NSR: MacBook Pro (2009) Update hardware or entire machine

[char]

Debating upgrading the RAM (currently 2gb) in my macbook pro (2009- intel 2.4ghz core duo) or buying an entirely new machine.

It is primarily used for web surfing, word processing and some basic image stuff (iphoto). It is starting to have trouble streaming video (choppy quality) and running more than a few applications at a time. I also am unable to perform some application software updates because I can't upgrade to Apples latest operating system.

I think I can drop up to 8gb of RAM into it.

Is there some sort of system clean up I can do to it to speed things up?

Or should I just bite the bullet and upgrade? (No, I don't want a tablet. The next machine would probably be a new Macbook or Air)

[Wintersmith]

I would on a general basis never drop money into any portable computer thats older than 3 years.
After year 3 there is a increase in chance that other hardware will fail.

When it comes to your performance i suspect the main issue here is the very slow CPU.
I belive you have the Intel P8600 that have a cpumark of 1523.
Most modern portable computers will have a 3 times faster cpu and a SSD drive that makes a huge impact on performance.

If you compare a webpage today, with one from 2009 you will see all the rich multimedia content that soaks up cpu, full hd video requires quite abit.

You could try to uninstall any software thats runing in the background stealing resources.

[Tye 1on]

sorta depends on the cash flow. More memory/cleanup will get you another year or two of limping along, or you can get a refurb air or MBP for under $1000, and likely get, what, 3-400 for the old one? If that difference is affordable, i think you'd notice a huge jump in performance...

[systemoverblow'd]

Debating upgrading the RAM (currently 2gb) in my macbook pro (2009- intel 2.4ghz core duo) or buying an entirely new machine.

I have the older non-unibody 2.4 C2D I am typing on right now. Maxed out RAM and SSD upgrade a long time ago. It's still pretty much a dog but I think the SSD might help you out a bit. Nothing you are working on is too heavy.

For ~$300 you can get a 240GB SSD and max out the ram. That might get you another couple years out of it. Honestly, you shouldn't be having that much trouble. The nice thing is you can then take your internal 2.5" and put it in external case and now you have an external. In a couple years when you buy your new rig you can take the ssd out and have another external drive, but an ssd one.

I'm personally getting a new laptop this year because it just can't handle the video and motion graphics I would like to do with it. But you should be fine for a while.

Do you have Cocktail or Onyx? I would download Onyx and run through all the crap (permissions, cron script, deleting unused crap. Also Grand Perspective let yous visualize your storage data and can help you clean shit up if you know what you are deleting. After that, I have some more in depth stuff.

If you have a hard drive you have come to filled up and removed shit, refilled, emptied, etc, you may want to defrag your drive. I know most people claim you don't need to do that, but I got into a state on this machine that I could no longer write to the hard drive even though I had plenty of space. Defragging solved everything.

Also, you can run Mavericks. I'm on an older machines and I have Mavericks running right now.

EDIT - Also, it never hurts ot delete prefs when something isn't working right. You using Safari? Go to your user home / library / prefs / com.apple.safari.plist. Put it in the trash, empty the trash and relaunch Safari and see if that helped with the streaming videos. Or find the prefs file for whatever broswer you are using. Don't be scared to trash prefs, just know depending on what app it is, you may need to reset things, like when I trash my FCP prefs, it resets my window setup to default and I have to rearrange them. Just something to think about.

[JoeStrummer]

Thanks ^^^

I am in the same boat with a 2009 MB Pro, except I also need to get an assload of music and photos off of mine. It cant do much more than editing in LR2 and porn streaming. Not that those arent worthy uses. But its in great shape and I hate to sack for a new one.

[systemoverblow'd]

^^^Just a word of note... it is wise to make sure you have your drive backed up before doing any serious mussing with it. I have personally never ran into an issue the last decade doing these things, but you never know. Especially if you are messing with your harddrive defragging it.

Also, Joe. Do you use your superdrive? Because if not, you can buy an OWC datadoubler kit which will be a basket to remove your superdrive and put ans SSD in its place. So you could boot your OS and your applications could live on the SSD and your pictures and music could live on the old internal drive as a media drive.

