how much more is my macbook (mid 2010) going to cost me?

[Deleted]

So far in a matter of weeks

* £200 (just under) for SSD - 500gb
* £15 for wireless bluetooth keyboard and mouse
* £30 for OEM magsafe 60w adapter

icon_shoppingm

if it needs a graphics card and sound card - where to get from?

Any other ideas on what might fail soon on it?

Ta

JAne

[MrDJ]

what graphics card has it got at the moment as they can be the most expensive part of a upgrade/repair.

[*-SARIN-*]

TBH you're in a situation now where it might be better to cut your losses and buy another, as above, the graphics card will be £££. Bear in mind though that the SSD and other parts can be put in a new one as a ready upgrade to the standard components. As for the chances of what might fail next:

Chip - Unlikely.
Battery / Power Supply - better than average chance.
RAM - average chance.
Power Lead Port - better than average chance, these things take a hammering. A knackered one will require a new motherboard or a tecchy with good soldering skills.

Treat a computer the same as a car, if it's costing you anything near half of what it is worth today then buy new rather than fix. Apple components are not known to be cheap.

[chykensa]

Or buy a Windows laptop - bought a new one last week, cost me under £500, the cheapest Macbook (very low spec) was £819, no contest I'm afraid! *ducks behind sofa with hard hat on*

[Bluefish]

I have an iMac and iPad , used to be microsoft, so far no problems but would i buy again, probably not, not cos there no good, but they do cost more, well especially in the iMacs case, but laptop, can buy a pretty good windows one for under £400 jane?

[Deleted]

this is the graphics card it has at the moment guys

NVIDIA GeForce 320M 256 MB

if I upgrade - what do you peeps recommend? Don't game so I guess it's not such a big deal

Forgot to say in OP DVD drive failed other week to - that was £20 f0r new external dvd drive LOL

[MrDJ]

im no expert when it comes to macs as anything apple brings me out in a cold sweat. never liked them and never will.

320 is about 4-5 years old now and one of the first nvidia cards to work with Optimus (switchable graphics).
the average gpu now a days has a minimum of 1gb vram. low-average card now is a nvidia 450 or above.

what is the most demanding thing you do on the lappy apart from brousing.
video rendering can be very demanding but thats more on the cpu but still doesnt hurt to have a decent gpu as well.

as mentioned above it might be worth thinking about cutting your losses .

i only upgraded my clevo gaming laptop 3 years ago to keep up with the latest games and mine with a i7 quad, 680gtx, 16gb ram and 512gb ssd
its old now but 2 grand every 3 years is a bit much for me.

[Deleted]

I use it for a little card making (I have lots of photos I resize that I then print out onto card) - and a little music...but not video. Hardly ever video

Is the graphics card ok for now?

[MrDJ]

if it still works then yup, you dont need to change it.

like any electrical equipment especially small laptop parts its touch and go how long they will last. look after them and they will last years.
when a gpu dies they can be resurected with a household appliance.....a oven
99% of the time a dead gpu is caused by the solder cracking on a contact. all the oven does is slowly melt the contacts and they re-connect.

my history on high end gpu's so far
2008 alienware 8800gtx lasted 19 days from new. refund
2008 clevo with 9800gt lasted 2 years. replaced under warranty with 260gtx (would have cost £320) 5 years ago and still used every day.
2012 clevo with 680gtx still runs every game i throw at it but not on highest settings.
next clevo will have a 980gtx or whatever the highest gpu will be at the time of buying but as i said £2000 is a tad high every few years so will wait until things start going wrong before i upgrade again.

[Deleted]

At 5 years old I'd put a limit on what I'd spend keeping it going and as has been said above, keep using it if it's doing what you want, when it doesn't cut your losses.
I've had 3 Apple computers, I bought the first in 1996. Only one to have problems was my second one, an angle poise Imac, the screen went at 7 years old. I still have it and can use it with a remote monitor if i want.
My first a Perfoma was working perfectly and when I gave it to the local community centre

My present Imac is 5 years old, if it lasts another couple of years that's an average life of 7 years with no costs at all.

The only time I've had to spend out on any Apple product in the last 19 years is batteries for an Ipod Touch bought in 2008.
I may just have been lucky but Apple products for me, although expensive have been excellent buys and at less than £2.50 a week very cost effective to own.

[Deleted]

Well even though it's a mid 2010 model I got it in Early 2011.....it didn't 'need' the SSD but I wanted it for extra life.

Touchpad still works a bit but is temperamental. DVD drive - no na nah nah.

The worst expense was the SSD - otherwise you're looking at about £100

And some folk kill keyboards like I kill vamos LOL so no complaints there

[hijack]

I didn't realize Apple used Nvidia graphics, you definately talking about a mac @johanino ??
Not up on the Mac im affaid being a PC geek.
The problem is when a model is old/discontinued or just progressed, they stop making the parts for them and subsequently the price for replacement goes up, due to supply and demand.
Trying buying old RAM thats stopped being used in new computers and it will cost more than the latest, fastest RAM that is available now.
Sometimes its better to get a new laptop or PC and benefit from the big performance gains you should get.

[Deleted]

I've got a new macsafe cable on order from fleabay (oem) and that's my limit on what am spendy spending on my macbook for now. I have new mice (all three of them) and a spare keyboard - job done!!!

Thanks guys! and geeks! and nerds.....