My fathers last gift to me was a mid 2010 Unibody White MacBook. It was destroyed just weeks after his death. I want one for sentimental reasons. If I can use it for a year or two that would be great. Nothing major. Just Internet, maybe email. Then it will be a thing to remember him. Silly maybe. I have seen ones like this.... https://www.ebay.com/itm/313588580082?hash=item490355fef2:g:J24AAOSwsWBhN9Nd Is this worth it? 9 days from now will be 8 years. since I lost him. The urge to get one is strong but I don't want to buy junk and be disappointed. Is there a way to get a newer OS on it? to stretch it's life? Is there a better one out there? Thanks folks.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Looking at buying a Unibody MacBook need help......
- Thread starter AdamNC
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I just want to say it's not silly to pursue this, and I hope you can find one and enjoy using it. No one can judge us for what may seem odd to others things we keep for sentimental reasons from those we've lost.
For surfing on a primary machine without limitations, a 4 GB 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo is not going to cut it in 2022. Not recommended.
Is it usable? Yes, if you block ads (and are willing to deal with the idiosyncracies of doing that) and can tolerate frequent lag. However, having 8 GB RAM and faster CPU is highly preferred. Plus that machine is effectively limited to Chrome and Firefox because it’s stuck on 10.13 High Sierra unless you patch a later version of macOS to run on it. Also, if you notice fan noise to be an issue, you may wish to consider disassembling it to change the thermal paste.
Source: I own a 2.26 GHz 2009 MacBook Pro, 2008 2.4 GHz white MacBook, and 2008 2.0 GHz aluminum MacBook.
If you decide you must have it though for sentimental reasons then get one with SSD of course and preferably 8 GB RAM and come back here to get a few tips on properly configuring it.
tl;dr:
Will that 4 GB 2.4 GHz 2010 MacBook with SSD work for surfing and email? Yes, but you MUST block ads to make it at all tolerable yet it will still be very slow, and you would have to use Chrome or Firefox unless you run a hacked macOS.
Is it usable? Yes, if you block ads (and are willing to deal with the idiosyncracies of doing that) and can tolerate frequent lag. However, having 8 GB RAM and faster CPU is highly preferred. Plus that machine is effectively limited to Chrome and Firefox because it’s stuck on 10.13 High Sierra unless you patch a later version of macOS to run on it. Also, if you notice fan noise to be an issue, you may wish to consider disassembling it to change the thermal paste.
Source: I own a 2.26 GHz 2009 MacBook Pro, 2008 2.4 GHz white MacBook, and 2008 2.0 GHz aluminum MacBook.
If you decide you must have it though for sentimental reasons then get one with SSD of course and preferably 8 GB RAM and come back here to get a few tips on properly configuring it.
tl;dr:
Will that 4 GB 2.4 GHz 2010 MacBook with SSD work for surfing and email? Yes, but you MUST block ads to make it at all tolerable yet it will still be very slow, and you would have to use Chrome or Firefox unless you run a hacked macOS.
Last edited:
It wouldn't be my main computer. Just something to tinker with. I have my M1 MBA for my daily.
Oh, I see your signature now. In that case, go for it! A few points:
1. With 4 GB RAM, you can still run High Sierra, but don't try to do more than a few things at a time or else you'll get the beach ball. With 8 GB RAM, it's much, much better. 16 GB RAM is unnecessary for this machine, since it's too slow to actually adequately use that much RAM in most cases anyway.
2. SSD is mandatory. If you get one without an SSD, then get something like the DRAM-less Crucial BX500. Don't believe the hype about DRAM on SSDs. Yeah if you're running a modern main machine, or even an older machine like a 2011 iMac, you'll want DRAM on your SSD. However, for these old and very slow MacBooks, it's unnecessary.
3. Install 10.13 High Sierra first and see how you like it. Safari in High Sierra is not as useful at this point, but you can run the latest Chrome. Install AdBlock to make it tolerable. Otherwise any ads will slow the browsing down to a crawl. For embedded video in websites, stick to 720p. The screen is only 720p/800p anyway. If it's higher resolution VP9 video for example, your machine will struggle. h.264 is preferred since your GPU has hardware h.264 acceleration, but VP9 at reasonable resolutions may be OK, albeit with more fan noise. BTW, High Sierra supports APFS and HEIC/HEIF files, so you're good there. In my opinion, for a bare minimum OS, I think 10.11 El Capitan is necessary. For a more usable minimum OS, 10.13 High Sierra fits the bill.
4. If you want something later than High Sierra, then you can install 10.15 Catalina with dosdude's macOS Catalina Patcher. Catalina itself works fine, but you lose the normal boot process, and hibernate may no longer work when you run out of power, or at least that's what happens on my 2008 and 2009 machines. If the battery drains to nil, I have to reboot. Plus on my systems there may sometimes be slightly strange behaviour with Chrome, as in it occasionally fails to launch which you click on it in the dock. So, this is more like a Hackintosh experience than a Mac experience. If you want the real Mac experience, stick with High Sierra. High Sierra is recent enough that it only stopped receiving security updates last year.
Last edited:
The one I posted has the following specs....
Specs:
Processor: 2.4 GHz Intel "Core 2 Duo" processor (P8600)
Memory: 4GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM (PC3-8500)
Hard drive: 128GB SSD
Screen Size: 13" Inch
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 320M "graphics processor
Webcam: iSight Camera
Operating System: macOS 10.14.6 Mojave
Additional Program: Comes with Microsoft Office 2019 + Final Cut Pro + Logic Pro + iWork + Adobe Suite 2020 Master Collection
They want 145 for it.
Hmmm... They already installed Mojave on it. Interesting.
Anyhow, I'm not up on their pricing these days, but it sounds reasonable. You could get away with 4 GB RAM if only run a couple of browser tabs and mail, etc., and you're only occasionally tinkering with it. To upgrade to 8 GB RAM would probably cost you around US$40.
If you're still reading this, check out THIS link which provides valuable info on the 2010 Unibody White MacBook. Unless you've already purchased one, the bottom line is go for the 2.4GHz MacBook7,1 model. A great choice!