2012 MacBook Pro - a good laptop to use for patching?

2012 MacBook Pro - a good laptop to use for patching?

Hi my brother has a 2012 mbp with i7 2.3ghz processor and 16gb ram. It has a 500mb SATA drive

Is this computer worth patching? Will it be able to run basic apps like safari , ms office and media consumption?

The ram seems ok but think it would benefit from a SSD? How hard is that to swap without damaging the unit?

Author: @Illustrious_Ship_331