Which new Macbook to replace my 2008 Macbook Pro?

I am about to buy a new replacement for my 5 year old 15" Macbook Pro which I have sworn by, but is slowly letting go.
I would like someones opinion: should I replace it with the new 13 inch Macbook Air, or 13 inch Macbook Pro?
I would use it mostly for day to day work and fun, but also professionally for basic Photoshopping, Webdesign, and less frequently heavier programs such as AutoCAD, Sketchup and rendering software, as well as Final Cut.
I dont mind having the fastest and best of all to do this, but the system should be capable of running these apps smoothly.
My current system does fine, so will use it as a reference point with the following specs:
15" Macbook Pro Spring 2008 (yes, neither my keyboard nor trackpad work = lots of cables!)
Mac Os 10.5.8
2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
6 GB 667 Mhz DDR2 SDRAM
Thanks so much for advice, it would be greatly appreciated!

I would recommend a 15" MBP for your needs.
Although the your applications may run adequately on the 13" MBA or 13" MBP, the lack of dedicated video GPU and dual-core vs quad-core may limit the useable life of your next MacBook.

Similar Messages

  • I want to install a new hard drive on my 2008 MacBook but do not have the instillation discs that came with my computer.  Can I use instillation discs from a 2009 or 2010 MacBook?

    I want to install a new hard drive on my 2008 MacBook but do not have the instillation discs that came with my computer.  Can I use instillation discs from a 2009 or 2010 MacBook?  The hard drive I am planning to install is a WD Scorpio Black 500GB SATA 2.5'' internal hard drive.

    Sometimes they do work - i've done it before.  I have a late 2008 Macbook Uni and used the install dvd of my 2009 Macbook White and it worked.
    Why not just clone your hard drive?  It'll save you a lot of time doing a clone rather than doing a clean install.
    Unless you're having issues with your old set up or  your old hard drive is dead.
    You can download Carbon Copy Cloner - install your new hard drive in a external usb enclosure (around $10) and clone fromt here then test it before you install it in your Macbook.
    Once you've done the swap, you can install your old hard drive in the USB enclosure and use it as a backup drive.
    Good luck

  • HT3275 Since Installing a new hard drive on my 2008 macbook and reconnecting to to time capsule through time machine, I can only get backups since the install.

    Since Installing a new hard drive on my 2008 macbook and reconnecting to to time capsule through time machine, I can only get backups since the install.
    I receive a message saying identity of backup dis has changed and offers me the choice of either Don't back up or Use this disc.

    Time Machine treats any new drive like a new computer. It starts a completely new Time Machine backup. So you now have two backups - a new one and all your old ones.
    Visit Pondini's Time Machine FAQ for help with managing your Time Machine backups.

  • Hello , how r u,  can i ask 1 question about xcode, i have mac os x 10.7.5 , n xcode version 4.6.3 i want build apps for ios 7.1 n mac os 1.9 ,, , but my macbook is old late 2008 macbook 4,1,  so can i develop apps for ios7 n 1.9 using xcode 4.6.3, bcz my

    hello , how r u,
    can i ask 1 question about xcode, i have mac os x 10.7.5 , n xcode version 4.6.3 i want build apps for ios 7.1 n mac os 1.9 ,, , but my macbook is old late 2008 macbook 4,1,  so can i develop apps for ios7 n 1.9 using xcode 4.6.3, bcz my machine cant upadte on 1.8 n 10.9,, ihave 2gb ram . core 2 duo pr, plz rely asap,
    thnxs

    Please type complete sentences and words.  This isn't an instant message program.
    https://developer.apple.com/support/ios/ios-dev-center.html

  • Battery sporadically recharges even after a new battery was replaced for a macbook 13 inch 2009

    The macbook battery won't charge sporadically, i replaced the battery but now  fear it is the actual magnetic power interface to battery, I have tried different cords with simalr outcomes.  Suggestions?

    Hi. Sorry none of that worked. If I understand correctly. Your battery has run down and the mag safe is not charging, so it will not turn on. When you have the mag safe plugged in, do you see a green light showing on it? Did you clean the plug on the Macbook Pro? You can use a cotton tip dampened with alcohol to do this. You have tried other mag safe's and get the same results,right? You could have a failed dc in board. That is what the mag safe plugs into. It in turn plugs into the logic board.I had to fix a similar  problem on a Ibook. It would run off the battery as long as charged, but not off the mag safe.

  • New hard drive replacement on my MacBook Pro.

    I bought a new hard drive for my laptop but I do not have the disc to reboot the new hard drive, can someone help me?

    Do you know the exact model you have?
    You can try booting while holding down Command Option R keys. If you have a more recent machine it'll boot to Internet Recovery.

  • New imac 21.5 or 2008 Mac Pro?

