13" Air 2,1 OS recommendations

[elf69]

My fiancee has a 13" a1304 air.

1.6GHz 2GB RAM and 120GB HDD.

she upgraded to el Capitan and it slow as hell.

Whats owners recommendation on which OSX to run on it?

It works but mega slow, hell it an old machine so not expecting performance out of it.

Can it be sped up or are we flogging a dead horse?

 

[CoastalOR]

It is a late 2008, so I would recommend OS 10.8.5.

 

[elf69]

biggest question can 10.8.5 talk to iphone SE?

she has an SE and ipad air 2

we bought the air only due to fact her windows ten convertible would not talk to her iphone.

she has seen a 2010 2.13GHz 2GB ram, air is this big enough upgrade to run el capitan/sierra?

I dont have 10.8.5 so going have buy that as only got 10.6.8 disc

 

[ApfelKuchen]

You might pull this out of the hat without rolling back. Some housecleaning may be in order in areas like login items, startup items, kexts, etc. Run etrecheck and see what it finds.

 

[elf69]

nothing in login items.
I know windows had msconfig to turn off startup items, does osx have similar?

will look at etrecheck.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

biggest question can 10.8.5 talk to iphone SE?

she has an SE and ipad air 2

we bought the air only due to fact her windows ten convertible would not talk to her iphone.

she has seen a 2010 2.13GHz 2GB ram, air is this big enough upgrade to run el capitan/sierra?

I dont have 10.8.5 so going have buy that as only got 10.6.8 disc

You'll need at least 10.9.5 to run current versions of iTunes, and that'll be required for anything running iOS 10.

2 GB RAM has been the technical minimum since 10.8 (still is for Sierra) - more, obviously, would be better.

If you have 10.6.8 installed, you can upgrade to El Capitan for free, using a link in this support article: https://support.apple.com/HT206886
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nothing in login items.
I know windows had msconfig to turn off startup items, does osx have similar?

will look at etrecheck.

For what Etrecheck finds, you have to go into the System folder and remove the items manually.

 

[elf69]

the air is currently running el cap, but badly.

It is very very slow.

plus has a zif hdd not SSD so that not really going help either.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

I run El Cap on an early 2008 iMac, with 5 GB RAM (a 4 GB stick, and a 1 GB) and the original HDD. It doesn't run great, but it still runs better than it ran 3 years ago, when it would have been running either Mountain Lion or Mavericks (my memory fades). It was my test machine for the Mavericks, Yosemite, and El Capitan betas. Etrecheck was a huge help - much of what it found was due to old versions of Adobe apps (Adobe is known for adding this kind of stuff).

 

[elf69]

I have a 2007 imac running el capitan with 6GB ram runs well actually.

Running etrecheck now.

UPDATE:

Finished scan, not sure what to do now.
Says insufficient ram. is red.

 

[elf69]

Is it worth buying a lif ssd?

HW monitor app shows no ram bottle neck.

so is it the hdd?

as cpu and ram seem ok in monitor app.

 

[elf69]

Well after tweaking and emptying the cashes and running ccleaner.

gained 3.2GB HDD space.

I found machine still slow but gave it back to my fiancee who said it much faster, go figure

So she happy for now but will save up and get a newer model in future.

thanks for everyones help