Just sold my iPad . . . and questions?

[dulaney22]

Yeah, I know, what does this have to do with MacBooks? Well, since getting the iPad and a Droid phone, I've neglected my late '08 unibody. Over the past couple weeks, the charm and functionality of my Mac has made me realize just how much I love it. There's just nothing quite like the feel of this trackpad and with the SL update, it's as fast as needed for what I do. Couple that with what I think is the perfect size for any notebook (13"), and it's hard to deny the beauty of this machine.

It's been a while since I've kept up with improvements for the unibody. I bought the new OS, but haven't paid much attention to tweaks and things. Looking at the store occasionally has left me thinking there isn't much of a hardware jump between my 2 year old Mac and the new ones. Anything I should be doing to improve battery life, speed, etc.?

 

[C64]

You're right, the current 13" MBPs aren't all that different from earlier unibody versions. Most people won't notice any change from going from their older C2D to the newer C2D 2.4 or 2.66GHz either, so there's no point in upgrading except when you want to play a few new games that will perform better with the latest GPUs.

You'll notice more of an improvement with day-to-day things if you upgrade your memory (4GB minimum nowadays). And if you really want to speed it up you should think about installing an SSD or a hybrid drive like the Seagate Momentus XT. SSD speeds will blow you away.

 

[andalusia]

I also recommend maxing your memory if you haven't already. 4GB is a huge jump over 2GB on Leopard/Snow Leopard. SSD is a good idea, if you have that kind of cash to splash. But the $ per GB is so much more, for a lot of people it's not worth it. You have to find some way to justify it yourself

 

[dulaney22]

Yeah, I was thinking of doubling the RAM, but it still seems pretty expensive. I've got to check in on the SSDs. It's been 6+ months since I read much about them and they weren't really feasible then.