2009 13" not cutting it... What to do?

[EB66]

I own a 13" 2.26GHz Unibody Macbook Pro with upgraded 5GB of RAM that is starting to wear out I'm afraid. I had to revert back to the stock 160GB drive after my 500GB died about a month ago and the "service battery" warning is now on after 790 cycles with a health of 76%.

I'm a CS student with two years to go and I'm not sure this computer will cut it until graduation even if I sink $200 into it (new SSD and battery). It could also be argued that putting $200 into a computer that is worth ~$500 max is a bad idea.

I guess what I'm asking is:
-Do I sell it and spend a good chunk of change now?
-Do I spend a little now to hold me over and buy new when I graduate and have a job?
-If I do go the new computer route, do I buy a refurb 13" Air, refurb 15" High-Res, or go all out and get a rMBP?

I should also be personally factoring in "Will I regret spending this money when I'm paying back student loans?"

 

[whoknows87]

Well if you decide to sell that's $500-600 towards a new Laptop , if you were going to do some upgrades ( 250 out of your pocket) so if your'e finances permit 500+250+ maybe few hundreds can get you a new model base 1099 after discount , you can buy a refurbished from Apple there are good deals there, also try eBay there are plenty of Macs for sale ( recent ones) and some come with AppleCare you will end up saving 150-200 sometimes

i wouldn't get a retina just because if they do release a rMBP 13 you will probably want that lol seems like you want a 13, you should consider another MBP for your studies might be more useful ( just assuming)

 

[J&JPolangin]

I own a 13" 2.26GHz Unibody Macbook Pro with upgraded 5GB of RAM that is starting to wear out I'm afraid. I had to revert back to the stock 160GB drive after my 500GB died about a month ago and the "service battery" warning is now on after 790 cycles with a health of 76%.

I'm a CS student with two years to go and I'm not sure this computer will cut it until graduation even if I sink $200 into it (new SSD and battery). It could also be argued that putting $200 into a computer that is worth ~$500 max is a bad idea.

I guess what I'm asking is:
-Do I sell it and spend a good chunk of change now?
-Do I spend a little now to hold me over and buy new when I graduate and have a job?
-If I do go the new computer route, do I buy a refurb 13" Air, refurb 15" High-Res, or go all out and get a rMBP?

I should also be personally factoring in "Will I regret spending this money when I'm paying back student loans?"

...5Gb RAM is a strange amount, was that a typo?

I have a whitebook 5,2 from that year also with 4Gb of the PC2 800Mhz RAM and a crucial M2 128Gb SSD installed (last year when the M2 drives were on a close out sale (that was the best bang for the buck at the time due to the 5 year warranty Crucial gave on them)) and the whitebook is still a good daily use machine with the upgrades...now you can put a 128Gb SSD (~$100) or a 256 Gb SSD (~$175) from Crucial or Intel and you'll give new life to your MBP = that's the route I'd go if I were you along with testing out the RAM to make sure you don't have a bad stick or two?...

 

[Santabean2000]

That's the same machine I had until recently. It's still quite capable, esp with a SSD. I'd still invest in a new battery too; in fact I did.

Mine **** itself once I upgraded to ML and I had to buy a replacement for work. Guess that's the danger in dropping cash into an older machine.

I ended up buying my new one with finance, because I could. Walked out with a new machine after investing just $138 up front. Will pay the same each month for a while yet, but that def took the sting out of it.

 

[EB66]

...5Gb RAM is a strange amount, was that a typo?

Not a typo, it came with 2x1GB stock and I bought a 4GB stick to throw in a couple of years ago with the intention of eventually upgrading to 8GB. A lot of people don't like to mismatch RAM but I haven't had any problems with it and I guess that's why I never bought the second stick.


Thanks for the advice guys... I'm still weighing my options.

 

[jcschlic]

An awesome upgrade to my 2006 C2D Blackbook was a SSD upgrade. Completely changed the computer...