Early 2008 Upgrade Advice (fix or sell?)

waiterboy006 · Jul 18, 2012, 11:09 AM

Hi everyone,

Hoping for some good advice, I have an early 08 15", with a broken LCD and bad battery, but just great outside of that. Debating whether to upgrade to SSD/fix the screen and battery, or just fix the screen, sell it and put the $ towards a base MBP - 15". I don't do much beyond your usual randomness, except I am currently transferring my DVD collection to an external, and Handbrake is running nearly 3 hours per DVD. Don't do much gaming, except Civ 5, which runs horribly slowly.

Already upgraded the RAM to 4gigs, though on iFixit, it lists the max RAM allowable to be 6gigs...don't know which is correct.

Anyway, would appreciate any help.

Trey M · Jul 18, 2012, 11:55 AM

I think the smart thing to do at this point is sell your machine for a new cMBP. 4 years old for a computer is pretty old, not extremely, but enough to really slow down your workload. I'm not sure on your model specifically, but it's likely Apple will or already has stopped supporting your machine with the newest software (Mountain Lion), so I can't see you justifying spending over $200 (knowing the price of Mac LCD's it might be more) to replace something that will soon, or is already, pretty obsolete. Also, you never know, something else might go wrong with your laptop since it's older which would cost you even more. I think the smart decision is to upgrade at this point.

Queen6 · Jul 18, 2012, 11:57 AM

I have the same machine 2.4 Penryn, mine one is fully functional and I have already upgraded to a new machine. It`now over four years old with a great deal of usage, very rarely shutdown. For me your machine is just not worth investing money into. The cost of the battery, display, SSD would be better put to a new system.

The SSD will upgrade performance, however will not fix the underlying problem of slow CPU performance due to the age of the system. I will pass mine to my daughter, it`s still fine for surfing the web, and light work, it`s in great condition only ever having the fans replaced. All the same the performance of the Early 2008 system compared to my Late 2011 15" 2.4 i7 and now 2.3 Retina is simply night and day...

Auzburner · Jul 18, 2012, 11:59 AM

Due to age and repairs required, sell the broken MacBook unless you have another side use plan for it. You can get something for a broken MacBook.

Then, buy a new one. Whichever model attracts you will do what you listed very very well.

latestmonkey · Jul 18, 2012, 12:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by waiterboy006

Hi everyone,

Hoping for some good advice, I have an early 08 15", with a broken LCD and bad battery, but just great outside of that. Debating whether to upgrade to SSD/fix the screen and battery, or just fix the screen, sell it and put the $ towards a base MBP - 15". I don't do much beyond your usual randomness, except I am currently transferring my DVD collection to an external, and Handbrake is running nearly 3 hours per DVD. Don't do much gaming, except Civ 5, which runs horribly slowly.

Already upgraded the RAM to 4gigs, though on iFixit, it lists the max RAM allowable to be 6gigs...don't know which is correct.

Anyway, would appreciate any help.

I have this exact machine and I recently upgraded it to a crucial m4 SSD and it's awesome again. For "usual randomness", save your money and just spend $200 upgrading to SSD. If you have an external display and don't need to fix the LCD, then you're fine.

the SSD won't make handbrake run faster but that's a set it and forget it type activity.

I also have 6GB of ram in my machine and it helped but the SSD was what made the biggest difference.

FastEddiebags · Jul 18, 2012, 12:10 PM

Get a new one. Fixing the lcd and replacing the battery is already going to cost you a couple hundred. The new ssd is a couple more... I had a similar mbp and the logic board died. The chances of something failing on yours is only increasing with time.

waiterboy006 · Jul 18, 2012, 12:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FastEddiebags

Get a new one. Fixing the lcd and replacing the battery is already going to cost you a couple hundred. The new ssd is a couple more... I had a similar mbp and the logic board died. The chances of something failing on yours is only increasing with time.

Yes, I thought of that as well. The logic board has already been replaced by Apple, based on the NVIDIA video card issue.

waiterboy006 · Jul 18, 2012, 12:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Auzburner

Due to age and repairs required, sell the broken MacBook unless you have another side use plan for it. You can get something for a broken MacBook.

