Macbook 2.4 GHz - next upgrade..

[IDMah]

Hi all

I love my 2.4 GHZ 13-inch, Aluminum, Late 2008 macbook .. but thinking about upgrading. I tend to buy used as I can upgrade by selling mine and buy a newer model for 200-$400 more.

So the question is, what's a worthy upgrade. SSD - I don't care about, I'd like a DVD drive.. and a faster processor. i7 or i5.. maybe retina. But what's the best bang for the buck.. ?? using maya, blender, unity, Xcode. mainly.

thanks
Ian

 

[T5BRICK]

Check out Apple refurbs. You get a nice discount form a new unit, but a full warranty.

As a side note, you say you don't care about SSDs, but you really should. They can greatly improve the experience of using your computer. They're the single most noticeable performance upgrade currently available.

 

[Vanilla35]

Hi all

I love my 2.4 GHZ 13-inch, Aluminum, Late 2008 macbook .. but thinking about upgrading. I tend to buy used as I can upgrade by selling mine and buy a newer model for 200-$400 more.

So the question is, what's a worthy upgrade. SSD - I don't care about, I'd like a DVD drive.. and a faster processor. i7 or i5.. maybe retina. But what's the best bang for the buck.. ?? using maya, blender, unity, Xcode. mainly.

thanks
Ian

Sounds like you don't care much about the specs of the computer. If that's the case, I'd go for the latest cMBP, which I think is the 2011 version. If you want really quick responses from your computer, you're going to want the SSD though. Also the retina comes with it, so if you think you'll enjoy the sharper screen, then you'll have to splurge on the rMBP model (2012-present) and it'll also come with the SSD. In terms of price, you can get a refurb rMBP for cheapest, or you could go for an old 2011 model which is the non-retina, non SSD computer - which would be cheaper than the refurbished retina model.

 

[johnnylarue]

+1 on the SSD recommendations. A good SSD can make a borderline obsolete machine feel like it just came off the assembly line.

Swapping out a hard drive for a SSD is probably the most meaningful, noticeable upgrade you can give a computer, bar none.

 

[T5BRICK]

If that's the case, I'd go for the latest cMBP, which I think is the 2011 version.

I'd stay away from the 2011 15" models. They seem to have some issues with the Radeon GPU.

 

[Neodym]

I'd like a DVD drive.. [...] maybe retina.

(Internal) DVD drive and Retina display are mutually exclusive.

 

[EstebanLGJ]

I upgraded my 2010 Macbook with an SSD a couple months ago. I think it's faster then when I bought it originally... It's honestly a BIG difference

 

[IDMah]

Ok ok.. SSDs are ok.

Guess My trepidation with the SSD is I tend to eat storage for breakfast.
Minimum drive for me is 1 TB. Mainly because I'm a packrat !! haha!!

I guess I could do one of those replace the DVD drive with a second
HD or SSD, use that to boot. Anyone have any experience with that??
is it worth it? But I can do that on this machine. 2.4 core duo and can still buy off the shelf batteries which I can replace without a torque.

In terms of processing power, I do want a faster more powerful processor. I was looking at the 2.8 Ghz. i7 or Haswell i7 or i5. feel like Apple hasn't innovated much on the laptops or desktops since the SSD. The "graphic cards" are a joke..
Maybe I will wait for Broadwell refresh and maybe they will add Sata3. **
** Oops meant Sata Express but I guess PCIE - will work close to the same. in Intel series 9 processors **

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/SATA-Intel-Express-Storage,22069.html

 

[T5BRICK]

Guess My trepidation with the SSD is I tend to eat storage for breakfast.
Minimum drive for me is 1 TB. Mainly because I'm a packrat !! haha!!

I'd suggest looking into the data you NEED to keep on your laptop, and invest in a NAS(with some sort of data redundancy) to store everything else at home.

I guess I could do one of those replace the DVD drive with a second
HD or SSD, use that to boot. Anyone have any experience with that??
is it worth it? But I can do that on this machine. 2.4 core duo and can still buy off the shelf batteries which I can replace without a torque.

Plenty of people have done that. If you search I'm sure you'll find quite a few threads on here.

In terms of processing power, I do want a faster more powerful processor. I was looking at the 2.8 Ghz. i7 or Haswell i7 or i5. feel like Apple hasn't innovated much on the laptops or desktops since the SSD. The "graphic cards" are a joke..
Maybe I will wait for Broadwell refresh and maybe they will add Sata3.

I'd go with Haswell. The quad 2.0GHz in the base 15" rMBP is very fast. According to benchmarks, it's 3-4 faster than the 2.4GHz Core2 Duo you're using.

Mobile GPUs have been pretty underpowered for as long as I can remember. If you need something higher end, you might want to look at desktop solutions. There are PC laptops with better GPUs, but they rarely have the same form factor and battery life.

As for SATA3, that has been present in macs since about 2011.

 

[jav6454]

Hi all

I love my 2.4 GHZ 13-inch, Aluminum, Late 2008 macbook .. but thinking about upgrading. I tend to buy used as I can upgrade by selling mine and buy a newer model for 200-$400 more.

So the question is, what's a worthy upgrade. SSD - I don't care about, I'd like a DVD drive.. and a faster processor. i7 or i5.. maybe retina. But what's the best bang for the buck.. ?? using maya, blender, unity, Xcode. mainly.

thanks
Ian

Does your current Mac have RAM or HDD upgrades? If not try that route instead for now so you can save more for later.

I did an increase in memory from 4Gb to 8GB and added a 256GB SSD in there. Performance is on par with any other new Mac.