Is it worth it?

just get a new battery if it serves you well otherwise.

If your needs for the first year of college are limited to what you could do with only a new batery, save the money for now and get a job to earn more money in that first year to put towards a new one when you *need* it.

If you do need Cloud or something not offered in less than Lion or ML, then all of the signs are there to read -- find the money for a new one.

If your Macbook works for you and does what you want it to do, then it's best to get a new battery for it.

So it's not compatible with Mountain Lion....Is that a big deal for you? Lion is out and some Macbook owners are still chugging along with Leopard and Snow Leopard since it works for them.

My suggestion, go with a new battery so you can use it in college and maybe in a year or two, get a Macbook.

My .02 cents.

If you have a MacBook with the removable battery you can get a new third party battery fairly cheap on eBay.

Black Batteries http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=macbook+black+battery&_sacat=0&LH_BIN=1&_sop=12 &_dmpt=Laptop_Batteries&_odkw=macbook+white+battery&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0. m 270.l1313

White Batteries http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=macbook+white+battery&_sacat=0&LH_BIN=1&_sop=12 &_dmpt=Laptop_Batteries&_odkw=macbook+black+battery&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0. m 270.l1313

Or for $129 from The Apple Store http://store.apple.com/us/product/MA566LL/A?mco=MTY3ODQ5OTY

beckifromnc wrote:

Is there anything it wont be able to do for college?

We don't know what you needs will be in college.

I'm frustrated by how soon it became outdated.

It's only outdated if it no longer serves your needs.

just because it can't update to the latest operating system does not make it outdated. What makes it outdated is when it is no longer useful to you. If not being able to update to Mountain Lion makes it no longer useful to you, then I agree it is outdated.

beckifromnc wrote:

It's outdated because it cant update to Mountain Lion and its only 4 years old.

I'm only using it for papers and research.

Just because you can run Mountain Lion, it doesn't mean you can't do anything with it. If it's so important to you to upgrade your os, then go with Lion. I'm sure you can do a lot when you install lion. But I think you should be fine with what you have now.

Since you're only using it for papers and research, do you really need a new laptop/notebook for that?

Upgrade your RAM if you wish to get a little more life from your Macbook.

choose your model mac from here: http://www.ifixit.com/Device/MacBook then click "ram" on the next screen for installation instructions.