Then, buy a new one. Whichever model attracts you will do what you listed very very well.

What's the best route to get rid of it? I can't imagine people wanting to pay much of anything for MBP with a bad battery and no screen.

Auzburner · Jul 18, 2012, 12:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by waiterboy006

What's the best route to get rid of it? I can't imagine people wanting to pay much of anything for MBP with a bad battery and no screen.

You could go with something as simple as this. Or you could auction it off on eBay and see what it sells for.

Jul 18, 2012, 11:09 AM	#1
waiterboy006 macrumors newbie Join Date: Feb 2012	Early 2008 Upgrade Advice (fix or sell?) Hi everyone, Hoping for some good advice, I have an early 08 15", with a broken LCD and bad battery, but just great outside of that. Debating whether to upgrade to SSD/fix the screen and battery, or just fix the screen, sell it and put the $ towards a base MBP - 15". I don't do much beyond your usual randomness, except I am currently transferring my DVD collection to an external, and Handbrake is running nearly 3 hours per DVD. Don't do much gaming, except Civ 5, which runs horribly slowly. Already upgraded the RAM to 4gigs, though on iFixit, it lists the max RAM allowable to be 6gigs...don't know which is correct. Anyway, would appreciate any help.
	0

Jul 18, 2012, 11:55 AM	#2
Trey M macrumors 6502 Join Date: Jul 2011	I think the smart thing to do at this point is sell your machine for a new cMBP. 4 years old for a computer is pretty old, not extremely, but enough to really slow down your workload. I'm not sure on your model specifically, but it's likely Apple will or already has stopped supporting your machine with the newest software (Mountain Lion), so I can't see you justifying spending over $200 (knowing the price of Mac LCD's it might be more) to replace something that will soon, or is already, pretty obsolete. Also, you never know, something else might go wrong with your laptop since it's older which would cost you even more. I think the smart decision is to upgrade at this point. __________________ (Mid 2012) 15'' Retina Display Macbook Pro \| 16GB RAM; (Mid 2012) 13'' Macbook Air \| 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD; iPad Mini \| Black 16GB; iPhone 5 \| Black 32GB
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Jul 18, 2012, 11:59 AM	#4
Auzburner macrumors 65816 Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Syracuse, NY - USA	Due to age and repairs required, sell the broken MacBook unless you have another side use plan for it. You can get something for a broken MacBook. Then, buy a new one. Whichever model attracts you will do what you listed very very well. __________________ -2012 RETINA MacBook Pro+2.7GHz+16GB RAM+512GB FLASH -2010 17" MacBook Pro+i7+8GB+256GB SSD -G5PowerMac -32GB iPad -Much more - White iPhone4S 32GB
	0

Jul 18, 2012, 12:10 PM	#6
FastEddiebags macrumors 6502 Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: NJ	Get a new one. Fixing the lcd and replacing the battery is already going to cost you a couple hundred. The new ssd is a couple more... I had a similar mbp and the logic board died. The chances of something failing on yours is only increasing with time. __________________ 15" MBP (L.2011), 2.2 GHz,16 GB RAM, 512 M4 ; T.C. 2TB;IPad 3, 16 GB;IPhone 4S 16GB (white)
	0

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Jul 18, 2012, 11:57 AM	#3
Queen6 macrumors 65816 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Asia	I have the same machine 2.4 Penryn, mine one is fully functional and I have already upgraded to a new machine. It`now over four years old with a great deal of usage, very rarely shutdown. For me your machine is just not worth investing money into. The cost of the battery, display, SSD would be better put to a new system. The SSD will upgrade performance, however will not fix the underlying problem of slow CPU performance due to the age of the system. I will pass mine to my daughter, it`s still fine for surfing the web, and light work, it`s in great condition only ever having the fans replaced. All the same the performance of the Early 2008 system compared to my Late 2011 15" 2.4 i7 and now 2.3 Retina is simply night and day...
	0