[Swine]

I've had good luck using DriveGenius and DataRescue Pro to deal with failing harddrives and for diagnostics/repairs. I'm a big fan of upgrading; typing this on a pre-Unibody early 2008 Macbook Pro. Upgraded the drive to a 7200 RPM one, and maxed the RAM to 6 GB. It's certainly not new, and when using Logic I hit a ceiling because of the CPU, but fuck it, I'm not dropping serious coin on electronics every 2 years.

OWC DIY kits are the way to go for nearly everything. I've taken my laptop apart a number of times for upgrading/repairs (had the cable to the drive shortout and smoke once, that was fun).

Always back your shit up, I'm bordering on double redundancy for some stuff, it blows to lose data.

PM me if you want to try an, ahem, trial version, of the above mentioned apps.

[char]

I think after reading this I am going to start by upgrading to 8gb RAM (~100) and upgrading to Mountain Lion and then Mavericks ($20).

Considering a hard drive upgrade as well.

Thanks!

[systemoverblow'd]

Have you upgraded yet? Just wondering as ironically, my logic board died yesterday on mine.

[char]

Have you upgraded yet? Just wondering as ironically, my logic board died yesterday on mine.

Not yet. I figured out it is a MacBook, not a Macbook Pro. Just haven't gotten around to ordering anything yet.

[Team Live-Badass]

You should be able to upgrade to 8gb of ram for way less then $100. I did the same upgrade almost two years ago and it was only about $50 for two 4 GB sticks.

Sent from my XT1060 using TGR Forums

[systemoverblow'd]

Shutup donny, you're out of your element.

https://www.google.com/search?q=PC85...ient=firefox-a

[Team Live-Badass]

FYI, if it's a 2009 macbook (not a macbook pro) it can only be upgraded to 4GB of ram.

This is the kit I was referring to for an 8GB upgrade for a 2009 macbook pro though (http://www.amazon.com/PNY-1066MHz-Ch...s=1066MHz+DDR3).

$68, I've never had a problem with PNY RAM.

[systemoverblow'd]

Sorry to cunt the thread but...

FYI, if it's a 2009 macbook (not a macbook pro) it can only be upgraded to 4GB of ram.

BZZT... wrong again. They only offered a 2.4 in 2008 and 2010. So if he bought it in 2009, it had to be the one from 2008. And yes, that macbook model (not pro) came with 2GB but was expandable to 8GB. It's the MacBook5,1. Look it up.

[homebrewd]

Upgrade that RAM. Find a deal on a SSD and get rid of the optical drive as well.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using TGR Forums

[Team Live-Badass]

It's the MacBook5,1. Look it up.

Ok, for the most part you're right, for a Macbook5,1:

*Apple officially supports a maximum of 4 GB of RAM. Originally, this model was only unofficially capable of stably supporting 6 GB of RAM, but as confirmed by site sponsor OWC, it is capable of supporting 8 GB of RAM if updated to Boot ROM Version MB51.007D.B03 and running MacOS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard" or higher.

Learn something new everyday.

[Spats]

It shouldn't be slow at streaming video. You've probably got an old OS install and things crap up over time.

Also note that Flash refuses to upgrade on older OS versions. 99% of choppy video is because Flash is a piece of shit, especially the last few versions that ran on 10.5. Use Chrome and you can at least keep it from slowing down all your other browser windows.

My advice: back up all files. Get new OS. Replace the HD if you have any need for a bigger one because they're dirt cheap. Do a system wipe and fresh OS install. Reinstall all files and apps. And enjoy a computer that works friggin' fine.

[char]

It shouldn't be slow at streaming video. You've probably got an old OS install and things crap up over time.

Also note that Flash refuses to upgrade on older OS versions. 99% of choppy video is because Flash is a piece of shit, especially the last few versions that ran on 10.5. Use Chrome and you can at least keep it from slowing down all your other browser windows.

My advice: back up all files. Get new OS. Replace the HD if you have any need for a bigger one because they're dirt cheap. Do a system wipe and fresh OS install. Reinstall all files and apps. And enjoy a computer that works friggin' fine.

This is the conclusion I have come to as well. It is still running 10.5 so I will be working through the upgrades to get Mavericks on there soon. Going to drop the 8gb RAM in there just to make things nice and fast.