mid 2009 MBP question

[patdiddy]

Hi, I have a mid 2009 MacBook Pro, but, ever since I was forced to upgrade the OS to 10.11, it has been really slow when using the hard drive. I'm wondering if adding more memory to this computer would solve the issues with my hard drive lagging on it... I need to keep this this thing for at least another year before I can replace it though. here's some info about my SATA drives:

 

NVidia MCP79 AHCI:

 

  Vendor: NVidia

  Product: MCP79 AHCI

  Link Speed: 3 Gigabit

  Negotiated Link Speed: 1.5 Gigabit

  Physical Interconnect: SATA

  Description: AHCI Version 1.20 Supported

 

Hitachi HTS545025B9SA02:

 

  Capacity: 250.06 GB (250,059,350,016 bytes)

  Model: Hitachi HTS545025B9SA02                 

  Revision: PB2AC60T

  Native Command Queuing: Yes

  Queue Depth: 32

  Removable Media: No

  Detachable Drive: No

  BSD Name: disk0

  Rotational Rate: 5400

  Medium Type: Rotational

  Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)

  S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified

  Volumes:

EFI:

  Capacity: 209.7 MB (209,715,200 bytes)

  BSD Name: disk0s1

  Content: EFI

  Volume UUID: 85D67001-D93E-3687-A1C2-79D677F0C2E0

Macintosh HD:

  Capacity: 249.07 GB (249,065,373,696 bytes)

  Available: 181.46 GB (181,456,855,040 bytes)

  Writable: Yes

  File System: Journaled HFS+

  BSD Name: disk0s2

  Mount Point: /

  Content: Apple_HFS

  Volume UUID: 9D4E38D0-D43D-3254-82D0-18D744BF7C62

Recovery HD:

  Capacity: 650 MB (650,002,432 bytes)

  BSD Name: disk0s3

  Content: Apple_Boot

  Volume UUID: 04A5215E-9A76-33A3-B619-39E52BC02175

 

NVidia MCP79 AHCI:

 

  Vendor: NVidia

  Product: MCP79 AHCI

  Link Speed: 3 Gigabit

  Negotiated Link Speed: 1.5 Gigabit

  Physical Interconnect: SATA

  Description: AHCI Version 1.20 Supported

 

MATSHITADVD-R   UJ-868:

 

  Model: MATSHITADVD-R   UJ-868                  

  Revision: KB19    

  Native Command Queuing: No

  Detachable Drive: No

  Power Off: Yes

  Async Notification: No

 

[T3X4S]

Even though you wont get the full benefit of an SSD - it would still help a lot.

You asked if adding more memory would help, but I dont see in that list what your present RAM is...

So, to answer your question about RAM, I dont know.
In terms of HDD to SSD - yes it will help.

If you are still using a computer that is 7 years old - then obviously getting a new one is out of the question.

So if all you can do is to try and put some new life into an old clunker - SSD will probably help the most.