Decision Mid 2010 MacBook Pro

[golfing bob]

I have a 2010 Macbook Pro and would either like to upgrade RAM and HD to SSD or by new MacBook Pro or Air. Would it be wise to upgrade due to being 7 years old or just buy new?

Thanks for any thoughts.

 

[Woodstockie]

Depends on what you need your MBP for and if you took care of it (casing, keyboard, screen, etc). I upgraded my MBP 2009 and MBP 2012 with RAM, SSD's and even a new battery for the '09 and both still work excellent. My wife uses the '09 for watching YT, browsing and email. I use the '12 for the same plus office work plus some pictures and movie editing. Is it a speed monster? Depends on your standards (and patience), but with the upgrades it still gets the work done well. I will keep them till one of them fails and then it is time for a new one.

Good luck with the decision.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

At 7-8 years old you've got your moneys worth out of it and you are entering "far more likely to have a complete logic board failure" territory for a laptop; its probably not worth sinking any money into it at this point. Its a core 2 duo the RAM is half the speed of modern ones, the screen is not even in the same league, the graphics are piss poor (that 320M was a compromise at the time as it was slightly better than intels integrated solution in the new core i's when they came out), it only has USB 2, no thunderbolt either, its wifi and Bluetooth are well out of date. and its big fat and heavy by modern standards. Don't get me wrong I loved my 2010 and my brother still uses it as his main computer (with an ssd and 8GB of ram but that was upgraded in 2011) I wouldn't spend any money on it now though.

To be honest if you are sinking money into a computer I would go with something 2015 onwards, so I recommend an upgrade.

 

[Fishrrman]

I kinda lean towards Samuelsan's opinion.

I, too, have a 2010 MacBook Pro that I upgraded with an SSD a few years' back. It's still in great shape (not even any scratches on the case), still runs fine.

But last December, I finally decided that I wanted something newer, so I picked up a closeout 2015 MacBook Pro 13". Good purchase and I got a great price on it.

Unless you're really "pressed for cash", I'd say look around for something new or perhaps late-model-Apple-refurbished.

 

[eddjedi]

I tend to buy used but "nearly new" because they are usually considerably cheaper than brand new (roughly 66% of RRP) and then sell while they are still worth something (around 33% of RRP.) That way I only usually 'suffer' 33% of depreciation, despite having a nearly-new computer and owning it for a good few years.

That is the great thing about Apple hardware, it holds its value so well that you can often still sell it for a considerable amount of money even when 5+ years old.

So to answer your question, sell the 2010 while it is still worth something, and buy a much newer but used machine that is still considerably less than brand new. If you use it til it dies, you are left with nothing.