Keep black Macbook or upgrade to MBP?

[CaliforniaMini]

I'm having a bit of a conundrum here and I'd like some feedback - of course no answer is right or wrong.

I've got a black Macbook 3,1 2.2GHz. I've upgraded to 4gb ram and a 320gb hd. I just had the top case changed and its looking all beautiful again. There is nothing wrong with it, still cosmetically clean, only very minor scratches and it handles everything I throw at it. But now I'm itching for something else.

I've got two plans. First is to switch out the drive to a larger one - probably 500gb, reload the OS and sell it. Judging by previous sales on eBay, I could probably fetch between $600 and $700 for it. Then score a refurbished 2.4 C2D MBP from Apple, about $985 shipped. Then upgrade the hd and ram. I'll have put about $500 into it getting it the way I want it after selling the old one. Going from a 2.2 to a 2.4 C2D I won't see much of a performance boost. And this one already handles everything I throw at it, so thats not necessary anyway. It would just be a new piece of equipment.

Other plan is to just up the drive on the Blackbook to 500gb. Double or even triple boot with Windows 7 and Ubuntu and just stick with this one for a while.

So, if you were I, what would YOU do?

Thanks!!!
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Mercury TiBook 400MHz, 1GB RAM, 120GB HD, Airport
Mini 2.16GHz C2D, 2GB RAM, 320GB 72k RPM HD, 1TB External, Slingbox
BlackBook 2.2GHz C2D, 4GB RAM, 320GB 72k RPM HD
Mini 2.0GHz (Early 2009), 4GB RAM, 320GB 72k RPM HD

[Bandit Bill]

[CaliforniaMini]

Doesn't have AppleCare on it. Apple is covering the topcase replacement for three years on these, even if they are out of warranty, because they are prone to crack. The battery on this one is still about 95% after three years so I'm good there for now. I'd end up buying a family pack of Lion anyway for the rest of the Macs in the house, so that doesn't really matter. Warranty - eh, simple repairs I do myself. But I've been lucky with all my Macs. Only issue I've had in 15 years is a bad mobo on a Performa. Since then, five Macs and 0 issues. Yea, sure, anything can happen at any time. And Thunderbolt I don't see a need for yet. Perhaps thats because its a new technology. But just like the display port on my Blackbook, its just there.

And if I were to do this, it would be one of the lower end C2D models. I'm not working right now and living on unemployment while going to school full time. Mortgages take up just about all the unemployment $$$, so theres not a lot left for toys at the moment...perhaps I'll stick with what I've got for now, now that I've had a bit more time to think about it.

Still open to suggestions though.
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Mercury TiBook 400MHz, 1GB RAM, 120GB HD, Airport
Mini 2.16GHz C2D, 2GB RAM, 320GB 72k RPM HD, 1TB External, Slingbox
BlackBook 2.2GHz C2D, 4GB RAM, 320GB 72k RPM HD
Mini 2.0GHz (Early 2009), 4GB RAM, 320GB 72k RPM HD

[Cypher]

[Bandit Bill]

[Fox]

If money is tight, your MacBook is functional and you're reasonably happy with it, I would stand pat. This is in part because I don't think you'll get $600 for it, so you'll need more money than you have allocated in your head for the upgrade. A replacement drive is very inexpensive; a cheap way to extend the use of your MacBook. I presently have a 2.26 ghz C2D 13.3" MacBook Pro that I think is great. While I agree with Bill that the newest MBP is worth the difference in cost over a C2D model, a good refurb 2.4 ghz MBP is an excellent machine and unless you need the latest and greatest, it should keep you happy for years to come.
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Mini 1: 2.3 ghz Core i5; 8 gb RAM, Corsair 240gb SSD, 500 gb Seagate XT
Mini 2: 2.26 ghz Core 2 duo, 8 gb RAM, 500 gb Seagate
Also a Cube, 13" MacBook Air, 20" 2.66 ghz iMac & 11.6" Acer 1810TZ running Ubuntu & openSuse

[Bandit Bill]

[CaliforniaMini]

[Bandit Bill]

[Smallwheels]

What about an SSD? Today on Macworld I saw a mention about Other World Computing (OWC) modifying a Mac. It got me thinking about my next Apple computer. My computer software is working just fine. I have a 2008 Mac Book 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo with 2 GB RAM. The hard drive is 160 GB and is slightly more than half full.

I'm really impressed with the graphics speeds of the newer models. They have the 1333 MHz buses. Unfortunately they have the Intel integrated graphics on the new ones instead of the Nvidia chips. Mine has the integrated graphics and an 800 MHz bus.

My Mac Book might sell for $600 on a good day with its new battery. A new Mac Book Pro 13" with the 2.7 GHz processor would cost $1499. It would also have the latest track pad that allows multi-touch gestures.

Do I really need to upgrade now? No. I really only do basic things and some easy movie editing with iMovie '08. It would be great if everything happened much faster.

OWC sells a 240 GB SSD for $530. I could also get 4 GB RAM for about $60 the last time I checked. It might be less now.

Would spending $600 on internal upgrades make my current 2008 Mac Book nearly equal to a new Mac Book Pro? Doing that would make my computer much faster and it would be almost $300 cheaper than buying a new one. I could spend $69 for a Magic Trackpad and have the functionality to utilize Lion if I decided to upgrade the OS.

One benefit of the older model is the removable battery. I'm on my second defective one. It isn't a good thing to have defective batteries, but; it is good to be able to just swap them instead of sending the computer back to Apple to be replaced.

I've never owned an SSD. Will having one help me with the playing of streaming movies? I don't know if it will or not. I do know it will open programs faster and allow quicker access to stored files. I do know that adding more RAM will help with streaming movies. Can anybody tell me how the SSD will affect streaming internet content?

Is updating the three year old computer with a faster drive and more RAM just as good as getting a new computer?


Smallwheels

www.MySpace.com/Beninate

[ChevroletChap]

Thank you all for this thread! Very enlightening, this one has become a compare and contrast between the two. Well as for me, if you could resell it with the stated price on the market, making sure you'd get a profit from what the upgrading expenses then you should go for it! Good luck!

[Smallwheels]

As of this date in 2012 it wouldn't be worth the upgrade because Mountain Lion won't work with my hardware. There is also one program that works with a proprietary EEG device that I use for biofeedback. There are no current programs that work with it, thus my Mac Book will remain with me as a dedicated hardware device just for one program. That program doesn't require more RAM or a faster drive.

I don't know if my next computer will be a laptop or desktop but the Mac Book will stick around and eventually become a backup storage device and perhaps my emergency computer if the other main unit needs to go to the shop. As far as backup computers go it will be a really good one. My computing arsenal will be one backup computer; one small tablet, and one yet to be determined high end computer.

Knowing that I must keep the Mac Book has made my choices easier. If the company that made the EEG device had upgraded its software then I'd be wondering which system to pick that would work with the device.

The original question I asked is still a good one. Would upgrading a three year old computer with an SSD and more RAM give the same performance as a newer computer with a conventional hard drive?

Smallwheels