I have an old Macbook Pro. Will Lion run on it?

[iHavequestions]

...and if so, will it slow it down or run just fine?

Here are the specs:

Processor 2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory 2GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM2x1GB
Hard Drive 160GB Serial ATA Drive@5400rpm

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Bought it exactly 5 years ago to the day!

 

[randomrazr]

...and if so, will it slow it down or run just fine?

Here are the specs:

Processor 2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory 2GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM2x1GB
Hard Drive 160GB Serial ATA Drive@5400rpm

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Bought it exactly 5 years ago to the day!

did u not bother looking at the ccompatability of lion on apples site?

 

[iHavequestions]

did u not bother looking at the ccompatability of lion on apples site?

Just looked but it doesn't tell me whether it would run slowly or not.

 

[greganpace]

My macbook with the 2.13 ghz 4gb and 160g runs it just fine. Granted I have an external hard drive I keep everything on so I am only operating my computer with about 35 gb on my harddrive and I do have the upgraded ram. But I haven't seen it running even a tick slower. Your faster processor should be fine.

 

[Tsuchiya]

My macbook with the 2.13 ghz 4gb and 160g runs it just fine. Granted I have an external hard drive I keep everything on so I am only operating my computer with about 35 gb on my harddrive and I do have the upgraded ram. But I haven't seen it running even a tick slower. Your faster processor should be fine.

Out of interest, do the multi-touch gestures register on the trackpad? I know it recognises more then one finger but when Apple redesigned the Unibody Macbook they made such a big deal about the new trackpad I'm not too sure if there is a difference there?

 

[thefizzle657]

...and if so, will it slow it down or run just fine?

Here are the specs:

Processor 2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory 2GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM2x1GB
Hard Drive 160GB Serial ATA Drive@5400rpm

----------

Bought it exactly 5 years ago to the day!

I'm running Lion on the exact same model that you have except w/ 3GB OWC RAM and it runs absolutely fine, no slowdown or anything. If you plan on keeping your computer for a while I suggest putting an extra gig of RAM in it, even in SL I noticed a big difference running it on 3GB vs 2GB.

 

[greganpace]

Out of interest, do the multi-touch gestures register on the trackpad? I know it recognises more then one finger but when Apple redesigned the Unibody Macbook they made such a big deal about the new trackpad I'm not too sure if there is a difference there?

No, you don't get the full multi-touch gestures. It will be the same gestures you got on leopard. So that means no 3 finger swipes and 3 finger taps and 10 finger slides, but you have to have a late 2009 or newer (I think) for the full multi touch gestures. But you still have the other ones.

 

[nicklad]

Out of interest, do the multi-touch gestures register on the trackpad? I know it recognises more then one finger but when Apple redesigned the Unibody Macbook they made such a big deal about the new trackpad I'm not too sure if there is a difference there?

No, but it's definitely easy and possible to replace the top case and keyboard on a 15" 2007 MBP (A1226) with the top case of an early 2008 15" MBP (A1260) to get multi-touch.

 

[greganpace]

No, but it's definitely easy and possible to replace the top case and keyboard on a 15" 2007 MBP (A1226) with the top case of an early 2008 15" MBP (A1260) to get multi-touch.

I never thought of that... Did you buy one brand new or did you get one from another parted out computer?

 

[nicklad]

I never thought of that... Did you buy one brand new or did you get one from another parted out computer?

I bought one from eBay that was in good condition for my old MBP so it could run Lion properly. It was very easy to change.

You also have to change the keyboard to get the correct key mappings on the function keys. (The keyboard connects to and is driven by the trackpad.)

I also replaced the wireless card with an Apple AR9380 card to get three stream (450Mb/s) 802.11n and AirDrop support. (10.6.8 or later is required to use this card.)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/APPLE-Air...819?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20b94ddf1b

I further swapped out the bluetooth receiver for the Broadcom one used in the early 2008 MBP to get 2.1 support, which enables a power saving mode when using it with my iPhone for better battery life on both the laptop and phone when in use together.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

And I thought I had fun with my Macbook Pro when I swapped out the bottom case!

 

[nicklad]

No, you don't get the full multi-touch gestures. It will be the same gestures you got on leopard. So that means no 3 finger swipes and 3 finger taps and 10 finger slides, but you have to have a late 2009 or newer (I think) for the full multi touch gestures. But you still have the other ones.

You get full multi-touch support on all the capable laptops with one minor caveat... on the early 2008 MBP you lose three finger dragging as it's a smaller pad - and most of the four finger gestures are mapped to three fingers instead.

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And I thought I had fun with my Macbook Pro when I swapped out the bottom case!

I've done that too on another laptop of the same vintage. It's actually far, far, far more work (as you'll know) to swap out the bottom case as you have to dissemble everything and then get it back together again. Thank god for iFixit!

I'm now using an early 2011 2.2Ghz MBP, but decided it was worh upgrading the older laptop anyway. It had already had its logic board replaced for the faulty NVIDIA 8600M issue and was well out of warranty - nothing to lose really!

 

[Badrottie]

Went to Apple store for help installing Lion OSX 10.7.2 today I asked for clean install but they said it is not necessary. So after install it my mbp runs great and snappy….no issues so far I am glad…..You can see my sig below…you need to add more ram anyway.