Replace 2014 SSD (have 256) or buy 2019mpb?

Replace hard drive or buy new?

I have a mid 2014 2.2GHz i7 with 16 GB 1600 DDR3 Ram. Basic graphics card (intel iris pro 1536)

I was dumb when I bought it and only got the 256gb internal drive.

I run Lightroom and have a photo library with over 250k photos. (5T of images on a connected drive, so my catalog is 200gb).

I am throttled by my internal hard drive being too small. I like having my catalog on my machine and not external.

I have $4k saved up.

My husband is into PCs and built me an old server with intel Xeon CPU E5-2670 @2.6GHz with two processors running 8 core. And a crazy amount of RAM. I think it is running 56GB on 14 slots.

When he built it for me (we had friends with old servers) I talked to Adobe as it was just as slow as my 2014 MacBook Pro as Adobe wasn’t able to utilize 16 cores.

I think he was thinking I would switch to the PC as my primary editing machine, but it wasn’t running any faster or better. (That might have changed with the newest adobe release, but I still need a laptop regardless).

I like my MacBook Pro from 2014 better than my desktop, but I am really limited by the small internal drive, and I am really happy with a fully apple ecosystem. You will have to pry the Apple Watch from my cold body.

The processing time to export 300 raw files to JPG and the time it takes to render videos (just in iMovie), not even using Adobe, is annoying on my 2014.

Basically, it’s frustrating to use, while it works perfectly fine, the small internal drive is frustrating and I find that I don’t want to use it.

Should I try to upgrade the internal hard drive after market and save my money to wait until what I am assuming is 2021 as I really don’t think Apple will be ready in 2020 for a major update to the line, Or should I just grab the 2019 MacBook Pro?

It feels snobbish to say that money isn’t a factor. But I have worked hard and saved for this. It’s been 5 years.

(I drive my cars until the wheels fall off and am not updating my 2005 minivan as it is functional) I have an iPhone 7 because it is functional. I don’t need the latest and greatest, I just need a functional great product.

So, would I be happy and get another 2 years or so out of my 2014 laptop with a larger internal drive and are people happy with getting a larger after market drive installed? Tired of running out of room....

I don’t have new gear lust, but I don’t know how practical it is to aftermarket update a 2014 that is worth about $600 vs buying new. Would the performance upgrade to i9 with 32gb RAM and a 1T drive be better than sticking in a new drive into a perfectly functioning machine?

I don’t want to be penny wise and pound foolish.

Is upgrading the hard drive worth it, or should I hand down the 2014 to my kids who use photoshop daily for drawing and get a 2019?