    Hey folks,
    I am trying to decide between purchasing a new imac, either 21.5 or 27 with maxed out processer and 2 TB hd. I'll upgrade the ram to 16gb or 32gb once I recieve it or a used Mac Pro from a local seller that has the below specs. Any thoughts or advice?
      This is a gently used, mechanically sound and tech tested Apple Mac Pro. I am only selling due to our business upgrading, otherwise I love this machine, and would not be selling it. It comes fully loaded (both hardware and software), and is ready for the most robust tasks.
    Included with the Mac Pro is 2 brand-new sealed 20.5" Lenovo LCD monitors, Apple Magic Mouse and Apple Wireless Keyboard. Currently, the Mac Pro is setup for dual monitors on the 512mb NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT video card.
    The memory on the Mac Pro has been upgraded to 16GB and an Apple OEM 256 GB Toshiba Solid State Drive (SSD) has been added to increase boot up speeds to mere seconds.  The SSD can be configured to run either OS X Lion or Snow Leopard and will also house all of the applications.  The combination of 16GB RAM and the applications residing on the SSD enables this machine to perform at amazing speeds.  It can seamlessly render video and run other ram intensive applications with ease, making this a perfect addition to anyone's video editing studio.
    In addition to the 256 SSD, the Mac Pro has a total of 4 TB of storage space with two separate 2 TB hard drives for storing massive amounts of data. (2 open bays if you wish to add more storage).
    LOADED SOFTWARE:
    MS Office 2011 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Communicator
    Adobe CS5 Mastersuite (Photoshop, Encore, Flash, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, FireWorks, Catalyst, Contribute, After Effects, Bridge, and much more!)
    Final Cut Pro 7
    iLife 2011
    Aperture 3
    Adobe Acrobat X (PDF Editor)
    All applications have been freshly reinstalled with their appropriate activation keys. The machine comes ready to go with no administrative password for either operating system (Lion or Snow Leopard).
    Thanks for looking and if you have any questions feel free to ask! This Mac Pro comes with a 30 day warranty against DOA.  Buy with confidence.
    If you like the machine, I have a little room to work on the price if you do not want the SSD. Otherwise price is FIRM. This machine is a powerhouse!

    This looks like it has everything you need, but beware, the seller installed a lot of software onto this Mac.
    He makes no mention of including the software discs. So, if something bad really happens with this Mac, at some future time, if you did not backup the Mac and software, you will lose all this software as you'll have no way of reinstalling it.
    He is basically selling this Mac with a value added of having all this high end software installed.
    Most end user agreements do not allow this so he is, basically, giving you pirated software.
    It's a great gesture, but if you do not take extra precaution to back up all your data and software to either disc or another external drive/s, you run the risk of losing all of this software forever.
    If you buy this, plan on buying one or two external drives to use a backup drive for everything on the Mac's internal drive/s.

  • 2008 macbook pro beeps after installing new hard drive

    I install a new hard drive in a 2008 macbook pro and it just beeps. three quick beeps repeatedly. I cloned the new drive from my 2011 macbook pro
    Is anybody experience this same problem? please help
    thank you

    You can't reliably use the clone from one Mac on another Mac of a different vintage.  Boot off an external hard drive after installing the operating system from Apple or the original discs on the external hard drive, and use the migration assistent to import data from the internal hard drive.  You'll want to make sure the copy on the external hard drive does not excede the internal hard drive capacity by more than 85% before cloning and overwriting its contents.

  • Improve performance on 2008 Macbook Pro

    Hi All,
    I've recently acquired a new iMac so my 15" 2008 Macbook Pro, which I have recently been using as my main computer, can go back to being my handy, carry around 'notebook'.  What can I do to it to restore it to optimum performance?  It seems to me to running a good deal slower than when I first acquired it and I assume that this is because the HDD is now 75% full and I have various bits and pieces of software on it which I no longer need.
    What's the best way to 'clean up' the hard drive and get it running properly again?
    Thanks.

    Re-install Lion..this is called a "clean" instal and will make your mac like it was if one were to buy it brand new.  But make sure you backup everything first!  See here: http://support.apple.com/kb/dl1433.  Maxing out the RAM and purchasing a larger hard drive couldn't hurt either.

  • Install Windows 7 64-Bit on Early 2008 Macbook ?'s

    My wife has an early 2008 Macbook with 2.4 GHz processor that I recently upgraded the OS to OS X 10.7.5 and upped the ram to 4 GB.  I had installed a Boot Camp for Windows Vista 32-bit that is still working, but I have a Windows 7 64-bit installation disc that I would like to use on this machine.  I want to completely delete the existing Windows Vista install and put Windows 7 in its place.  I have found through my research that even though the 64-bit version of Windows 7 is "not supported" for this machine, it will still work with the right drivers and will require Boot Camp 4.0
    My questions are:
    - Will the 64-bit version of Windows 7 definitely work on this machine?
    - How would I delete the current Windows Vista installation?
    - Where do I get the 64-bit Apple drivers for Windows 7?  I keep reading about pulling them from the Snow Leopard install DVD, which I have, but I am currently running OS X Lion on the machine, which I do not have a disc for (only received a download code from Apple).  Would the drivers be built-in to Boot Camp 4.0?

