Upgrade my 13" 2008 Black Macbook or get a new Macbook Pro?

soroem1 · May 31, 2011

Hello everyone, I just wondered if you would spend some time to share your thoughts as I'm a bit stuck at the moment.

Im at university soon to enter postgrad study (you can infer that means apple education pricing is available to me).

I have a 2008 2.4Ghz Black 13" Macbook with 2gb RAM and a 250 GB hdd.

I have been wondering whether it would be best to sell this macbook, which initial research has told me a mint condition one (As mine is) could fetch near £400 and buy a new 2.7 Ghz Macbook Pro with 128GB SSD.

Or, save some money and upgrade this Macbook with a 128gb SSD, 4GB Ram and wait for Lion.

What does everyone who knows considerably more about Macs than I do reckon? Shell out or shell less?

Im not too bothered about Thunderbolt at the moment though a new Mac is always nice. This thing is approaching three years old now though so I am wondering whether its worth upgrading.

Plus- something which has always irritated me, I dont know whether anyone else has had this, is a very stiff mouse clicker beneath the trackpad which has never loosened. After a long sesh with it my fingers feel RSI'd- so it would be good to see the back of that.

One extra small consideration is that I DJ a fair bit with Serato and will end up putting Reason/Record and Logic on this laptop. Currently Logic stutters under anything more than basic recording and a few tracks of editing, but everything else works fine. I assume a new Macbook Pro would handle it all, though if this were upgraded with RAM and an SSD would this also not be the case?

Cheers for reading!

miles01110 · May 31, 2011

Depending on your budget (which seems to be the only limiting factor, since your machine seems to be working OK for you), I'd probably just get the new machine. Putting an SSD in the Macbook will be expensive proportional to the original cost of the machine.

autumn · Jun 4, 2011

Watch the ram usage when you are running Logic. If you are low on it, I'd recommend to max the ram to 4GB for another year. It's reasonably cheap upgrade but makes a difference in everyday use.

MacBook Pro will have a redesign next year so I'd wait for that.

And you can always keep the macbook for travel and get an iMac. The entry iMac is quite bit more powerful than the entry 13 inch MBP. More bang for you bucks!

Goohfy · Jun 4, 2011

miles01110 said:
Depending on your budget (which seems to be the only limiting factor, since your machine seems to be working OK for you), I'd probably just get the new machine. Putting an SSD in the Macbook will be expensive proportional to the original cost of the machine.

I completely agree, the MBP would be superior to the Blackbook anyways, so definitely go out and enjoy a new Mac.

chuckcalo · Jun 4, 2011

autumn said:
Watch the ram usage when you are running Logic. If you are low on it, I'd recommend to max the ram to 4GB for another year. It's reasonably cheap upgrade but makes a difference in everyday use.

MacBook Pro will have a redesign next year so I'd wait for that.

And you can always keep the macbook for travel and get an iMac. The entry iMac is quite bit more powerful than the entry 13 inch MBP. More bang for you bucks!

Ditto on RAM upgrade, I think your macbook can last you one more year

Dark Void · Jun 4, 2011

if your current mb can deal with those apps that you run with only slight stutters/hiccups as you mention and if those do not bother you much then i would say that it is more sensible to just upgrade your current mb. if you are going to go for the ssd upgrade though, that will be quite pricey and may not even be completely necessary. the 4gb ram is cheap and will help your system, and perhaps if you aren't content with your current hdd you could look into a one with a higher rpm instead of the ssd when upgrading your current mb.

chipz · Jun 4, 2011

Upgrade my 13" 2008 Black Macbook or get a new Macbook Pro?

I have the same machine as you and I love it. Increase the RAM to 4 GB and change the HDD to a 500 GB 7200 rpm unit and your machine will feel new again. I recently bought a new MacBook Pro 15" with the 2.8 GHz proc, Hi-res matte screen and I hated it. The feel was not for me - it felt heavy and unwieldy. The different touch controls on the trackpad may have been nice, but I found them too sensitive for my liking. I sold the MacBook Pro and kept my Black Macbook. I added 2 new RAM chips for a total of 4 GB RAM and exchanged the HDD for a 500 GB HDD running at 7200 rpm. It felt like a new machine! Although it is only a Core 2 Duo compared to the Core i7 of the MacBook Pro, it worked just as well, IMHO. Using iPhoto '11 on either machine was not good as even the i7 proc had trouble doing what was asked of it. I think the problem was iPhoto - not the machine. If you do decide to get the new machine, the 3 MacBook Pro should be a great unit, though. It won't feel as unwieldy as the 15" and will still give you a good bang for the buck. The choice is yours. For me, I would just upgrade the black Macbook and live ith it for another year.

JamDonut · Jun 4, 2011

I had the sam dillemma as you and decided what i want from the current MBP is the aesthetic features, i.e. magic trackpad, backlit keyboard, alu-unibody. So i got the SE MacBook which has the same spec as the 2009 MBP and looks identical and i put 4GB RAM in it and i love it does all i need it to. It cost me £150 once i'd sold my old(er) MB

if you dont really care about the aesthetics like i did, then consider the upgrade as you clearly dont need to fork out over agrand for a new MBP

as other users have said, if your happy to upgrade for now there should be a worthwile refurb to the MBP line next year so wait until then, thats my plan

JSMencer · Jun 10, 2011

I would upgrade it. my late 2008 macbook is capable of handling 8gb of ram. A 4gb module is about $35. and your solid state drive will probably be $200. I am in the process of adding a SSD to my macbook, and keeping 2 hard drives in my macbook.

soroem1 · Jun 17, 2011

Ah thank you all for your thoughts and opinions.

My reply has been necessarily late due to undergoing finals at uni. However, now I have time to think about this upgrade aaaaaand I'm in a right quandary now ha.

Theres been quite a bit of support for upgrading, yet quite a bit of support for buying the new Macbook Pro.

Now I know that I could reasonably expect around £400 topside for this black macbook as is (with this spec), at the moment.

This is the pressure really. However- I don't want to shell out nearly a 1000 bar for a new MBP only for it to e replaced with the new model next year, as one poster mentioned.

Can anyone in the know fill me in on the expected hardware differences of the upcoming MBPs and give me their opinion as to whether it would be best to wait for a new one.

I can probably manage with this one for a year with a RAM upgrade, Lion, and I would need to put a bigger (and faster) HDD in as well- perhaps not necessarily an SSD as you guys have convinced me bang for buck wise it is an expensive option.

There are a few niggles that bug me with this particular mac- the stiff mouse clicker being one (Any info on how to perhaps ease that one would be welcome) and lack of backlighted keys- all minor stuff really.

I guess my considerations are:

-£400 now for sale of blackbook,
-Need for more RAM for audio production,
-Speed of SSD being a tried and tested upgrade (though pricey)
-What exactly the new upcoming MBPs will feature hardware wise- and whether that would be worth waiting for,
-Future blackbook resale value,
-Reliability (this machine is 3 years old after all, though still putting up a fight).

AArgh!

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Upgrade my 13" 2008 Black Macbook or get a new Macbook Pro?

soroem1

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miles01110

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autumn

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Goohfy

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chuckcalo

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Dark Void

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chipz

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JamDonut

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JSMencer

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soroem1

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