Upgrade Mid 2009 MBP or buy new?

[Imported]

I have a mid 2009 MacBook Pro. 2.26 C2D, 2GB memory, 5400RPM HD. Just did a fresh install of Mavericks (late to the party) hoping to speed it up but it seems a little sluggish. I can either drop in a 240GB SSD + 8GB memory for $200 and be hopeful that'll make it last a couple more years or buy a new MBP. Other option is to sell it, but I don't even know if I'd get more than a couple hundred for it. Thoughts?

Main use is internet usage. Have two work laptops and a desktop so having the MBP isn't a huge necessity but its nice to have a personal laptop..

 

[Eug]

I have this exact model. It runs very well with 4 GB RAM and a 120 GB SSD. This is with Mavericks and now Yosemite. (I'm sure it'd run even better with 8 GB RAM, but I don't run larger apps on it often or do a ton of multitasking to make full use of that often.)

I do want to upgrade but mainly for other reasons, NOT speed:

- Retina
- Lower weight
- USB 3 and 802.11ac would be nice too.

 

[SearchMaster]

For Internet usage? Upgrade the memory and call it a day.

 

[KeithP]

I probably would do the upgrade myself. Although based on your usage I might think about just 4GB of RAM.

-KeithP

 

[Eug]

Yeah, very easy to replace both the drive and the memory yourself. You just need the right screwdriver.

However, I would upgrade both the memory and the SSD if you plan on using it a year or two, not just the memory.

 

[mmntech]

SSD is a huge upgrade for those older MacBooks. Though you'll probably have to manually add TRIM support, which requires farting around with the terminal. It's not hard though.

What I did with mine as upgrade to a 120GB SSD and installed OSX on that. Then I removed the optical drive and installed one of those second hard drive caddies in it's place. So I still have the HDD for archival storage.

 

[manly]

SSD is a huge upgrade for those older MacBooks. Though you'll probably have to manually add TRIM support, which requires farting around with the terminal. It's not hard though.

What I did with mine as upgrade to a 120GB SSD and installed OSX on that. Then I removed the optical drive and installed one of those second hard drive caddies in it's place. So I still have the HDD for archival storage.

TRIM Enabler works fine, and is free for the basic functionality. I like throwing the higher capacity spindle HDD into an optical caddy. Who really needs an internal SuperDrive these days?

As you and Eug said, an SSD upgrade is a must.

Macs have good resale value, you might get some sucker to give you $300 for it?

 

[Eug]

I'd say it's worth more than $300 as is. Any machine that can run 10.8 or higher commands a premium. And if it's a Pro, a big premium.

As mentioned, these machines support Yosemite (and support it very well), and also don't break a sweat when running 1080p H.264 playback, because of the hardware H.264 playback integrated into the GPU.

I also have a 2008 white MacBook 2.4 GHz, and that thing gets all stressed out streaming 1080p YouTube. It can play it, but it stutters hard if I try to do anything else, and the fan ramps up high. Furthermore, it can only support up to 10.7 Lion.

Plus the screen on the white MacBook is not great. Despite having a non-Retina non-IPS screen, the screen quality on the mid-2009 MBP is noticeably better than the white Macbooks', and also better than the Airs'.

 

[Shlong]

I upgraded to 8GB ram and a 250GB SSD on a similar machine. It's plenty fast but if you run benchmarks, you won't get the full speed from the SSD because there's only a SATA-2 and no SATA-3 port.

 

[Eug]

I upgraded to 8GB ram and a 250GB SSD on a similar machine. It's plenty fast but if you run benchmarks, you won't get the full speed from the SSD because there's only a SATA-2 and no SATA-3 port.

Doesn't matter. It still is a huge real-world performance upgrade.

In fact, I have a Core i7 iMac with 12 GB RAM, and my mid-2009 MBP often feels faster because my Core i7 iMac only has a 7200 rpm platter drive. Wake from sleep on the Core i7 iMac feels like it takes eons in comparison.

 

[Shlong]

Doesn't matter. It still is a huge real-world performance upgrade.

In fact, I have a Core i7 iMac with 12 GB RAM, and my mid-2009 MBP often feels faster because my Core i7 iMac only has a 7200 rpm platter drive. Wake from sleep on the Core i7 iMac feels like it takes eons in comparison.

Yes it is a huge real-world performance upgrade (boot times / app load times / photo thumbnail listings in a folder), just pointed out that you won't get the max speed.

 

[Imported]

Thanks for the information. Going to go the upgrade route.

 

[mmntech]

I
As mentioned, these machines support Yosemite (and support it very well), and also don't break a sweat when running 1080p H.264 playback, because of the hardware H.264 playback integrated into the GPU.

I also have a 2008 white MacBook 2.4 GHz, and that thing gets all stressed out streaming 1080p YouTube. It can play it, but it stutters hard if I try to do anything else, and the fan ramps up high. Furthermore, it can only support up to 10.7 Lion..