    1. From Boot Camp Support Software 4.0.4033 (these can be directly downloaded to the Windows side, once Windows is installed).
    System Requirements
    MacBook (13-inch, Late 2006)
    MacBook (13-inch, Mid 2007)
    MacBook (13-inch, Late 2007)
    MacBook (13-inch, Early 2008)
    MacBook (13-inch, Late 2008)
    MacBook (13-inch, Early 2009 & Mid 2009)
    MacBook (13-inch, Late 2009) *
    MacBook (13-inch, Mid 2010) *
    MacBook Air (13-inch, Early 2008)
    MacBook Air (13-inch, Late 2008 & Mid 2009)
    MacBook Air (11-inch & 13-inch, Late 2010) *
    MacBook Pro (15-inch & 17-inch, Core 2 Duo)
    MacBook Pro (15-inch & 17-inch, 2.2 & 2.4GHz)
    MacBook Pro (15-inch & 17-inch, Early 2008) *
    MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2008) *
    MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2009 & Mid 2009) *
    MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2009) *
    MacBook Pro (13-inch and 15-inch, Mid 2009) *
    MacBook Pro (13-inch,15-inch, and 17-inch, Mid 2010)
    MacBook Pro (13-in, 15-inch, and 17-inch, Early 2011 & Late 2011)
    Mac Pro (Mid 2006)
    Mac Pro (Early 2008) *
    Mac Pro (Early 2009)
    Mac Pro (Early 2007)
    Mac Pro (Mid 2010)
    Mac Pro (15-inch and 17-inch, 2.2 & 2.4GHz)
    Mac mini (Mid 2007)
    Mac mini (Early 2009 & Late 2009)
    Mac mini (Mid 2010) *
    iMac (17-inch, Late 2006)
    iMac (20-inch, Late 2006)
    iMac (24-inch, Late 2006)
    iMac (20-inch & 24-inch, Mid 2007)
    iMac (20-inch & 24-inch, Early 2008)
    iMac (20-inch, Early 2009 & Mid 2009)
    iMac (21.5-inch & 27-inch, Late 2009) *
    iMac (27-inch, Late 2009) *
    iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2010) *
    iMac (27-inch, Mid 2010)
    iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2011 & Late 2011)
    iMac (27-inch, Mid 2011)
    all these drivers support Windows 7, 32 bit
    * drivers that support Windows 7, 32 and 64 bit
    2. Ensure that the CPU is 64-bit capable. From OSX Terminal...
    sysctl -a hw.cpu64bit_capable
    hw.cpu64bit_capable: 1

  • Can I install Maverick on my 2008 MacBook?

    What do I need to get Maverick installed on my 2008 MacBook?

    If your 2008 MacBook is new enough to support Mavericks, you just go to the Mac App Store and download the installer.  I believe that you need the Aluminimum MacBook to install Mavericks, and it needs at least 2GB RAM.  Are you sure that your system supports Mavericks?

  • Can my early 2008 Macbook running OS X 10.6.8 and Bootcamp 3.0.4 run Windows 8?

    I need to use Windows for my business but I have an older Macbook (early 2008) with Snow Leopard and Bootcamp 3.0.4. I purchased a copy of Windows 8 today and the Best Buy salesman assured me that it would work  on my computer. However, I cannot seem to figure it out and I'm getting a lot of conflicting information. If Windows 8 will not work on my computer, can someone tell me the latest version that I can run on my computer? Thanks!

    Boot Camp Support Software 4.0.4033
    System Requirements  
    MacBook (13-in, Late 2006 & Mid 2007)
    MacBook (13-in, Late 2007)
    MacBook (13-in, Early 2008)
    MacBook (13-in, Late 2008)
    MacBook (13-in, Early 2009 & Mid 2009)
    MacBook (13-in, Late 2009)
    MacBook (13-in, Mid 2010)
    http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1630
    These are the Windows Support Software for your MacBook according to Apple.
    You can download them here:
    http://support.apple.com/downloads/DL1630/en_US/BootCamp4.0.4033.zip
    As I already had Windows 7 x32  installed on my MacBook and just upgraded to Windows 8 x32 it is difficult to say whether you can directly install Windows 8 x32 or have to do the upgrade Windows 7 x32 route.
    I would read this thread that applies to the installation of Windows 8 on non supported Macs.
    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4897066
    This is for getting Windows 8 x64 installed but it may work for Win 8 x32 using the switching of the CD's from Windows 7 to Windows 8.
    I initially used my Windows BootCamp 3.0 drivers on the my Snow Leopard disc after using BootCamp 3.0 to install Windows 7 x32 so I would try using those 3.0 Windows drivers first and then upgrading to the Bootcamp 4.0.4033 drivers after you have booted into Windows 8.
    Also you might want to read this thread as well...
    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4904594?start=0&tstart=0

