Updating my Mac
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- CygnusZero40
So heres the deal, I installed Snow Leopard, it fixed a bunch of the problems I was having. Except the wifi which is still shot. Only works when it has a direct line of sight.
I bought a 4gb RAM card, but now that Im looking at this table, it says my macbook (white mid 2007 model), only supports 2gb? I was hoping to get this up to 6! Or at least 4, jeez. This chip was $100.
- Apple's table is "conservative", if http://eshop.macsale… says 6GB it's prolly rightraf
- $100 seems a bit much though.raf
- If it doesn't boot with 4+1, it likely will with the 4 alone.raf
- 4.0GB Upgrade
(4096MB Module)
$99.97CygnusZero4
- shaft0
Also a hybrid hard drive like Seagate Momentus XT is a fairly cheap and effective upgrade. I only used the XT before I went all-SSD:
- CygnusZero40
So if I just bring this thing from 2 gigs to 4, that should be fine right? It runs ok now, no issues with Logic, but 2 more gigs might help things a little. Im not sure I really need 6.
- Not sure, I went from 2 straight to 6.nb
- No need to go beyond 4 but the difference is noticeable. You can get a single 4GB unit, it leaves room for more.shaft
- Definitely max it out, it's not a huge investment and is worth it.monospaced
- RAM is cheap, get as much as possibleJosev
- monospaced0
Shaft is right. Upgrade once to Snow Leopard and stop. You'll have access to the App Store and many new things, but you'll avoid the headaches associated with Lion running on a slightly older machine.
- Sounds good. Ordered it already.CygnusZero4
- There will be of course apps that require ML but not that many. Browsers will be just fine.shaft
- Once installed, run Software Update (from apple menu) to make sure it is on last revision, with security patches.shaft
- shaft0
My gf has a 2008 MBP 2.5GHz with 6GB RAM and Snow Leopard. Browsers, photoshop — all run just fine.
- I use a mid-2007 2.2GHz with 6GB RAM and Snow Leopard. CS5 and everything else runs fine.nb
- I have a 2006 iMac on Snow Leopard (recently replaced) that still runs like a champ too.monospaced
- CygnusZero40
To upgrade the RAM, is this something I can do myself?
- So I can put 4 more gb's in this?CygnusZero4
- Can you? I dunno. There were girls here who upgraded their RAM themselves, just fyi :)shaft
- No, I mean this is not something I need apple to do?CygnusZero4
- Im capable, if these machines are built for that. I dont want to have to take the whole thing apart.CygnusZero4
- You have probably 1+1, can swap 1 for 4 and have 5 altogether or swap both for a 4+2 to have 6.shaft
- If its just remove a panel and slap it in a slot, of course I can do that.CygnusZero4
- There's no problem upgrading in this model, you will need proper screwdrivers, make sure they come with the chips.shaft
- I think this is your model: http://www.ifixit.co…shaft
- Nice, thanks for that link.CygnusZero4
- CygnusZero40
Logic runs well, almost nothing else does though. I really need to upgrade the OS. I cant get a single browser to run well on here. All of them are fucked up in some way or another, its ridiculous.
Ive talked about this before here. I lose my wifi connection whenever the macbook doesnt actually have clear sight of the router. Its silly. Hoping upgrading fixes some of these problems.
- shaft0
^ he can go to 6GB
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/m…...and the highest good OS for it is Snow Leopard, considered by many Apple's best OS ever. Lion might have both performance issues and "being Apple's buggy mistake" issues.
- ArmandoEstrada0
And start saving for a new mac. As stated above, its 5 years old. I would go to Lion (10.7, it was fine for me), add some RAM (I think u can go to 4 gigs?). You probably have about 1-2 more years left in it until new apps require the latest ____(insert cat name)____ to run it. Unless you are happy running old software, but really how many of us are running photoshop CS2 on a daily basis?
- ernexbcn0
If you install a new OS X on top (upgrade) everything will be kept. But as always, please do a backup of all your shit before upgrading (you never know).
Logic should run on the newer versions of OS X, and upgrading the OS doesn't do anything to your files.
Another thing, if you are just upgrading for the sake of upgrading you might as well consider not doing it if the machine is doing the work you need just fine now.
- CygnusZero40
Let me ask this. Im running Logic Expess 8 on this machine. Runs fine, but say I start upgrading this machine, and Im also going to have to upgrade Logic?
And will this effect my logic files in anyway? This is very important to me since Logic is the main thing I use this machine for.
- ernexbcn0
@shaft I agree, and I completely forgot about that. The worst of the annoyances that I experienced with Lion was the broken virtual memory, when it started to swap the hard drive went crazy and the whole thing was unusable. A lot of people complained and they certainly fixed it in Mountain Lion.
- shaft0
Don't install Lion, it's the worst OS Apple had in the last 5 years. Mountain Lion is better, they fixed some of Lion's issues but neither of them is optimised to run on a Core2Duo this old. I've seen them run the processor 10°C hotter on a 2008 MacBook Pro, the fans kept spinning all the time.
Snow Leopard is a solid OS and will run well on your computer. Also, add some RAM and you will be surprised what this baby can do.
- He just said I cant run mountain on this.CygnusZero4
- I said "don't run either of the Lions"shaft
- And you can run Mountain Lion with a simple hack, not worth it.shaft
- ernexbcn0
Your MacBook came with Leopard, they later released Snow Leopard, then Lion and then Mountain Lion.
It's a 5 year old computer, Lion is not bad. The problem is when developers release apps that take advantage of new APIs and require the latest OS X because of that.
- ernexbcn0
Well, this is really shitty:
"The good news is that Lion is still available from Apple... but you have to call Apple to get it. It will cost you US$20 and will come to you as a redeemable code that you will use in the Mac App Store, which means that you will need a Mac running at least 10.6.8 to use the code."
- CygnusZero40
So once Im up to Lion, thats it then for this machine? Thats lame.
- ernexbcn0
The latest OS X you can install on that computer is Lion.
- ernexbcn0
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT54…
Your Macbook can't run the thing, the processor is fine but they must have decided to not develop the 64 bits drivers for the video card or something else.
- ernexbcn0
Macbooks that can run Mountain Lion are from 5,1 upwards, shit, you can go to Lion.
- So this machine can go all the way up to the latest then?CygnusZero4
- No, from 5,1 upwards, your Macbook is 4,1ernexbcn
- Oh, thought you were referring to the 10.5.8 that Im running. Confused.CygnusZero4
- ernexbcn0
My mid 2007 iMac is the oldest iMac you can install Mountain Lion, you need Core 2 Duo processors or better (64 bit).
- Looks like mine has a core 2 duao proc.CygnusZero4
- *duoCygnusZero4