happy sailor Loc: Ontario, Canada

Hi Gene,

You know of course that what your saying is perfectly logical (because it is) but it is difficult for those of us that have old MacBook pros sent to the dumpster when then still seem to do so much so well. The case will still look good, the hinge still works properly, the keyboard still perfect, the display is just as bright as when we bought it but like ourselves newer models move faster.

I have four macs in the house and one windows box, I bought the windows box for quick books as the apple version doesn't do Canadian taxes. The windows box was a HP cheapie with a fairly fast processor and 16 gb memory, I have a dell touch monitor with it. I loaded LR and PS on it and was impressed at how well it did With that software.

Because I am a Mac guy I still went and bought an iMac 5k 27 inch and then put my PS and LR on it and took it off the PC.

Anyway, your point is bang on and if I could not afford a new Mac I would have no problem going to a PC platform, it appears that for half the price you get more computing power and windows ten doesn't seem bad at all. Maybe next time.

mas24 Loc: Southern CA

Heck, if you can upgrade a Mac or Windows, it's all better than it was previously. I upgraded a 7 year old Windows Vista to Windows 7, and went from 2gb Ram to 4gb Ram, and 250 gb HDD to 500 gb SSD. Unfortunately I couldn't upgrade the processor. But as only a backup laptop, the upgrade made it better, and cost was minimal. I don't know about Mac, but computers loaded with Windows 10 now, are reasonably priced compared to past years.

trc Loc: Logan, OH

Bill,

jzehaz gave you the link for Macsales/OWC site, and another one that is very reputable for memory (I have bought all my memory upgrades for my Macs - PowerBook Pros and iMacs) and now they handle SSD drives of all sizes for Mac's is http://www.crucial.com Check out their prices and tutorials for installing memory and SSD's. I may bite the bullet and get an SSD for my iMac - I am still in the thinking mode right now.

I have upgraded 4 or 6 Macbook Pros (my wife and I as well as my 4 sons both use those and I have maxed out my iMac memory as well). As a matter of fact, Apple said that the maximum RAM for our MacBook Pros is 8 GB each. After checking with Crucial, they said that the Maximum RAM is actually 16 GB (two 8 GB chips). I have upgraded both of the computers so they now have 16 GB of RAM and work very well.

My wife is a school teacher, and I, of course, do a lot of tasks with images and photography. I use my 27" iMac as my go to image post processing computer, but also use my MacBook Pro quite a bit when I have to and never had any problems. Check out the Crucial.com site and see what you think - nothing to lose, but perhaps a little time.

Best Regards,
Tom

Basil Loc: New Mexico

I have an early 2011 MBP which came with a standard 320GB drive and 4GB memory. I have upgraded to 16GB memory and swapped out the drive for a 500GB Seagate Momentus "Hybrid" drive. The Hybrid drive has 4GB of SSD onboard that acts as a smart cache that store all the most accesses stuff. As a result it boots much faster and my commonly used programs run much faster. Not as fas as a straight SSD but at the time I did the upgrade SSD drives were more than I wanted to spend. These days SSD drives are more reasonable so one of these days I may upgrade again.

Martino Loc: Northwest Florida

I've added extra memory to a number of Mac laptops, always with good results. Done the same to iMacs.

When Sierra came out recently, I decided to do a clean install on my mid-2011 iMac. My data was either in the cloud (Adobe CC, iCloud, Dropbox, Evernote etc) or on a separate hard drive, plus back up to Backblaze and time machine to a separate hard drive. The effect on the iMac was stunning. It's faster than when new (I've boosted its memory too) and no spinning beach balls. Minimal cost too.

My wife's Dell PC has had replacement drives, upgrade in memory and now runs Win 10. None of it was cheap and to be honest its still unreliable and does 'strange and unexpected' things.

I'll stick with Mac!

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Probably. A reliable source for such upgrade items (SSD and conventional drives, RAM, etc.) is www.macsales.com.

I've dealt with them since 1990.

Another good source is www.iFixIt.com.

They both have upgrade guides, "how to install" videos, and live, American English speaking Americans who know what they're talking about, to help you.

I only give up on a Mac if Apple abandons it (5-7 years for OS upgrades). If it still works, I take it off the network and use it for running legacy software.

Martino Loc: Northwest Florida

Crucial.com also do upgrade components, and have a tool for telling you what your machine has already and what the upgrade options are. They have online videos to help do the work, and their service is good.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Sierra does seem to run especially fast on older Macs. I have a mid-2010 Mini with three startup drives (all same model and speed). The Sierra drive seems to run everything twice as fast. 10.6 and 10.10 are similar.

Rongnongno Loc: FL

Leave the 'teacher' alone. He is always right... on his planet.

Nothing wrong with that, is there?

(You guys need to get a PC!!! )

tomcat

You missed the point Gene51, initially, but then you recovered in your last 2 sentences---not griping here, but the OP wanted a Mac and not a Micros$#$%t machine. So he is much better off with a new $500 Mac than the PC you wanted to stick him with-----lol

magpix Loc: St. Michaels, MD

I had a similar problem with a 2009 13" Mac Book Pro. This was used only while I was traveling, and mostly for downloading my daily shoots and some quick editing before returning to my home studio. So it wasn't heavily used. But eventually, the OS had to be upgraded because various editing programs were not supported, so I took it to an Apple store for them to preform the upgrade. The process fried my HD. Their arrogant answer was that my laptop was so old, "what did I expect?" They then had the nerve to tell me that because it was so old, they no longer could work on it. Angry but determined, I left and did some research. I bought a SSD HD on Amazon for a couple hundred bucks, some new RAM chips from Crucial and with the help of YouTube, installed everything myself. Another visit to the Apple store, and the latest OS was installed. (This time, the tech I got was much more understanding and didn't try to shame me with having such a "relic." ) Total cost: Less than $350. I couldn't believe this was the same Mac when I first turned it on and started doing some LR and PS editing. It was amazing. I just returned from a three week shoot out West, and this baby took care of downloading 3,000 images and functioned flawlessly running PhotoMechanic, LR, PS and Photomatix programs. Sure an all new machine is better, but this suits my needs perfectly while traveling. ( I shoot professionally for magazine assignments, so my stuff has to look good.) It bugs me that so many tech companies follow the path of planned obsolescence. They sometimes make you feel like a victim.

On another note, I noticed the unnecessary, ugly, snarkiness of some responses to your post, obviously trying to prove their superior computer science knowledge. The only thing these folks prove is their inferiority complex. If they have an educated contribution to make, make it. But don't try to belittle us with self-annointed superiority. Like others here, I simply prefer working on a Mac than a Windows machine.

SHLeM52 Loc: Jacksonville, FL

Some of the new Win PCs are the same way. The lower end machines aren't built to be upgraded, they just want you to buy a faster one.

S

WessoJPEG Loc: Cincinnati, Ohio

t

WessoJPEG Loc: Cincinnati, Ohio

Djelibeybi

Glad to know the oldies still stagger on.....
Still have a working G4 Powerbook - battery's b*ggered but it still works - if slowly - was very useful when the screen on my pro died.....