Upgrade or buy a new MacBook?

[CocktailSausage]

I have a 6 year old MacBook Pro (mid 2009 model) though still functioning, in computing terms it's ancient and needs a new battery, more ram and possibly a new larger hard drive.
I could either buy a new one - which will take me months to save for or just upgrade the one I have.

I've just had the same situation, mid 2009 6yo MBP. I'd upgraded RAM, hard drive etc along the way but it had reached the point where it was just too tired to keep up. Gave in and bought a new one and the difference is amazing. The old one was functioning but there's a limit to what can be upgraded in a machine of that age that will make much of a difference.

Thank you Shelagh. I thought that might be the case. I've also heard of MBP giving up after 5 years. So looks like I'll just have to save and wait.

I disagree, speaking as someone who's keeping a 2007 iMac running on the latest software just for giggles has has upgraded several Macbook Pros.

You can put 8GB of RAM in a 2009 Macbook Pro (it probably currently has 2GB). Crucial part CT3309351, £45. 8GB is more than enough: it's the maximum available on Airs and the new Macbook, and I'm running several machines on Yosemite.latest with 4GB with no signs of distress.

You can put a 500GB solid state disk in it. Samsung 850 EVO, £129. That's probably a lot more space than you currently have.

Total £175, and it'll perform as well as a new machine for anything other than highly CPU intensive jobs.

£25 for someone to do the work if you don't fancy it. But RAM and hard drives on 2009 Macbook Pros are the work of five minutes each.

Apple will do the battery, fixed cost, for a further £99 I believe.

So less than £300 for an effectively new machine.

If you need more disk space than that, you can do trickier things involving replacing the hard drive with an SSD, the DVD drive with a hard drive, and building your own Fusion drive. Then you can put 1.1TB into your Macbook for about a total cost of £100 (£50 for a 128GB SSD, £40 for a 1TB hard drive, £10 for the bracket). That's what I've done on my iMac. But that's outside the realm of simple upgrades, and your local "I take macs to pieces and put them back together" man might not know what to do. If you fancy it: www.royr.net/2012/11/how-i-installed-2012-fusion-drive-in-my.html

My 2009 MBP has a 1TB drive and RAM was maxed at 8GB already. Battery is fine. I know my way round a Mac pretty well and none of those will will give you a new machine, far far from it.

The SSD is the game changer.

SSD is the way to go. Did the same. Like getting a new machine.

If you decide to opt for a new one you can trade in your old one with Apple and get some money back for it. It's at least a little something towards your new one.