Dilemma: New HD, or new Mac?

My hard drive crashed today. Alas. My 13" Macbook had been going strong since June 2008. It was very very good to me, but this was its 3rd hard drive. Another would be 4.

Can't decide if I just want to replace the hard drive, or if it's time to bite the bullet and get a new system. I would love to get a new one, just don't want to drop $1k ++.

Advice? Tips for paying a little less?

Hard drives are still a lot less expensive than buying a new machine. As long as your 2008 MacBook performs OK and nothing else is wrong with it, by all means replace the hard drive. Besides, Apple should be refreshing the MBP line within the next few months.

Yeah, and I guess that release will drive down prices for 2011 models. I do take great care of it otherwise.

You may want consider going with an SSD for reliability and a speed boost. Honestly 3 dead drives is quite a few, which leads me to believe:
1) Your operating conditions and handling for your MBP are less than ideal
2) You have had a string of bad luck
3) You have been buying cut-rate replacement drives (doubt this one)

Anyway an SSD should give your MBP a steroid shot and (hopefully) last a few years.

Thanks Razormac. Any recs of a specific product?

Recommendation for an SSD? OWC's Mercury series. Hands down the best on the market.

If you want get an OWC SSD. If you want a plain HD then get an external hard drive from seagate at walmart and take it apart and use that drive inside the macbook.

for ssd cheaper but good quality ones are samsung (series 830), crucial (m4) for your macbook worth trying to get the 6gb/s (sata 3) one, when you are ready for the next mac, you can use this ssd drive again.

Source for SSDs and info
2.5" Laptop Hard Drives & SSD for MacBook, PowerBook, iBook, and PC Laptop/NoteBook systems Serial ATA & IDE/ATA

I would opt for the 240GB model, but depending on your usage 120GB could be plenty.