Best OS for late 2009 MacBook?

[Queen of Spades]

I'm a little out of the loop on this subject, so I thought I'd ask you fine knowledgeable folks.

What is the latest/best performing OS to use for a 2009 white unibody Macbook, running an SSD and 8GB RAM. Otherwise, the usual stock specs: 2.26Ghz C2D, GeForce 9400M, etc. I don't want to upgrade to Sierra and have it be unnecessarily slow.

This will be a glorified internet machine for a family member. Thanks!

 

[Jack Neill]

My Early 2009 with SSD and 8Gb is humming with Sierra, I think its smoother than El Cap.

 

[CapnDavey]

I picked up one of these yesterday at a local computer store it came with Sierra installed. I was going to roll it back to 10.10 or 10.11 but it runs this os much better then my 09 Mac Pro with 8 gig of ram go figure.

 

[elf69]

I had same machine until weekend gone.

SSD and 8G ram with sierra it was fast and got better battery life with sierra.

I was sad to see it go, now reluctantly forced to use 2007 17" macbook pro with el capitan.
the 2010 unibody with 2.4GHz was even better as would run 16GB ram.

 

[Queen of Spades]

Thanks guys! Glad to hear it. This is a good little machine. Going to go ahead with Sierra.

 

[elf69]

just wait for indexing to complete.

I left mine on all nite an it was fine by morning.

 

[bunnspecial]

8gb RAM+SSD makes for a good experience with Sierra. I was unsure at first on my 2010 when I was running DP1 and had 2gb of RAM as it was essentially unuseable(10 minutes to open "About This Mac", but by the time GM and then retail came along(and I'd upgraded to 8gb) it was fine even with a platter drive. The SSD made it run even better.

Without an SSD, I'd suggest Mavericks.

 

[128keaton]

8gb RAM+SSD makes for a good experience with Sierra. I was unsure at first on my 2010 when I was running DP1 and had 2gb of RAM as it was essentially unuseable(10 minutes to open "About This Mac", but by the time GM and then retail came along(and I'd upgraded to 8gb) it was fine even with a platter drive. The SSD made it run even better.

Without an SSD, I'd suggest Mavericks.

Mavericks still looks pretty suave on these older machines, very fast too

 

[kevin_ngo88]

I had same machine until weekend gone.

SSD and 8G ram with sierra it was fast and got better battery life with sierra.

I was sad to see it go, now reluctantly forced to use 2007 17" macbook pro with el capitan.
the 2010 unibody with 2.4GHz was even better as would run 16GB ram.

Sierra is a good choice