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Should I install Lion ??? ( White Macbook )

N

NiCk-

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 11, 2007
198
126
Hello guys,

I have a white Macbook which I bought back in April 2011 and I'm thinking of installing Lion on it .. This is the 2.4Ghz Core 2 Duo, with 2GBs of RAM and the Nvidea 320M (256mb) model ..

I like the new features from Lion but do you think that I will perform well under Lion or should I just stick with Snow Leopard ???

Thanks in advance !
 
Medic278

Medic278

macrumors 6502a
Feb 1, 2012
657
0
New York
Unless you plan on upgrading your RAM I would stick with SL. Lion really needs at least 4GB of RAM to run well, and with only 2GB it will feel bogged down. I even upgraded to 8GB of RAM cause I didn't feel that 4GB was running smoothly enough in Lion. Is there some reason why you want to upgrade to Lion? SL is a really nice OS.
 
X

Xgm541

macrumors 65816
May 3, 2011
1,098
818
Medic278 said:
Unless you plan on upgrading your RAM I would stick with SL. Lion really needs at least 4GB of RAM to run well, and with only 2GB it will feel bogged down. I even upgraded to 8GB of RAM cause I didn't feel that 4GB was running smoothly enough in Lion. Is there some reason why you want to upgrade to Lion? SL is a really nice OS.
Click to expand...

Where did you get the idea that 8gb made lion run better than 4gb? My mac running with apps open is using 1.69gb/4gb right now. 8GB will not make lion run faster. What it can do is make programs that require that much ram to run faster, but lion itself, does not require 8gb.

To OP, Lion is "only" $30. You can always downgrade to SL through a clean install if you dont like Lion's performance. I would say, if the main ways you use your computer are for light work like word, safari, youll get by with 2gb.
 
east85

east85

macrumors 65816
Jun 24, 2010
1,343
495
Medic278 said:
Unless you plan on upgrading your RAM I would stick with SL. Lion really needs at least 4GB of RAM to run well, and with only 2GB it will feel bogged down. I even upgraded to 8GB of RAM cause I didn't feel that 4GB was running smoothly enough in Lion. Is there some reason why you want to upgrade to Lion? SL is a really nice OS.
Click to expand...

I agree with this post. RAM is very cheap, so for your specific model you should try to research the maximum you can apply to your MacBook as far as RAM goes and buy it. It's the most effective and cheapest upgrade you can do. Even if you do it and keep SL it will be worth it.
 
M

mslide

macrumors 6502a
Sep 17, 2007
707
2
Runs just fine on my 2006 Macbook with 3GB of RAM. I'd install it (and upgrade the RAM to 4GB).
 
Drew017

Drew017

macrumors 65816
May 29, 2011
1,254
11
East coast, USA
You should install it if you want to :D! From what I heard, you really do need 4 GB of RAM if you want speed, though. If you use it for light stuff, I don't really think it matters. I have 2GB of RAM on my macbook, and I plan on upgrading to Mountain Lion when it comes out. Maybe if it's too slow I'll upgrade my RAM too, but we'll see ;).
 
N

NiCk-

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 11, 2007
198
126
First of all I should say that I have no problems whatsoever with SL but I want to install Lion because I'm tempted by some of their features ( iCloud probably being the most important ) ..

From what I understand they work perfectly fine under 4GBs of RAM and they have some performance issues under 2GBs of RAM ..

So, I decided to upgrade my RAM to 4GB and try them out ! Hopefully everything will be OK and I won't have to go through the hassle of re-installing SL ! :p

Thanks again for all of your answers guys ! :)
 
Nameci

Nameci

macrumors 68000
Oct 29, 2010
1,944
12
The Philippines...
If you have 4GB of ram, that would be enough for lion. Remember there are macbook airs that are spec'd as 2GB but still runs lion. While you are up to it, why not upgrade your HDD to an SSD? That would give your macbook some needed speed when accessing files.
 
S

saggel

macrumors regular
Mar 3, 2012
109
0
Coventry, UK
I had lion with 4GB ram on my white early 2008 macbook and it was fine.
Now I have 6GB ram and I don't 'feel' any improvement... You'll be fine with 4GB
 
M

Mac n Fries

macrumors newbie
Mar 31, 2012
3
0
My PC has an i7 and 9gb of ram. I use it all the time and it sometimes feels slow. It's for heavy use.

I have a 2008 Macbook with the 2ghz processor and 2gb of ram. I have Lion installed and I don't notice it going slow. I only use it for xcode 4 and a few other programs. Nothing crazy. I thought I would notice it being slow especially coming from a powerful pc but so far it is fine.

Maybe my opinion will change as I use it more but right now it's fine.
 
S

saggel

macrumors regular
Mar 3, 2012
109
0
Coventry, UK
Mac n Fries said:
My PC has an i7 and 9gb of ram. I use it all the time and it sometimes feels slow. It's for heavy use.

I have a 2008 Macbook with the 2ghz processor and 2gb of ram. I have Lion installed and I don't notice it going slow. I only use it for xcode 4 and a few other programs. Nothing crazy. I thought I would notice it being slow especially coming from a powerful pc but so far it is fine.

Maybe my opinion will change as I use it more but right now it's fine.
Click to expand...

or you can turn your pc into a hackintosh ;)
 
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