How would you upgrade my MacBook Pro 15" to maximize performance? No dollar limit.
I love my MCB, but am not technical.
Spend my money, theoretically -- If you had an unlimited budget to upgrade this system to make it fast and more efficient, what would you buy or do to it?
I'm deciding if I should scrap it and get a new MacBook Pro 13" instead. I like my MCB 15", but it seems to be getting hung up alot with the spinning rainbow, everyday apps freezing or crashing, and just slow when I have multiple windows open in Safari and Firefox at same time. I realize that the sites I browse to are more graphic intensive than they were when I got the MCB in 2008, but I'm wondering if it would be worthwhile to spend some $$$ to upgrade whatever I can and save my pennies for a newer Mac in a year or two. Safari and Mail crash or get hung a lot, Photo Booth folder is mysteriously empty,
So should I expect to be able to get substantial performance improvement (speed, multi-tasking) if I upgrade whatever is upgradable?
I surf using multiple browsers and open many tabs and mail with numerous accounts and magicjack, ocassionally use iweb, pages, text, calendar, low intensity games.
Thanks for any advice and recommendations and thoughts. I'd probably get the Genius Bar to install upgrades.
MacBook Pro 15"
2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
L2 Cache 3 MB
Bus Speed 800 MHZ
OSX 10.5.8
HD 186 GB (137 used)
I back up Time Machine to WD My Passport 1TB
GeForce 8600M GT:
Chipset Model: GeForce 8600M GT
Type: Display
Bus: PCIe
PCIe Lane Width: x4
VRAM (Total): 256 MB
Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)
Device ID: 0x0407
Revision ID: 0x00a1
ROM Revision: 3212
Intel ICH8-M AHCI:
Vendor: Intel
Product: ICH8-M AHCI
Speed: 1.5 Gigabit
Description: AHCI Version 1.10 Supported
USB Bus:
Host Controller Location: Built In USB
Host Controller Driver: AppleUSBUHCI
PCI Device ID: 0x2834
PCI Revision ID: 0x0003
PCI Vendor ID: 0x8086
Bus Number: 0x1a
BRCM2046 Hub:
Product ID: 0x4500
Vendor ID: 0x0a5c (Broadcom Corp.)
Version: 1.00
Speed: Up to 12 Mb/sec
Manufacturer: Apple Inc.
Location ID: 0x1a100000
Current Available (mA): 500
Current Required (mA): 0
Also -- it had a couple of soft drops to floor and one medium intensity drop, always on carpet. so the case (not unibody) is dented on the sides with ports. All "seem" to work fine except right side USB; looks pushed in and angled, and the plastic trim that fills in space connecting flat top of typing surface to bottom cover has a 4" piece cracked off (kind of looks like where grout would go). Devices work but if you move the wire it's power filckers off and on. Have never used firewire or thunderbolt ports on this.
I would like more USB port options (maybe a high grade extendor???) for Logitech laptop cooler, external HD, VOIP device, wired mouse, wired keyboard (I prefer wired).
Thanks again.
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.8)