Should I move to Mavericks and do a TM backup before changing my old machine?

Hi all,
I have a pretty old MBP which has suffered a big fall and is now on its last legs (crashing 5 times a day, freezes, wifi drops out, screen unhinged, battery bad...). Current spec is:
15" MBP, late 2008
2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
8 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
OS X 10.8.5 (12F45)
I'm going to hopefully replace it for a new MBP shortly, but I wondered if I should move to OS Mavericks first and do a new Time Machine backup so I can then load up my current hard drive on my new machine. Is that a good idea? I guess there'll be some applications that don't work on the new machine, but that's okay.
I had to use a Time Machine backup last year when my hard drive went down and it was all good except that I had lost about 7 months worth of photos in iPhoto which for some reason Time Machine hadn't backed up. I never got to the bottom of it, and wondered if it was a permissions thing or something, like perhaps something to do with an Apple ID change. But it saved everything else as far as I remember, so I really don't know what happened there. Anyway, I'm hoping that doesn't happen again here.
Would just appreciate any views on whether a move to Mavericks and then a Time Machine backup is a good idea before my current machine heads to the trash... Thanks!
Jamie

I would say NO. If the machine has problems then updating it to Mavericks will likely result in even more problems. Have a good backup and even better have both a TM backup and a clone (made using something like Super Duper or Carbon Copy Cloner). A good TM backup is all you really need but I would definitely not install a new OS on a failing machine.

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Upgrading to Mavericks
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Upgrading to Mavericks
To upgrade to Mavericks you must have Snow Leopard 10.6.8 or Lion installed. Download Mavericks from the App Store. Sign in using your Apple ID. Mavericks is free. The file is quite large, over 5 GBs, so allow some time to download. It would be preferable to use Ethernet because it is nearly four times faster than wireless.
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Start with visits to:     OS X Maintenance - MacAttorney;
                                  The X Lab: The X-FAQs;
                                  The Safe Mac » Mac Performance Guide;
                                  The Safe Mac » The myth of the dirty Mac;
                                  Mac maintenance Quick Assist.
Boot into Safe Mode then repair your hard drive and permissions:
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Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
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OS X performs certain maintenance functions that are scheduled to occur on a daily, weekly, or monthly period. The maintenance scripts run in the early AM only if the computer is turned on 24/7 (no sleep.) If this isn't the case, then an excellent solution is to download and install a shareware utility such as Macaroni, JAW PseudoAnacron, or Anacron that will automate the maintenance activity regardless of whether the computer is turned off or asleep. Dependence upon third-party utilities to run the periodic maintenance scripts was significantly reduced since Tiger. These utilities have limited or no functionality with Snow Leopard or later and should not be installed.
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Also, visit The XLab FAQs and read Detecting and avoiding malware and spyware.
See these Apple articles:
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2. Get Backup
3. Deja Vu
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Referenced software can be found at MacUpdate.
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Should I move to Mavericks and do a TM backup before changing my old machine?

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