What to do, upgrade or new macbook?

Over the past few months, I have noticed my Macbook, purchased in early 2008, becoming annoyingly slow. All programs are up to date, and its not just safari. Everything is slow, I see the color wheel a lot. Switching applications has slowed, and the booting of an application goes at snails pace.
Generally, I have safari, itunes and word running. Not a lot. Pretty sure I need more RAM, or memory. Honestly, no idea what they are, I have just read it from these forums. Please let me know if this sounds accurate. I am computer illiterate, and I don't want to be sold on something I don't need. How much will this cost (parts and labor), and is it even worth my $? Should I just buy another Macbook? (I love the idea of a new mac, but not the spending $ part)
Please, and thank you!

The MacBook you have is very valuable. Your MacBook has FireWire, the new ones don't. (FireWire is on the Macbook Pro.)
If I was in your situation, I would back up my data, zero out the MacBook hard drive (using the disc that came with your MacBook). I would then reinstall everything.
It's hard to say why your MacBook is acting slowly. I would begin by reinstalling everything from your master disc. I suspect that you will then find your computer is going fast again. Start reinstalling your other software, using a step-by-step process.
In doing this you may find what was causing the slowdown. You may also find that after you reinstall all your software your computer is responding like new again and you'll never find out what the problem was.
You might be asking yourself “what if it's the hardware”. It is very unlikely it is a hardware problem, 99% of the time there is some software conflict at fault.
And remember, your MacBook has FireWire.

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