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ML and late 2008 unibody Macbook?

jafingi

jafingi

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Apr 3, 2009
1,470
158
Denmark
Hi,

I'm thinking of buying a late 2008 MacBook unibody really really cheap. It has a 2GHz processor and 2GB ram.

Do you think it will run ML fine? Or would I be better off using Snow Leopard? I will only use it for simple browsing and some school work (primarily math software).

I'll upgrade the RAM to 4GB. And maybe later on add an SSD if that's possible?

Thanks in advance.
 
I have a late MBP 2008 (see my signature). For your purposes, you will be very fine with either Leopard, Snow Leopard, or Lion. I didn't test it with ML GM, but I think it will be also smooth. Get the 4GB of RAm though. With a 64 or 128gb SATA 2 or 3 SSD ,it will definitely boost applications' load time. Also, before buying, check the status of the battery, you might have to buy a new one. I changed mine last week.
 
It is my understanding that the 2008 Macbooks won't work with 10.8, but the late 2008 Macbook Pro will.
 
MagicBoy said:
The aluminium unibody MacBook will. It's essentially the same machine as the later 13" MacBook Pro, just without the FW800 port.
Click to expand...

My Late 2008 MBP has FW800.

My understanding is that Apple will drop support for 32-bit architectures (hence only 64-bit architectures will run on ML).
 
The late 2008 unibody MacBook has a core2duo 64bit cpu. Will work great with ML is you have enough ram. I had a 2.4 ghz model and with 8gb ram and a hybrid hdd the performance was amazing. It actually felt way better than with Lion installed :)
 
sofianito said:
My Late 2008 MBP has FW800.
Click to expand...

He was talking about the Late 2008 13" Aluminum Macbook. There was no 13" MBP until 2009.

I would say go for it if it's in good condition. My Aluminum Macbook has been a great machine for me. Put in 4 or 8 GB of RAM and an SSD and it will be great.

The only thing you might miss over a newer 13" MBP is that there's no Firewire port and no backlit keyboard on that model.
 
Hi,

Thanks for the replies!

I will upgrade it to 4GB RAM once it arrives, and maybe giving it an SSD.

It's from 2008, so it's soon 5 years old. However, I will buy a new retina MBP next summer - I just don't want to buy an expensive Macbook now, as I will only use it about 8 hours a week, and have an iMac and iPad.

Do you think it will work fine? I don't need the DVD drive, and I remember that these are the first ones to fail? (my old Macbook Pro's drive failed after 2 years).

Didn't know it was without backlit keyboard. I loved it with my old MBP, but as I will only use it a little, I think it'll be okay.

It looks like it's in good condition... A few scratches and missing a rubber feet.. Nothing I can't live with :D
 
Last edited:
jafingi said:
Hi,

Thanks for the replies!

I will upgrade it to 4GB RAM once it arrives, and maybe giving it an SSD.

It's from 2008, so it's soon 5 years old. However, I will buy a new retina MBP next summer - I just don't want to buy an expensive Macbook now, as I will only use it about 8 hours a week, and have an iMac and iPad.

Do you think it will work fine? I don't need the DVD drive, and I remember that these are the first ones to fail? (my old Macbook Pro's drive failed after 2 years).

Didn't know it was without backlit keyboard. I loved it with my old MBP, but as I will only use it a little, I think it'll be okay.

It looks like it's in good condition... A few scratches and missing a rubber feet.. Nothing I can't live with :D
Click to expand...

You mean 4 years old (October 2008 - October 2012) :)

My DVD still works fine, but I will soonly replace it with my current hdd and add a 64/128gb ssd to speed up application load time. For booting I don't care since I reboot approximately every 3 weeks XD.

By the way how much does it cost actually?
 
How much ram the unibody macbook can support? I have a friend that bought it back then and want to sell it for $600! Dont know if it is a good price for a core 2 duo. I will do more like $450 is that too cheap?
 
aziatiklover said:
How much ram the unibody macbook can support? I have a friend that bought it back then and want to sell it for $600! Dont know if it is a good price for a core 2 duo. I will do more like $450 is that too cheap?
Click to expand...

The late 2008 MBP supports 8gb. In my case, I have 2x4gb OWC. I am not expert in prices, but if the notebook is in good shape (few to none scratches), 8gb, 500gb 7200rpm, normal battery state, and mac os x lion, then I think $500-$550 is fairly enough...
 
jafingi said:
Hi,

I'm thinking of buying a late 2008 MacBook unibody really really cheap. It has a 2GHz processor and 2GB ram.

