Macbook OS Upgrades

I'm trying to figure out my options for an OS upgrade on my computer. It's a Macbook 3.1, four or five years old. It's one of the white Macbooks. Current OS is OS X 10.5.8. Mountain Lion is only $20, but I'm not sure it can run on my machine---here's what the Mac site says it requires:

Your Mac must be one of the following models:

iMac (Mid 2007 or newer) MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer) MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer) MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer) Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer) Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer) Xserve (Early 2009)

And, since I don't have Leopard or Snow Leopard, I think I'd need to upgrade to Leopard, and then Snow Leopard, before I could get Mountain Lion. And I'm not even sure it would run on my machine!

I just want to be able to use the cloud (which is not possible with my current OS) and have a current version of Flash (latest update not compatible with my OS). Is that so much to ask?

Any advice appreciated. I'm tempted to just buy a new Mac for the family for Christmas, but don't want to spend the bucks if I don't have to.

10.6 will be fine. Not sure about 10.7, but it would probably be fine. You didn't say how much RAM you have, but if it's less than 2 gigs, upgrade. If it IS 2 gigs, consider upgrading.

I have a 6-year old Macbook running 10.6 like a champ. Actually, with the SSD I put in it, the old thing is really, really fast.

The MacBook sounds like it's the same age as our "BlackBook" and that one definitely doesn't run Lion. I would try to upgrade it to Leopard or Snow Leopard, both seem to be working very well on MacBooks of that age.

10.7 will work, 10.8 won't. You may be missing a few features in 10.7, I know I will be when I take my 6 year old Macbook Pro there from 10.4 this weekend. If you want iCloud to work you'll need 10.7.

My plan is to make a bootable SD card with the 10.7 upgrade as source and install to a new SSD.

How does one even find out what macbook model they have? The ladyfriends macbook pretty much became obsolete overnight last month. It will no longer play netflix movies or do pretty much anything because of required plugins that won't run on its OS 10.4.11

If I could plug another gig of RAM into it and install a newer OS to save it that would be great.

ditch: lowendmac.com will tell you all sorts of things. Click the Apple icon in the top left corner of your screen, click "About this Mac" in the menu that pops up, and it'll tell you some basic facts like CPU speed and system type that should get you the info you need.

10.4 is definitely a hindrance at this point. The machines of that era seem to max out at 4gb of ram (not sure about the Pro towers, but you're not asking about that...) and they could probably use every bit of that for better performance.

You need 10.7 to have the latest iTunes, Chrome, etc. I resurrected a 1st gen Macbook and found that out the hard way.

Tim Baxter wrote: Actually, with the SSD I put in it, the old thing is really, really fast.

this. the SSD will be the biggest improvement.

In reply to heyduard:

If its a "Core Duo" intel based MacBook, you can upgrade to OS X 10.6. Mine is, and I did this in the last week, upgrading from 10.4. I had to buy a disk through the mail, couldn't download it. I mostly did this because google/gmail told me they wouldn't update something.. I didn't really read it. Computer ADD.

If its a "Core 2 Duo", it is a little newer, and I believe can go to 10.8.

That's all I've got.

+1 on memory upgrades. For about $50 I took my wife's similar age MacBook to 4GB. It's so much better.

Next thing to switch up is the 80gb, 5400 rpm HD. Maybe it will get an SSD, maybe it will be a faster spinning conventional drive of a much higher capacity, not sure yet.

Edit:

I looked at my wife's computer last night. It's probably the same model as yours (hers is the Core 2 Duo 2 GHz Santa Rosa). Today we just ordered her a Seagate Momentus 750GB hard drive. I read as many reviews as I could. While there were some negative ones, most of those were early in the production of this drive, and later ones generally seem pretty favorable. The professional reviews have found it to be pretty darn fast. Not quite as fast as an SSD, but it will soundly eclipse the stock HD, and space is more needed on this machine than speed.

I'll update again when we have the drive installed.

Thanks for the feedback all. Machine is now rocking 4gb of ram and 10.6.3. Total cash outlay was $90, and it's so much faster, and everything works. My machine is a Core 2 Duo, so I may spend another $20 and get 10.8.

This weekend I took my 2.16ghz Macbook Pro from 1gb to 3gb of ram, an Intel SSD (they're supposed to be one of the better brands for performance) and the 6.5 year old 10.4 install gave way to a completely fresh 10.7 install. This thing screams!

I still don't know if mine will run 10.8, not too worried about it at this point, just make sure yours is really supported. If it isn't, 10.7 seems pretty similar under the hood to 10.8.

are the mini-Mac's the same as the Macbook ? in the ability to upgrade like yu-ll are doing ? mine is 10.6.8 1.5 GHz intel core solo , 2 GB memory ... more memory ? SSD ?

(it's about 7 yo ... and has had one OS and memory upgrade )

PeterAK wrote: Thanks for the feedback all. Machine is now rocking 4gb of ram and 10.6.3. Total cash outlay was $90, and it's so much faster, and everything works. My machine is a Core 2 Duo, so I may spend another $20 and get 10.8.

Make sure you have the 64 bit bios as well. 10.8 has to have 64 bit everytng.

If you don't then just google for files you need to replace for the bios to boot.

In reply to wbjones:

Mac Minis are kinda sort upgradeable, depends on which model you have. iFixIt should have a walk through for your model that shows you how to open it up to get at the various parts you need to get at.

In general, memory and disks are standard parts so they should be upgradeable.

In reply to wbjones:

CPU can be replaced with a faster Socket M Core Duo or Core 2 Duo. You've maxed the available RAM, even with a processor upgrade. 10.6.x is the last version of OSX that will work (10.7 may be a software hack job, doubt it, I wouldn't bother myself). SSD would be available for it.

I don't think I'd bother, honestly, a later Mini that shipped with a Core 2 Duo would have a later chipset that supports 10.7 or 10.8 and you wouldn't be quite so limited on RAM.

What's the current thinking on Lion?

I tend to lag quite a while behind on OSX major updates, because they usually screw things up. Is Lion stable and good now? I have an upgrade available and the current main machines can handle it.

pres589 wrote: In reply to wbjones: CPU can be replaced with a faster Socket M Core Duo or Core 2 Duo. You've maxed the available RAM, even with a processor upgrade. 10.6.x is the last version of OSX that will work (10.7 may be a software hack job, doubt it, I wouldn't bother myself). SSD would be available for it. I don't think I'd bother, honestly, a later Mini that shipped with a Core 2 Duo would have a later chipset that supports 10.7 or 10.8 and you wouldn't be quite so limited on RAM.

thanks ... time to shop at the refurb store

In reply to Duke:

I've got Lion on my Mac Pro at home. Seems to work OK, I don't see any reason not to upgrade.