  • Early 2008 MacBook Pro OS X 10.6.8 failing to install Mavericks

    When I try to download Mavericks from the App Store, the download starts, but after some time I get the following error message:
    Clicking 'Retry' doesn't help; the downloading icon goes away and this same error message eventually pops back up. This has happened several times. 
    Please help.
    Also, here is the information about my MacBook Pro:
    Hardware Overview:
      Model Name:          MacBook Pro
      Model Identifier:          MacBookPro4,1
      Processor Name:          Intel Core 2 Duo
      Processor Speed:          2.4 GHz
      Number Of Processors:          1
      Total Number Of Cores:          2
      L2 Cache:          3 MB
      Memory:          4 GB
      Bus Speed:          800 MHz
      Boot ROM Version:          MBP41.00C1.B03
      SMC Version (system):          1.27f3
      Serial Number (system):          W882606LYJZ
      Hardware UUID:          E0B6261E-4E38-5954-A55F-DFC413717A04
      Sudden Motion Sensor:
      State:          Enabled

    Boot Camp Support Software 4.0.4033
    System Requirements  
    MacBook (13-in, Late 2006 & Mid 2007)
    MacBook (13-in, Late 2007)
    MacBook (13-in, Early 2008)
    MacBook (13-in, Late 2008)
    MacBook (13-in, Early 2009 & Mid 2009)
    MacBook (13-in, Late 2009)
    MacBook (13-in, Mid 2010)
    http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1630
    These are the Windows Support Software for your MacBook according to Apple.
    You can download them here:
    http://support.apple.com/downloads/DL1630/en_US/BootCamp4.0.4033.zip
    As I already had Windows 7 x32  installed on my MacBook and just upgraded to Windows 8 x32 it is difficult to say whether you can directly install Windows 8 x32 or have to do the upgrade Windows 7 x32 route.
    I would read this thread that applies to the installation of Windows 8 on non supported Macs.
    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4897066
    This is for getting Windows 8 x64 installed but it may work for Win 8 x32 using the switching of the CD's from Windows 7 to Windows 8.
    I initially used my Windows BootCamp 3.0 drivers on the my Snow Leopard disc after using BootCamp 3.0 to install Windows 7 x32 so I would try using those 3.0 Windows drivers first and then upgrading to the Bootcamp 4.0.4033 drivers after you have booted into Windows 8.
    Also you might want to read this thread as well...
    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4904594?start=0&tstart=0

  • Replacement CD/DVD Drive for 2008 Mac Pro?

    I need to purchase a new optical drive for my 2008 Mac Pro 2.8 GHz Quad-Core desktop computer. I checked OWC, but they're out of stock. I currently have a Samsung SH-S222L, which I absolutely hate–mainly because the heads access the drive every 5 minutes or so. Very, very annoying.
    Any help or advice is greatly appreciated.

    Psst ! Here's a little tip for you. The drive used in Mac Pro's isn't exclusive to the mac. It's an Optiarc model
    and I believe you can use any cd/dvd burning drive with an ATAPI plug on the back, Pc or Mac, and chances are it'll work fine,  I used a Lite-On drive I snagged from a dying PC in my Mac pro 3,1 as my 2nd dvd drive
    and it worked fine for a few years. Replacing it isn't that hard either. There are guides on Youtube or other places that show you how to do it. Just remember to remove the little lip on the front of the dvd drawer before you install it.  I don't know about specific brands, but Pioneer seems fine, and I'm sure there are others that are fine, too. macsales might help you out. I know what it's like having to haul your Mac pro into your local Mac place--a pain in the butt, right? and then you have to wait...and wait...
    I think you can can do this....
    good luck
    John B

  • HT4718 I had a copy of Mountain Lion on my late 2008 MacBook Pro, having replaced Lion which it came with. But the drive,crashed, so I replaced the drive and reinstalled Lion from the original disks I had. How do I get another copy of Mountain Lion?

    I had a copy of Mountain Lion on my late 2008 MacBook Pro, having replaced Lion which it came with. But the drive crashed, so I replaced the drive and reinstalled Lion from the original disks I had. How do I get another copy of Mountain Lion?

    A 2008 Mac won't have originally shipped with Lion. You need to install 10.6.8 on the computer, log into the Mac App Store with the Apple ID you used to purchase Mountain Lion, click on the Purchases tab, and download it.
    (121465)

Maybe you are looking for