Is it worth it to upgrade a MacBook Pro mid 2009

[Nate Heidengren]

Hi guys, I just got into my possession a MacBook Pro mid 2009 13 inch core 2 duo processor. The battery only lasts for about an hour and it has 4 gigs of RAM and 250GB of a very slow hard drive. I was thinking of spending the close to $150-$200 to upgrade to SSD, get 8 gigs of new RAM, and a new battery. I currently don't have a laptop now and don't want to spend a lot of money. Do you think it would be worth it? Would it last for a couple more years?

 

[A MacBook lover]

When I upgraded my 2015 to the new design there was a huge difference that I saw. I can’t imagine what your jump will be like. Literally every metric will improve for you.

You’re computer is over 10 years old. I would suggest getting the MacBook Air 13 inch as it would be the best for your uses, more powerful, lighter, than your current setup.

 

[Nate Heidengren]

When I upgraded my 2015 to the new design there was a huge difference that I saw. I can’t imagine what your jump will be like. Literally every metric will improve for you.

You’re computer is over 10 years old. I would suggest getting the MacBook Air 13 inch as it would be the best for your uses, more powerful, lighter, than your current setup.

Thanks for the reply. I would actually be putting Linux on the MacBook pro. I am a poor college and was just wondering if this would be a viable option give me a couple more years of a laptop

 

[calliex]

Thanks for the reply. I would actually be putting Linux on the MacBook pro. I am a poor college and was just wondering if this would be a viable option give me a couple more years of a laptop

I will tell you getting a good battery is hard. I have a 2012 Retina MPB that still runs great but the battery drops pretty quickly. I have been all over the net looking for a good one. But most reviews are negative. Can not get an apple OEM battery anymore. the replacement I see do not last any longer than one I have.
I have good reviews about upgrading hard drive and memory though

 

[Nate Heidengren]

I will tell you getting a good battery is hard. I have a 2012 Retina MPB that still runs great but the battery drops pretty quickly. I have been all over the net looking for a good one. But most reviews are negative. Can not get an apple OEM battery anymore. the replacement I see do not last any longer than one I have.
I have good reviews about upgrading hard drive and memory though

This battery looks good:

A1322 Battery for MacBook Pro 13" Unibody A1278 Mid 2009-2012

Replace a 5800 mAh battery compatible with MacBook Pro 13" Unibody (Mid 2009 to Mid 2012). 63.5 Watt Hours (Wh), 10.95 Volts (V).

www.ifixit.com

 

[A MacBook lover]

Get the lightest computer you can find. They will all run Linux 100x better than your old computer. Refurbished MacBook Air or MacBook

 

[Sterkenburg]

You would see a big improvement with those upgrades and your MBP will likely survive for a couple years, but in truth the right call here would be to go for the cheapest Apple refurb you can find. It will serve you much better and longer.

It's very understandable that money is a concern for a student. However, factor in the fact that in case anything happens to your laptop Apple will not repair it anymore because it's an obsolete model. It's hard to recommend investing $200 on the machine when knowing that.

 

[Queen6]

It's old for a notebook, equally if your looking not spend; I'd look for the cheapest SSD & RAM possible, battery will be a bigger factor. Most importantly back up frequently as the MBP could fail at any point in time.

I've just recently had one of my old 15" MBP's return to me (2011), I just cleaned it up both hardware and software. Ideally it too would benefit from an SSD, RAM and new battery. That said this MBP has been used hard and has the ill fated Radeon dGPU, more likely I'll leave it stock, if parts come my way I'll put them in. Battery I'll worry about when it's exhausted then just source whatever works at the lowest price.

This MBP isn't useful to me for work purpose, however it seems a waste not to put it to task one way or the other. As with all electronics of this age it could run on for many more years or fail in a matter of days of being used as long as your aware...

Q-6

 

[smirking]

I have a 2009 MBP. I use it as a loaner/emergency laptop. I think it's a plenty capable machine once you put an SSD into it. It won't run the latest OS though. You'll need to use a special patcher program like this one to install Catalina on it.

I second what everyone else said about the battery. You can't really find a guaranteed to be reliable battery for these older machines. It's a crapshoot. You have no idea if anything you get is really OEM or not and even if they are, they're surely old stock that may have been improperly stored. These older MBPs didn't get very good battery life anyway. If you're able to get an hour out of it, I'd carry the power adapter around and call it good enough. I wouldn't sink money into a battery for it.

Whatever money you put into an SSD might still do you good even if the machine dies. You can always find another Unibody MBP and reuse that SSD.

 

[NoBoMac]

Will ditto the battery issue: I had a 2008 MBP and the after-market batteries were awful (would not hold a charge, quick drain, never close to oem capacity).

And will echo that money might be better put toward something else, as the laptop might fail in short order and you've now invested money into a doorstop. Example, my 2008's GPU failed a year ago.

That said, over the years, I did put in an SSD and upped the RAM to 6GB (can't recall if the 2009 can recognize 6GB as well), and did make the machine noticeably peppier and ok for basic tasks (Windows 10 in a VM was a bit of a pig).

 

[Queen6]

Will ditto the battery issue: I had a 2008 MBP and the after-market batteries were awful (would not hold a charge, quick drain, never close to oem capacity).

And will echo that money might be better put toward something else, as the laptop might fail in short order and you've now invested money into a doorstop. Example, my 2008's GPU failed a year ago.

That said, over the years, I did put in an SSD and upped the RAM to 6GB (can't recall if the 2009 can recognize 6GB as well), and did make the machine noticeably peppier and ok for basic tasks (Windows 10 in a VM was a bit of a pig).

Still a good run for the money, I've a pre-unibody 08 kicking around somewhere. Still runs (last checked), however battery long since died & expanded. It would now need a full overhaul, battery and new fans (3rd set). The 2011 15" MBP although DOA when I got it back now runs good as it ever has, equally very much a time bomb thx to the Radeon dGPU. It's still reasonably viable thx to the quad core CPU and the dGPU can be reigned in to some extents with software.

It's fine to use such hardware as long as one is fully aware of the pitfalls & limitations. Most I'll likely do with the 2011 is repurpose an old SSD, RAM is adequate for the intended use, battery don't care as long as it functions. Agree regarding batteries so will pickup the cheapest possible if needs be.

Ironically the 2011 actually runs cooler now, likely due to optimisations in the OS. It used to regularly hit 103C under load with the CPU frequency rolled back to base of 2.4GHz, today it still gets up there, however peaking at 95C and 3.1GHz. Not too bad as this model was a notorious "burner" exasperating the Radeon issue, hence the high failure rates...

Q-6