformat it if you did that. If you are sharing between a Mac and PC, you would want the non Mac version:

WD 2TB Elements Portable External Hard Drive - USB 3.0 - WDBU6Y0020BBK-WESN https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D0L5BH8/

WD 2TB Black USB 3.0 My Passport Portable External Hard Drive (WDBYFT0020BBK-WESN) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LQQHF2W/


You will also need USB-C to USB Micro-B adapters for them. I have these and they work great:

CableCreation USB 3.1 Type C (USB-C) to USB 3.0 Micro-B Cable, Micro USB 3.1 USB-C for Apple The Macbook, Chromebook Pixel and More, 1ft/0.3M in Black https://www.amazon.com/dp/B012V56992/

I bought my sister one of these hubs last year for her 12" MacBook. It has power, USB A, and HDMI. No issues at all so far. I did a review of it here.

I have a few of their other products as well that I use with my Nexus 6P, and all of them haven't been an issue. This includes their braided USB A to C cables that i really like and their USB C male to female USB A adapters. All three of these feel high quality and made with aluminium.

Besides that, Anker had an issue with only one of their cables, and they were pretty quick and good about recalling it, so I would still trust their cables, which are generally pretty good quality. I also use monoprice cables and they are great. Cable Matters has a braided Male Micro USB to Male USB C cable that I personally don't own, but I've seen recommend on Reddit several times.

I haven't ever used Thunderbolt 3, so i don't have any recommendations for that.

Great purchase! Congrats....
I'd say- w/ those devices, you won't be pressing the throughput limits of your combination Thunderbolt 3/USB 3.1 gen interface whatsoever, so I'd go w/ the cheaper solution, which is a USB C hub w/ 4 USB 3 ports.
Do NOT buy any garbage brand. Here is the best you can get @ a very decent price:
https://www.amazon.com/Anker-Devices-Including-ChromeBook-Aluminum/dp/B00XU6IMWY/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1484015396&sr=1-3&keywords=usb+c+hub
Anker is the definitive MFi Apple partner on cabling; they make Apple certified, stellar products.
Note: I use this on mine, & have the EXACT same model as you!! =)

Hard drive and RAM are likely the issue, though the GPU could be fried.

First I would take it into Apple and make sure there isn't an issue with a major component. As long as nothing (except maybe the battery) is wrong with it, do the following.

-Buy an SSD. EVO 850 from Samsung, $100 for 250GB. Of course you can shop around, but it's one of the best out there. Don't spend extra on the Pro.

-Upgrade RAM. Looking at 8GB of DDR3 1333 MHz. $50
https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-1333mhz-PC3-10666-204-pin-SODIMM/dp/B002YUF8ZG

And of course if the battery needs replacing, get it done. $150 max.

So for $300 you've given your computer new life. Save the extra to buy a new machine in 2 years.

If the GPU is gone, you would have to take it to a 3rd party to get the motherboard replaced. This will likely blow your budget, DO NOT REPLACE THE MOTHERBOARD.

My suggestion? Look at Swappa for a 2012-2014 MBP 15". It will be a bit more than your budget but at least you'll get more out of it than you would replacing the motherboard, as you would still need to do other upgrades.

Hello, for minimalist look I will recommend the PITAKA Magcase. It is Ultra Thin(0.03in) and Super Light(0.49oz) due to the Aramid Fiber material. Check it out and decide if it suits your needs. Good luck in your search!

That's perfect. Then this is what I recommend:

1. Max out your RAM. Crucial has an 8 GB RAM set here: http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/macbook-pro-2*5ghz-intel-core-i5-%2813-inch-ddr3%29-mid-2012/CT3301475
   
   
2. Get an SSD to replace your conventional hard drive. You'd mentioned you were looking at 512 GB on a new MacBook Pro, so here's a Samsung SSD at the same capacity: https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-850-PRO-2-5-Inch-MZ-7KE512BW/dp/B00LF10KTO
   
   
3. Install macOS cleanly onto the SSD. El Capitan and above should accept third-party SSDs without too much trouble, though you may have to run some commands in Terminal to turn on SSD Trim (necessary for good and long operation of your SSD). I recommend not just transferring all data back, but just your documents--reinstall applications manually.
   
