Originally Posted by
Boraxo
This seems like the right group to consult.
During a recent visit to the genius bar, I learned that the 80G hard drive on my 4-year old macbook no longer has sufficient space to store my ever increasing collection of music and photos (not to mention I will soon be adding movies as well).
I realize there several potential solutions including external hard drive and cloud storage, but I've eliminated those options because I don't want to store photos of my children on someone else's server and I don't want to have to physically link (or even network to) an external drive. And I'm going to stick with Apple, having been abused by Windows for many years. I've considered getting an iPad but the lack of multitasking and a keyboard render it unsatisfactory for the intended usage.
So I've narrowed the choices to:
(1) upgrading current macbook with 500G hard drive = $225 installed incl. files (plus another $100 for a new battery soon), or
(2) purchasing a new macbook air or pro @ $1500-1800 which will free up the current unit for use by my kindergartner.
What would you do?
Given this initial set of conditions and the information that your shell is starting to show signs of wear I would recommend the following:
1. IF you don't need more computing power than the current machine provides
a. upgrade the hard drive (purchase it from someplace other than the apple store.)
b. buy a replacement shell from apple, they are not cheap but are significantly less than buying a new machine OR if you don't mind the look, cover the existing shell with either:
i. a snap on
cover or
ii. a
sticker: choose from their designs or create your own.
2. IF you need more computing power - buy another machine refurb, clearance, or new. Up to you.