Do you think it will run ML fine? Or would I be better off using Snow Leopard? I will only use it for simple browsing and some school work (primarily math software).

I'll upgrade the RAM to 4GB. And maybe later on add an SSD if that's possible?

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

The unibody one does in fact run Mountain Lion. I would also recommend upgrading it to 8GB of RAM over 4. It's only another $20 or so. Check this guide out to make sure that you don't have to upgrade your Bootrom to support more memory. http://blog.macsales.com/9102-secret-firmware-lets-late-08-macbooks-use-8gb
 
sofianito said:
You mean 4 years old (October 2008 - October 2012) :)

My DVD still works fine, but I will soonly replace it with my current hdd and add a 64/128gb ssd to speed up application load time. For booting I don't care since I reboot approximately every 3 weeks XD.

By the way how much does it cost actually?
Click to expand...

Haha yeah, I meant 4 years :D

I will upgrade to 4 or 8GB RAM depending on what I stumble upon. And then a 40GB SSD. I don't need a lot of storage as this will only be used for browsing and a few documents.

I'm able to get it for $491. And that's pretty good considering Apple products are expensive here in Denmark due to taxes. For example the 2012 MacBook Air 13 inch costs $1587, compared to $1199 in the US.
 
sofianito said:
The late 2008 MBP supports 8gb. In my case, I have 2x4gb OWC. I am not expert in prices, but if the notebook is in good shape (few to none scratches), 8gb, 500gb 7200rpm, normal battery state, and mac os x lion, then I think $500-$550 is fairly enough...
Click to expand...

She is still on leopard and its a base model! Of course if i get it i will get all the upgrade.
 
And I bought it! It's in MINT condition. Really nice!

I've ordered 4 gigs of RAM and a 40GB Intel 320 SSD. Gonna be a fast one. :D
 
I just did a fresh installation of Mac OS X Lion on a Crucial M4 64GB SSD @MBP late 2008, 2.4Ghz, 8GB RAM. I installed it from a USB (Patriot Rage XT 8GB). I am impressed, it is quite fast :cool:

Mac OS X Lion installation time: Less than 15 minutes
Disk usage: ~18GB
Boot time: Not measured
Restart time: Not measured
MEmory usage: Not measured
Benchmark:
64-bit GeekBench
Disk Speed Tests


I just did a fresh install of Mountain Lion GM :)

Mac OS X ML installation time: Less than 30 minutes
Disk usage: ~18GB
Memory usage: 1.2GB
Boot time: 30 seconds
Restart time: 51 seconds
Benchmarks:
32-bit GeekBench
64-bit GeekBench
Disk Speed Tests

As you could observe, there are not much benchmark scores differences between Lion and ML. The latter run nicely and smoothly in my MBP late 2008. Safari 6 looks much more faster. I think it is now more multithreaded and UI looks asynchronous. For instance, testing TheVerge, the URL progress bar finishes before the whole HTML page is rendered. Using Safari developer tools, I have been able to measure times: Network request took 8.5s, while layout, rendering, and javascript took 14.8s. It would be interesting to compare it with retina :D

My next tests would be with a Samsung 830 64 or 128GB SSD...
 
Last edited:
sofianito said:
My Late 2008 MBP has FW800.

My understanding is that Apple will drop support for 32-bit architectures (hence only 64-bit architectures will run on ML).
Click to expand...

Yes. The OP has the the short-lived (one product cycle) aluminium unibody MacBook which does not have a FW port. It it not a MacBook Pro.

Your late 2008 13" MacBook Pro replaced that model and added the FW800 port, hence the added "Pro"-ness.

The architecture is not quite that simple. It's the requirement for 64-bit EFI that limits Mountain Lion compatibility. For example the late 2006 MacBook Pros that shipped with Core2Duo CPUs have a 64-bit CPU, but only 32-bit EFI due to unsupported graphics chips and are therefore unsupported for ML.
 
MagicBoy said:
Yes. The OP has the the short-lived (one product cycle) aluminium unibody MacBook which does not have a FW port. It it not a MacBook Pro.

Your late 2008 13" MacBook Pro replaced that model and added the FW800 port, hence the added "Pro"-ness.

The architecture is not quite that simple. It's the requirement for 64-bit EFI that limits Mountain Lion compatibility. For example the late 2006 MacBook Pros that shipped with Core2Duo CPUs have a 64-bit CPU, but only 32-bit EFI due to unsupported graphics chips and are therefore unsupported for ML.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the explanation. I just want to precise I have a 15" Late 2008 MBP.
 
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