The GeForce 9400M made a huge difference with those things. GMA graphics were just crap. Though Iris is a big improvement over the past, I still wish you could get discrete graphics in the 13'' MBA and MBP. Especially the retina models. Macs are starting to become a poor value again. Especially with the transition to non-upgradable ram and dubiously upgradable storage.

I don't see any reason to get rid of my 2008 Unibody MacBook anytime soon. Still serving me well, even if I don't use it for any heavy lifting anymore.

 

[Eug]

Yeah, I've been meaning to sell our white MacBook because despite having a faster clocked CPU, for video it's so much less robust than the mid-2009 MBP.

However, somehow I have no problem leaving a white MacBook in a kitchen, where the little one can grab it with her sticky fingers. However, even though I'm planning on replacing the MBP with a Retina model sooner rather than later, I just can't get myself to let her do that to my precious MBP.

 

[Imported]

Woo. SSD (256GB MX100) and memory came in. I forgot I need to get something to clone the drive.. doh. Is the internet recovery an easy thing to work through? Otherwise I'll have to stop at Fry's for a cable..

 

[Eug]

Woo. SSD (256GB MX100) and memory came in. I forgot I need to get something to clone the drive.. doh. Is the internet recovery an easy thing to work through? Otherwise I'll have to stop at Fry's for a cable..

Do you have an external USB drive? If so, you can use that as an intermediary. Or a 2.5" disk enclosure. Stick SSD in enclosure, clone to that, remove drive, and put in MBP.

 

[Imported]

Do you have an external USB drive? If so, you can use that as an intermediary. Or a 2.5" disk enclosure. Stick SSD in enclosure, clone to that, remove drive, and put in MBP.

I don't have an external enclosure (my last few have crapped out so I all but gave up) but I think I have some sort of USB cable laying around to connect an HD via USB. I'll have to check the specifics to see if it'd be supported.

 

[Eug]

I too have had a lot of the USB powered enclosures crap out one, but the AC powered ones meant for 3.5" drives usually last longer.

Also, I've had good luck with USB 3.0 to SATA docks. They work with both 2.5" and 3.5" SATA drives and go for around $20-50 depending on brand and if you need single or dual.

 

[Imported]

Thanks. My last SATA dock also crapped out on me (I have bad luck with these things..) but I think I have the recovery CDs if all else fails. Yay for holding onto things!

 

[alkemyst]

For just internet use just upgrade this machine, if you have the budget a newer MBP or Air are really nice.

It's hard to beat the build quality of these laptops.

 

[Paperlantern]

Do you have an external USB drive? If so, you can use that as an intermediary. Or a 2.5" disk enclosure. Stick SSD in enclosure, clone to that, remove drive, and put in MBP.

Time Machine is also a great way to "clone". I have a running backup drive that I always plug into my 2008 MBP when I have it at my desk. Time machine just always back up at regular intervals.

When I picked up a REALLY FAST 160GB Intel 320 series SSD, I wanted to upgrade from the problematic 128GB Kingston SSD Now v200 that I had in there (I was getting pinwheels, problems coming out of sleep mode, all kinds of wonky crap).

So I yanked the (probably dying) drive, slapped in the new Intel, booted to the installer like I was going to install the OS fresh, but just said recover from backup, selected the most recent and walked away, about 40 minutes later I came back and was looking at my desktop and icons, programs and settings exactly like I had them.

It was worth it too, the old girl went from churning over roughly (using Blackmagic design Disk speed test) 100 MB/s write and 115 or so Read up to 145 MB/s write and 180 MB/s read. Boots are nice and fast. I will be hanging onto this old girl a while longer now.

TLDR version: Yes get an SSD, it is worth it, but get a SOLID QUALITY one and you will not be disappointed.

 

[sonitravel09]

I get 2010 macbook pro. I am not going to upgrade it. Bettr to buy 8gb of ram what will be quite cheap. But the SSD is where you'll notice the real difference.

 

[Imported]

Installing everything was easy peasy. I did my time machine backup wrong the first time (forgot to add system files) so I couldn't restore to the SSD so I had to do that all over. Performance has greatly improved though.

 

[Eug]

Installing everything was easy peasy. I did my time machine backup wrong the first time (forgot to add system files) so I couldn't restore to the SSD so I had to do that all over. Performance has greatly improved though.

Do you have to add the system files manually? (I just always do a direct clone, or else a new install.) Performance improved enough to keep another few years?

I could keep mine for a few years, if it weren't for the weight and the lack of a Retina screen. I may end up just collecting these laptops though. I was wanting to sell my wife's white MacBook, but as mentioned it gets abused in the kitchen. This weekend saw it get dusted with flour, with a few bits of oatmeal from my daughter as well. And it seems a shame to sell my tarted up 2009 MacBook (mint) for just $400-450 or whatever.

Maybe I'll move it the home theatre room, and finally retire my iMac G4 there.

 

[Imported]

Apparently the system files were excluded by default, so I just had to remove the exclusion and redo the backup. I'll probably keep it a couple years at least as Retina isn't a must for what I'm using it for.