To upgrade or not to upgrade, that is the question.

[0liver]

Hey guys, I'm new to posting here but have lurked the boards on and off for a few years and I'm in search of some advice!

About three years ago, I bought a 15" Macbook Pro 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo. It was one of the last non-unibody Macbook Pros my local store sold and as I've come into a reasonable amount of money I'm considering an upgrade.

The mac is currently out of warranty, but has had the battery, keyboard, top case and logic board all replaced by Apple free of charge, so I still get a good 3.5hrs out of the battery and everything runs just fine and dandy but I'm thinking about getting something a little speedier.

I use the mac for word processing, light work on Photoshop, iPhoto, standard iTunes and web chilling and a decent amount of casual gaming. My computer has no problems running the games I play with the exception of hosting Minecraft games for my friends and I when it occasionally stutters a little during high-intensity moments such as lots of TNT exploding simultaneously, and on WoW when I'm playing my mage and a lot of AoE spells are being exploded all over the place.

I'm looking at getting the current i7 15" model with the 1680x1050 glossy screen as I'm not looking for enhanced portability but I'm wondering would it be a more sensible option to simply upgrade the RAM on this beast to 6GB from its current 2GB and perhaps swap my HDD for an SSD? Obviously the RAM and Drive upgrade will be far cheaper than a new laptop, but I am eligible for student discount including massive reductions on Applecare so the laptop will cost me somewhere in the region of £1400 which is affordable. I am only slightly hesitant as I got 5 years out of the powerbook I had before this and think it would be better to hold off upgrading for another year and buy the equivalent of what I want now. What do you think?

Thanks in advance!

TLDR: Thinking of upgrading from 2.4ghz mbp bought just before unibody came out, sometime stutters a little during heavy gaming and would like a new one but wondering if it's more sensible to upgrade the RAM instead and perhaps swap an SSD into it.

 

[Durious]

Go new, I bought the pre unibody that you have now, although a decent laptop I found in gaming it to stutter as the years progressed and I just recently sold it a few months ago. I haven't yet replaced it but I am thinking of getting the 2011 version in the next week or so. Only downside is they'll likely do a re-design in the next model but I want it now

 

[MJNBGA]

If you've got a machine that works fine, wait until the next model. That is unless you want it right now. Wait a few months and live with the older one...

 

[ynewmarc]

It's really up to you. If you can sale the old one with good money then do the upgrade otherwise keep it.

Since
1. There are still a lot of problem with SSD & 2011 macbook
2. Noone sure Lion work perfectly on after market SSD
3. SSD probably cheaper next year
3. Maybe new design for macbook next year ?
3. Your lap still fine with you, right ?

I you really want do the upgrade this year, the I suggest wait for next couple days after Lion release

 

[duncanbrodie1]

I would really just hang on to what you have for a couple more months.
The next gen macbook pros will have a new design and its always fun to have the latest cool toy.
Buy now, and you'll be stuck with the current unibody design.
Unless you absolutely need a new machine now. But its sounds like you could live with what you have at the moment

 

[stevemiller]

i've been on the fence for a few months myself.

i currently have the first gen unibody with the 2.8 processor. i upgraded the ram to 8gb, and its by no means a slouch, but the work i do (3d/motion graphics/editing) can always benefit from extra horsepower.

i've seen the benchmarks and it certainly looks like performance on-paper has more than doubled since i got my mbp, but i'm curious to hear of any real world experiences with people who have gone from a 2008 model to a 2011 model. is there a noticeable difference, especially for those doing more demanding media related tasks? (if i was just using this machine for light computing tasks i'd say it's still more than adequate).

i don't really have any complaints about the physical construction of this machine, so if the potential redesign is a central argument for waiting for the next iteration, it doesn't really apply to me. plus, the 2011's seem to have the most substantial performance jump the notebooks have seen in a while, and as a result i'm guessing speed improvements will be only incremental for the next few revisions.

anyway, if anyone else was in the same boat as me and decided to take the plunge on this year's model, i'd love to hear your thoughts on it.