Photo-editing on 2008 MacBook

[MTL18]

Hi All,

I have a 2008 unibody MacBook and it performs well. At 4gb of ram and a 250gb HDD, it is slow in photoshop. Not slow enough to be unusable, just very annoying when you are dealing with a hundred photos.

So, is this worth upgrading to SSD and 8gb of ram, or is it time to get a computer with a better processor? When I bought this laptop, I did spend more money getting the 2.4 core 2 duo. I'd prefer to spend a couple of hundred upgrading vs. a couple of thousand on a new laptop. My uses are typically light (office, browsing), but I do need the occasional photo editing capabilities. It is a hobby, not a career, so I won't be doing this 5x per week. Will I get enough of a speed jump to be satisfied? Or will I spend money and be frustrated?

Has anyone performed these upgrades for the purpose of photoshop? How did it turn out?

Thanks for your input

 

[rapicell]

Since you said it's just a hobby, an SSD and 8GB of ram should be plenty to suit your needs (worked for my late '08 2.0). The real question is, would you rather spend the money for those upgrades knowing that era of macbook will be unsupported within the next few years, or save for a new macbook?

Plus remember, while there would be an increase in performance, it's not going to be anything near a newer computer. However, if everything is being met need wise, I don't think it'd be bad to spend a few hundred if you're going to keep the macbook for awhile longer.

 

[MTL18]

Appreciate the reply!

I am already using unsupported software (Office '08), so I have already stopped updating my Mac OS…

The photo editing comes in waves. These are 18 megapixel images so the current computer can take a while (and get very hot) when I am editing a batch of 100 pictures.

I'm not expecting to get the power of a new rMBP, but I would like 3 more years out of this computer or so. In an ideal world, the MacBooks return to a size where everything isn't fixed and parts can be switched. How can one really buy a laptop with a fixed battery and expect 6 years out of it?