EASY QUESTION: upgrade sisters 2009 MBP & wait for Broadwell, or NEW 2012/2013 models

[nickriebe]

I am currently borrowing my sisters basemodel 2009 MBP (2GB RAM, 2.26Ghz chip, 160GB HD) and have to sell it for her on Craigslist soon, or buy it myself and wait for the new Broadwell's to come out (2015).

Here's what I'm thinking: if I'm lucky, I can get a 2012/2013 MBA/MBP used on Craigslist or eBay for $750 - $1000 and resell in a year for maybe $500 - $700 (cost of $250 - $300), vs. buy my sisters for roughly $400, upgrade the RAM to 8GB and swap out the HD for a 120GB SSD for $155, then resell for $350 hopefully (cost of $200).

The 2009 MBP is in mint condition, but too slow for my current needs. I mean, Evernote + Web Browsing alone (many tabs) are maxing out my RAM and the thing slows to a literally unusable crawl.

My only risk is upgrading the RAM and HD only to find it still too slow. I took this exact risk on my 2007 iMac, however, and was very happy with the results. I should be able to get another year or two out of it!

One last thing: as I alluded to earlier, I won't be using the laptop for much more than heavy Web Browsing, Evernote, and light to medium Xcode use; as I'm planning to get into programming (OSX, iOS, and Web Apps).

Put yourself in my shoes. Is there a clear winner here?

 

[jmdMac]

I would put 8GB ram and a new HDD or SSD in it. My 2010 speeds along quite well with the upgrades I did to it.

 

[nickriebe]

Thanks for the input jmdMac. I really appreciate it.

Anyone else?

 

[KUguardgrl13]

The 09 should be fine for use at home, but in my experience it doesn't travel well. Mine developed all sorts of issues after being lugged around a college campus.

I will say that the 8gb of RAM and Mavericks do wonders for this machine. I also replaced the battery which was in bad shape. It still takes some time to boot up with a SATA 500gb HDD, but it works well for an extra web browsing machine. My friend also borrowed it for XCode and never mentioned any issues.

If you're going to do any professional or college-level programming, a new machine will be much better, but Broadwell may be worth the wait for you. The nice thing about Macs is that, in good condition, they don't lose too much value.

 

[nickriebe]

The 09 should be fine for use at home, but in my experience it doesn't travel well. Mine developed all sorts of issues after being lugged around a college campus.

I will say that the 8gb of RAM and Mavericks do wonders for this machine. I also replaced the battery which was in bad shape. It still takes some time to boot up with a SATA 500gb HDD, but it works well for an extra web browsing machine. My friend also borrowed it for XCode and never mentioned any issues.

If you're going to do any professional or college-level programming, a new machine will be much better, but Broadwell may be worth the wait for you. The nice thing about Macs is that, in good condition, they don't lose too much value.

What kind of issues? Are you still using it? Thanks for the reply

 

[KUguardgrl13]

What kind of issues? Are you still using it? Thanks for the reply

It had a sleep/wake issue that I never found an explanation for, but it seems to have gone away with Mavericks (although I don't really take it out of my house anymore). It also would burn out that SATA cable that connects the hard drive to the logic board. From what a Genius told me, that's a design flaw that occurs if you compress it like when it's in a backpack with books.

But those issues don't affect every model. If your sister's gone four years without those issues, they probably won't happen. Mine started appearing after the first year. They don't seem to be an issue anymore now that it sits at home.

 

[MindsEye]

If you're going to be upgrading in a years time regardless, upgrading your sisters would be the smarter option imo. better the devil you know ect.

You'll see larger feature/performance gains going from an 09 MBP to a Broadwell MBP which if you plan on keeping for a while will make it all the more special.

 

[mcarling]

I have a 15" 2010 MBP with a dual-core 2.67GHz CPU, 8GB of DRAM, and 128GB SSD (which I should sell). I also have a 15" early 2013 rMBP with a quad-core 2.7GHz CPU, 16GB of DRAM, and 512GB SSD (which I use most of the time). I really don't notice so much difference in speed. For me, the huge differences are the Retina display and the weight.