Need advice on updating old macbook pro, and buying new one.

[JustLilOlMe]

This is the macbook I have now. It is old and slow, but I am wondering if it is worth updating anything so that I can gift it to my nephew. I think it is so old that I can add RAM, but only up to 8GB. It would also need a new battery. Do you think it's financially worth it to replace some things, or are macs this old about to go out even if I replace a few things?

Also, I'm looking to buy a new 16" Are there any reliable rumors of an update to last year's model before the end of this year? I just don't know if I should hold off on buying one or not. I read on another post that if you get one now, it will probably only be good for 3-5 years because Apple is moving away from intel chips, and as you can tell, I keep things a long time. lol

Thoughts, advice? Thanks!

 

[KeesMacPro]

The most efficient and cost effective upgrade is to replace the HDD by a SSD e.g. Samsung 860 EVO.
In combination with 2X4gb RAM (e.g. used on eBay) would increase the overall improvement further...

Whether this is worth the investment (including a new battery or not) is something only you can judge..

 

[calliex]

If you keep your machines for 10 years as do I then you are not concerned with keeping up the latest OS upgrades or software upgrades. That being said the 16 should last you 5+ years or as long as your happy with its performance. I run sierra on my 2012 MBP because I can't afford to upgrade some of my apps to run on Catalina.

I would like to wait for a decent machine with Apple silicon but I think that is going to take at least two years. By that time the software would have caught up and the hardware and OS would be more mature.

For your 2010 machine for your nephew. Upgrade the RAM, Hardrive to SSD and battery. It will be like a new machine. I young person will want to use a laptop like a laptop not plugged in all the time.

 

[iluvmacs99]

View attachment 942701This is the macbook I have now. It is old and slow, but I am wondering if it is worth updating anything so that I can gift it to my nephew. I think it is so old that I can add RAM, but only up to 8GB. It would also need a new battery. Do you think it's financially worth it to replace some things, or are macs this old about to go out even if I replace a few things?

Also, I'm looking to buy a new 16" Are there any reliable rumors of an update to last year's model before the end of this year? I just don't know if I should hold off on buying one or not. I read on another post that if you get one now, it will probably only be good for 3-5 years because Apple is moving away from intel chips, and as you can tell, I keep things a long time. lol

Thoughts, advice? Thanks!

I am actually typing on a Macbook Pro 2009 that is a little older than yours. It has a new battery and a SSD, but it doesn't run a Mac OS. It is running Linux Mint 20 (which is a 64bit OS like Catalina) and is a really nice OS and for browsing the web, I prefer Mint 20 compared to Catalina or Mojave. Mint 20 is so much lighter than Catalina/Mojave and closer to Mac OS than Windows 10. Downside is I can't run Mac applications, but the stuff I do like heavy image editing and 4k/1080p video editing are beyond the comfortable realms of this Core 2 Duo slow poke anyhow. Word processing and email stuff have applications that work on both my Mac, PC and Linux machines, so I don't miss a thing with Mac OS. Is it financially viable still? It depends on how well you kept your Macbook and if you kept it well, they will last for a few more years before they die or you can gift it to a recycling place where they will recycle your machine and re-sell it to low income families. When I used to work for a computer recycler, we often recycle machines like yours so low income families can afford a nice computer.

To be honest, re-living my past experience with Apple transitioning from PowerPC to Intel and how their tunes then are the same tunes they are singing today suggest to me that, the most you will get out of an Intel machine is roughly around 5-6 years including the extended support you receive after OS moved on to the next OS. There is a trending move towards AI applications with lower TDP and the Apple silicon has the neural engine that will benefit towards this change. Otherwise, I don't think we know the future just yet.

 

[Fishrrman]

Cheap but effective upgrades before you give it away:
- buy ONE 4gb DIMM (will up the RAM to 6gb). Just replace "the topmost DIMM".
- buy a 256gb SSD and swap it out (they're cheap).
- buy a battery and swap that out.

The SSD will give the biggest improvement. RAM will help, too.
These are easy upgrades anyone can install, but BE SURE TO USE THE RIGHT TOOLS FOR THE JOB.
Go to ifixit.com to see what's involved.

As for a new MBP...
If you want the 16" model buy one, but try to get a good deal.
Apple sells the base model on their refurbished (online) page for $2,039, I believe.

Do you carry it around a lot?
If so, you might be more interested in the 2020 13" MBP.
Less to carry (although the 16" isn't overly large).

 

[Boyd01]

I have a 2008 15" MacBook pro with the same 2.4 ghz processor. Don't use it anymore, the Core2Duo is really slow by today's standards and the battery completely died several years ago. The upgrades suggested above are good and will certainly help, but personally I wouldn't pour any more money into a machine of that age. But that's up to you, of course.

More of a concern would be using Sierra. I was also still using Sierra until June, had installed Catalina on my 2012 Mini just to test it out, but decided I would rather migrate to a new machine before fully embracing it. But the lack of security updates concerned me with Sierra.

If you get a new Mac, it will have Catalina pre-installed and any old 32-bit apps will no longer work so be prepared for that. This was a major concern for me, because I had several expensive legacy apps that I really didn't want to update. I can still run them on my old Macs, but my solution was to use Parallels to create a virtual Sierra machine. This works pefectly for me, and I also created a Mountain Lion virtual machine to run even older 32-bit apps that would have cost about $3000 to update. However, if you want to use virtual machines then get a fast computer with plenty of memory.

 

[0128672]

As for a new MBP...
If you want the 16" model buy one, but try to get a good deal.
Apple sells the base model on their refurbished (online) page for $2,039, I believe.

Just to help out the OP with more sources, Amazon and Best Buy have it for $2099.

 

[James_C]

Also, I'm looking to buy a new 16" Are there any reliable rumors of an update to last year's model before the end of this year? I just don't know if I should hold off on buying one or not. I read on another post that if you get one now, it will probably only be good for 3-5 years because Apple is moving away from intel chips, and as you can tell, I keep things a long time. lol

One thought, if you are using a Mac that is ten years old, do you really need a MacBook Pro ? The 2020 MacBook Airs would run rings around your current machine, and now have retina screens. My daughter replaced her 3 year old MacBook Pro with a new Air recently and said how much quicker and lighter it was. With the money saved, you could perhaps upgrade to a AS Mac a little quicker in say 3 years.