You can also download old versions of MacOS installers. I forget the link to the easier scripts/installers, there's a High Sierra one at http://dosdude1.com/highsierra/
and then temporarily blocked swcdn.apple.com in /etc/hosts,
and then served the /content/ directory so that swcdn.apple.com/content/ was pointed at 127.0.0.1/content
(I used python here in the parent directory of /content/)
> sudo python -m SimpleHTTPServer 80
and then I opened the High Sierra MacOS app store specific link to make it download & assemble the .dmg file properly
Can use the same approach to grab other versions of MacOS downloaders from apple too if you look up the app store links for it and then serve the catalog locally I guess.
I did the same with my 2015 MacBook Pro, and I'm still amazed that a $5 adapter and an Intel SSD are super fast and don't cause any problems at all. The machine sleeps, wakes, hibernates without any issues whatsoever.
Also, I sold the original, well used Apple 1TB SSD for more than I paid for the brand new 2TB Intel SSD.
Not GP, but as others have described here, you can clone your entire disk to an external one (using an application like SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner), upgrade the internal disk, and the restore from the external clone.
When it comes to hardware upgrades of the DIY kind, iFixit (https://www.ifixit.com/) is a great resource with detailed instructions, photos and even videos on how to do them for different devices. The site also sells tools and parts, but you don’t necessarily have to buy from there. For SSDs, OWC (Other World Computing, https://eshop.macsales.com/) has tested parts available for many older Macs.
