How good will my macbook pro be in a couple of years?

[-1nf1n1ty-]

Hey guys, wasn't sure where to throw this thread so I apologize in advance, but I have a Macbook Pro Unibody 2008 (I think) these are the specs:

2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB 1067 MHz DDR3
9400m and 9600m gt
300gb

I was wondering how outdated my mac is, I was thinking of sending it to colorware but I dont want to get it custom painted if its outdated.

 

[DRDNA]

no so good.

 

[DonInKansas]

It'll only be good because of the logo.

 

[DRDNA]

with slim pickings when in comes to upgrade options.

 

[-1nf1n1ty-]

:\ I wish you could upgrade parts for your laptops, I wanna sell this one and save to get a better one or something but what am I gonna do?
thanks guys

 

[DRDNA]

:\ I wish you could upgrade parts for your laptops, I wanna sell this one and save to get a better one or something but what am I gonna do?
thanks guys

Save up for an I7 Asus refurb with at least a 5870
New egg 850ish

Recertified: ASUS G73 Gaming Series G73JH-RBBX05 R...

 

[wickerman]

There is nothing wrong with a 2.5ghz core 2 duo with 4gb of ram and a 9600m GT. Granted it wont be as fast as a higher end core i5 or i7 but that's only a limitation if what you do is currently cpu limited. But it's among the fastest core 2 duo chips you could get in any notebook.

You can see how your laptop compared to at least the newer macbooks in an Anandtech review here. If it's fast enough for what you use it for and your needs are not going to change over the next few years then I doubt you'd need a big upgrade. Frankly I'd suggest replacing the mechanical drive with an SSD as that would make a huge improvement in day to day tasks. You'll boot up faster, resume from sleep faster, apps will load quicker, it'll run cooler and you may even see a small boost in battery life depending on how often your drive is under stress.

120/128gb SSDs can be had found for $120-$160 and 240/256gb SSDs start at around $300. Hands down it's the best upgrade you can make in my opinion. A faster chip or better graphics wont matter unless you are stressing them out with your workloads, but even with light work an SSD makes an improvement. And the higher the workload the better.

Faster laptops are always easy to find, some refurbs with monster specs can be had for under a grand these days. But just remember that you often have to trade off portability and battery life to gain performance. So its best to know what you need from a laptop before you start looking at specs.

 

[CDdude55]

It depends what you do on it, that's still a decent machine for doing light work and internet browsing.

As stated, an upgrade to a nice SSD would give it some new life. If you have heavy workloads to get done then that system won't last but a few years (unless you plan on using the same software forever).

 

[-1nf1n1ty-]

I pretty much use it for : Maya 2011, Nuke, Photoshop, and only game I play on it is WoW, and indie games on steam, After Effects

 

[qubit]

It's a Mac and this is a PC enthusiast forum. 'Nuff said.

But seriously, that spec is indeed getting a little old, regardless whether it's in a Mac or a PC. In 2 years, it will be very old and will be heading towards classic status.

If you really want to customize a Mac and have the money, then I recommend getting a new MacBook. Or just buy a PC laptop and customize that. How much cooler would that be? Now that the Jobs Reality Distortion Field has collapsed, it should be much easier to do.

 

[-1nf1n1ty-]

I was looking into selling this one and getting the Razer switchblade laptop cause it looked great but,dunno if I want to spend double. Its also something like me needing to also have these programs on it and since I have Adobe suite disc set final cut pro etc. its a tougher decision

I looked on craigslist and it seems that this laptop would sell for a bunch...nvm not anymore lol

 

[timta2]

Yes, Macs definitely hold their resale value better than any PC. In my opinion as a 20+ year Mac user, Macs also become outdated at a slower rate than a Windows PC. A 5 year old Mac seems to be a lot more usable than a 5 year old Windows machine. But that's just my opinion and is in no way factual.

You should still be able to get at least a couple of years of use out of it and then sell it for a nice price, for the uses you mentioned anyway.

 

[tilldeath]

mac's OS is less resource intensive so will last longer for basic function. Outside of that though as games progress and programs are updated the demand for resources rises across the board so ultimatly the market will dictate how many years you get out of a given machine.

 

[qubit]

Yes, Macs definitely hold their resale value better than any PC. In my opinion as a 20+ year Mac user, Macs also become outdated at a slower rate than a Windows PC. A 5 year old Mac seems to be a lot more usable than a 5 year old Windows machine. But that's just my opinion and is in no way factual.

You should still be able to get at least a couple of years of use out of it and then sell it for a nice price, for the uses you mentioned anyway.

Regardless of whether one is a Mac or a PC fan, one can't argue with the resale value of an old Mac. I'll bet even ancient artifact from 1998 would fetch something not so trivial, perhaps for collector's value. You can't say the same about an old Pentium 3!