   
4. (Optional): Get an external drive enclosure for your existing internal laptop hard drive. This will allow you to easily transfer back data: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00LS31KQG/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1474460464&sr=8-1&pi=SX200_QL40&keywords=2.5+inch+hard+drive+enclosure&dpPl=1&dpID=41JtsWFGS6L&ref=plSrch
   
   Overall this would be about $260 plus shipping, which is a significant savings over the $2000+ you'd pay for a new machine. I think the main things you're encountering with machine sluggishness are 1) a slow laptop hard drive and 2) low RAM capacity, which means your machine relies on swapping between RAM and the disk, which you notice as slowness. The above should help alleviate the issue and put your machine into warp drive.

Crucial 16gb Mac RAM (8gb is only like $12 cheaper)

Samsung 850 EVO 500gb SSD (excellent SSD at a mid-level price)

SanDisk Plus 120gb SSD (cheap SSD that'll work fine)

I hope that helps! I have a 2010 white unibody Macbook that was upgraded to 8gb RAM and a 256gb SSD and it's still very fast at web browsing and basic tasks like that.

No, that's one of the non-stand variations. An EP-PN920TBEGUS, which is a Qi charging pad rather than a Qi charging stand. I'm not particularly keen on them. Having said that, that, the 920, will deliver 2 amp. Best Buy does not appear to be carrying any of the models that I can recommend. They do carry the duo variation of the model that I can recommend though. Here are two Amazon links (1, 2) to the variations I can recommend.

I bought this one on amazon and am very happy with it.

For a 13" MBP you need a 11 inch case. Sounds weird, but its a nice fit.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00VVLE5CG/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Yes you can use a adaptor for it. I've no experience with it, but this seems to be a good option?

There are also some monitors that support charging your Macbook. So you have only one cable going to your monitor, which is used for the display and powering your Macbook.
>LG’s 27UD88-W is a 27″ USB-C-enabled display. Its USB-C port allows MacBook owners to connect a single cable to drive the display, charge the machine, and facilitate data transfer.

Unlike some Apple products there isn't anything particularly special about them. Cases like these are pretty low-tech. I find that cheaper leather ones like these work well: https://www.amazon.com/iPhone-Wallet-Slots-Feature-Leather/dp/B01KBULBCO

If I was buying one it’d be this one. But USB-c PD is important to me, if it’s not to you, you can save money by going with a cheaper anker product.

I’ve owned approximately 7 or so anker products and they’ve all been fantastic.

I bought this one and I've loved it so far. Probably not the absolute best in terms of protection, but it does the trick for me. Plus that price is great.

I bought these for $20. They don't have all the features but they work and sound good at a fraction of the price. Looks like they aren't available anymore but there are a lot of similar products out there.

I haven't found any hubs that properly support Displayport via USB-C. I use a USB-C hub that has ports for USB-A (my mouse/keyboard/phone), ethernet, and a single USB-C port to use as a passthrough power source. Then I hook up my external monitors to the ports on the MacBook itself using USB-C to Displayport cables. In my case, the hub cost around $50 and there are tons of them on Amazon with good reviews.

Is there a reason why this wouldn't work for you? I suppose that if you have two monitors, it means you can't use the 13" MBP without a Touchbar, because it only has two ports, but all the others should work (unless you have a monitor that supports 4K 60hz via HDMI, in which case you could buy this along with a USB3-gigabit ethernet adapter).

Silk wallet case, it's on Amazon and a ton of people at my school have it. Definitely worth a try!!

iPhone 6/6s Wallet Case - Vault Slim Wallet for iPhone 6/6s (4.7") by Silk - Ultra Slim Protective Phone Cover (Midnight Black) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00N3K42BM/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_Wn-bAbEJW0VK1

Edit: Link

A good adapter with a vga, hdmi, USB 3.0 and Ethernet ports
adapter