How does the new Macbook compare to my late 2008 Macbook?

[Danger! Will]

I love my late 2008 Unibody Aluminum Macbook. It has a 2.4 Core 2 Duo Processor, 480GB SSD, and 8GB of RAM. The only thing I use it for is to web surf, run Microsoft Office, and sync photos from my iPhone. How much of an improvement is the new 12 rMB compared to mine? The battery on my macbook is completely dead and i've heard mixed reviews on new batteries for it. DVD's get stuck in the DVD drive. I don't currently have an iPad. For those of you that have the new macbook is 8GB enough? I keep my computers a long time. Would you recommend the new Macbook?

 

[asaggynoodle]

I love my late 2008 Unibody Aluminum Macbook. It has a 2.4 Core 2 Duo Processor, 480GB SSD, and 8GB of RAM. The only thing I use it for is to web surf, run Microsoft Office, and sync photos from my iPhone. How much of an improvement is the new 12 rMB compared to mine? The battery on my macbook is completely dead and i've heard mixed reviews on new batteries for it. DVD's get stuck in the DVD drive. I don't currently have an iPad. For those of you that have the new macbook is 8GB enough? I keep my computers a long time. Would you recommend the new Macbook?

Performance wise it would probably be similar. As the 1.1Ghz Core-M is pretty much the same performance as a desktop E8400 Core 2 Duo, you might see a tad increase in that department. You get a higher resolution panel, that's like magically IPS as in amazingly good color gamut and beautiful viewing angles.

I think the biggest thing would be the battery life, and physical size as far as thinness. I mean, you're probably looking at atleast half the thickness, and it only weighs two pounds. If you move around a lot, it's pretty nice to have.

 

[RUGGLES99]

7 years newer, which is 2 or more lifetimes in tech age. no comparison.

 

[gooser]

your dvd's won't get stuck in the new one.

 

[pjfan]

Although I don't have one, I'm still going to throw you my view point. It has been my experience that the large advantage is in the new CPU and GPU. In order to watch smooth videos from web or other apps, without dimensioning performance (your battery is already shot though), the newer chipsets makes things smoother. For instance, my MBA 2010 lags quite a bit when loading any video it seems. I think you would feel the difference with the rMB.

However, I would not bank on the rMacBook lasting seven years performance wise.... Your usage is minimal, but I can't imagine seven years of usage. It's worth noting that the rMBP is extremely sleek - have you looked at one in person? That machine would last your usage seven years much better than a MacBook.

I think the MacBook is awesome for portability (which enhances usability for me), so much so that after reading these forums, I'm rather confident that I'll be going MacBook for my next primary laptop... But I will plan to upgrade near annually while cycling machines to other employees (those in less demanding computer roles) and family members. If I were in a different place, where I was buying for even three years in the future, I would buy rMBP -- but my use case is different...

It all depends on what portability means to you, in my opinion.

 

[kiranmk2]

Again, I don't have any experience with the rMB, but I have the same late 2008 Aluminium MacBook (2 GHz, 4 GB, SSD). It has had a new battery back in 2012 and is still pretty quick - some complex websites (especially Flash content) can lag a bit, but for day to day stuff holds up very well. Here is a quote from an earlier post I made about some CPU tests using Handbrake. This again is not a real 'everyday use' test as Handbrake is very CPU dependent but I think it does show that the rMB is not so far behind the other machines.

I'm in the same position - I have a 'collectors' late 2008 aluminium MacBook (a low-end 2.0 GHz one at that). I've tried out a couple of new models in the Apple Store last week using Handbrake and the standard Big Buck Bunny video (480p h264 version). Here are the average fps results for my ancient machine (4 GB and SSD upgrade), a 1.1 GHz rMB and a 1.6 GHz MBA (higher number is better)

'08 MB (Core2Duo 2.0 GHz) - ~50 fps
'15 rMB (Broadwell Core M 1.1 GHz) - ~ 120 fps
'15 MBA (Broadwell Core i5 1.6 GHz) - ~ 145 fps
'15 MBP (Broadwell Core i5 2.7 GHz) - ~ 180 fps

What surprises me is that the newer non-pro machines are "only" 2-3 x faster in CPU power but that also that the rMB doesn't seem that far behind the MBA - I'm guessing the 1.3 GHz might might be snapping at the heels of the base MBA. The difference in the benchmarks might be greater, but Handbrake is (for me, anyway) a more accurate real world use.

 

[KPOM]

The new MacBook blows yours out of the water. The SSD is easily 5x faster than your hard drive.

 

[Aks...]

I'm in the same boat as OP, Have the '08 Macbook and have only updated the RAM to 8gb, still have the 250gb HDD as stock. It was my first mac purchase back in university and i must say it has lasted me a treat compared to any Windows running laptop in my home. The only issue has been the battery as expected which has now swollen quite a lot and stopped the trackpad from being able to be clicked so i have removed it and only run the Macbook off the power cable.
The most i used my Mac for now is simple browsing, Youtube, 1080p mkv tv shows so I'm temped to upgrade to the rMB and it basically does all I need it to but I've waited so long I'm thinking to wait it our for the second gen version next year.
Could anyone tell me how the rMB handles file extraction? I download a lot of files which are broken into 2GB zip files then need to be extracted into one large 30/40gb container file, atm my macbook can do this but basically causes the whole system to freeze until completed.

 

[Montymitch]

The 08 MacBook is an amazing little machine that can still hang with laptops that are generations ahead. I know that I wouldn't see any substantial performance advantage other than a sharper display. For your current use, I'd say keep your money;however, if you get a new MacBook, you might find that the lighter weight and functional battery give you many more ways to use your machine that you otherwise wouldn't attempt or even consider.

 

[Codeseven]

The 08 MacBook Pro must be a gem in Apples laptop history. It's surprising to me how often I see people 'still' using that old machine and pretty much still satisfied with it's enduring performance.

I too own a late 2008 MBP, 2.8Ghz Core 2 Duo 8Gb memory, my first Apple laptop. 7 years later it too just keeps chugging along in a whole new world of modern technology.

I'd love to retire it for a modern solution. Not being a power user, I'm contemplating joining the future of computing and replacing it with an iPad Pro.

 

[callea]

It's faster.
Very, very much faster.

 

[kiranmk2]

The 08 MacBook Pro must be a gem in Apples laptop history. It's surprising to me how often I see people 'still' using that old machine and pretty much still satisfied with it's enduring performance.

I too own a late 2008 MBP, 2.8Ghz Core 2 Duo 8Gb memory, my first Apple laptop. 7 years later it too just keeps chugging along in a whole new world of modern technology.

I'd love to retire it for a modern solution. Not being a power user, I'm contemplating joining the future of computing and replacing it with an iPad Pro.

It was the first redesigned MacBook to feature the glass trackpad so remained compatible with all the multitouch gestures that came in the following years. The memory was upgradable to 4 and even 8 GB at a time when RAM was cheap and it came about a year or two before the availability of cheap SSDs which could be easily swapped in. The graphics chipset (on the 13") were actually faster than the first Core i5 generation. For me, the Core2Duo era represented the period where computers were sufficiently fast to take care of everyday tasks and improvements in processing power would only shave a few seconds off most tasks. The only features I can think of that it's lacking these days is Bluetooth LE for continuity/handoff (although I can still take calls on it) and video Airplay.

The current generation MBPs and iPhone 6s might be a similarly good buy as they are the first generations to support force touch which will be used for more and more things over the years.