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MacBook Pro 13" 2009

Shaaun

Shaaun

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 16, 2015
24
4
Hey Everyone, I have just bought my first MBP been fan off Apple Products for a while i have a iPhone 6s 128GB, iPad Mini 3 and Mac Mini 2012.

I have just purchased a MBP Mid 2009 13" 2009 and i was wanting to know if you guys could tell me the best Version of OSX i should i run on it, I am upgrading the HDD to a 128GB SanDisk SSD it also has 4GB of RAM i am willing to upgrade if i have too.

I'm just not too sure what would run the best of the system i want the best performance i can get.

Specs bellow:
https://support.apple.com/kb/sp541?locale=en_US
 
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Shaaun said:
Hey Everyone, I have just bought my first MBP been fan off Apple Products for a while i have a iPhone 6s 128GB, iPad Mini 3 and Mac Mini 2012.

I have just purchased a MBP Mid 2009 13" 2009 and i was wanting to know if you guys could tell me the best Version of OSX i should i run on it, I am upgrading the HDD to a 128GB SanDisk SSD it also has 4GB of RAM i am willing to upgrade if i have too.

I'm just not too sure what would run the best of the system i want the best performance i can get.

Specs bellow:
https://support.apple.com/kb/sp541?locale=en_US
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what's officially recommended but I have El Capitan running on my 2009 MBP 13" and I don't have any issues at all. It runs fine. I have 8 gb ram and the stock hdd. But I'm looking to upgrade to an ssd soon. Honestly the 8gb ram upgrade I did a couple years ago did nothing noticeable for my performance.
 
The CPU and GPU are pretty slow on that model, but for basic use it's a great computer. My old mid-2009 2.53GHz 13" lives with my parents and does everything they need it to do.

10.11.x seems to run fine on it.
 
T5BRICK said:
The CPU and GPU are pretty slow on that model, but for basic use it's a great computer. My old mid-2009 2.53GHz 13" lives with my parents and does everything they need it to do.

10.11.x seems to run fine on it.
Click to expand...

I will be just using it for like Youtube, Twitch, Download a few movies and maybe do a little Photo editing with Creative cloud think it will do the job for that? Or should i upgrade the RAM to 8GB?
 
Shaaun said:
I will be just using it for like Youtube, Twitch, Download a few movies and maybe do a little Photo editing with Creative cloud think it will do the job for that? Or should i upgrade the RAM to 8GB?
Click to expand...

4GB will probably be fine. I'd run it as is for a while and just watch your memory usage to see where it sits.
 
Yeah good idea I'm just unsure I might put 10.8 on it I just can't decide what I'm going to do as I know most programs can run on 10.8
 
Unless you don't mind constantly cleaning up old files and keeping your SSD clean, I'd consider the incremental $50 to move from a 128GB SSD to a 250GB SSD. Just a thought...
 
A week ago I got a MacBook Pro the same as you want.
Can I say one thing, if you will use the MacBook for basic use it is great. But surely it will need updates.
You see, I have it still the original HD + 4GB of RAM and I can do several tasks simultaneously with an acceptable speed. It is a very good machine for her age.
in the future I intend to put a Samsung SSD and 8GB of RAM.
 
Shaaun said:
Hey Everyone, I have just bought my first MBP been fan off Apple Products for a while i have a iPhone 6s 128GB, iPad Mini 3 and Mac Mini 2012.

I have just purchased a MBP Mid 2009 13" 2009 and i was wanting to know if you guys could tell me the best Version of OSX i should i run on it, I am upgrading the HDD to a 128GB SanDisk SSD it also has 4GB of RAM i am willing to upgrade if i have too.

I'm just not too sure what would run the best of the system i want the best performance i can get.

Specs bellow:
https://support.apple.com/kb/sp541?locale=en_US
Click to expand...


Before buying, make sure the machine is heatsink, and takes into consideration that at the time of buy it. I bought mine last week and I'm with this problem and I'm still looking for solutions.It was not a bad deal but several of these machines have this problem.
 
I've put on 10.9 Mavericks and the system it self runs a great had no signs on crashing and also I have not put the SSD on yet so I may consider updating to 10.11 before the SSD goes in I will buy 8GB RAM kit start of next month and I think I should be fine
 
T5BRICK said:
4GB will probably be fine. I'd run it as is for a while and just watch your memory usage to see where it sits.
Click to expand...

I use normally iTunes 12.1.3 with Google Chrome and that seems to eat about 3.5GB of RAM so I will be upgrading the RAM next month
 
Shaaun said:
Hey Everyone, I have just bought my first MBP been fan off Apple Products for a while i have a iPhone 6s 128GB, iPad Mini 3 and Mac Mini 2012.

I have just purchased a MBP Mid 2009 13" 2009 and i was wanting to know if you guys could tell me the best Version of OSX i should i run on it, I am upgrading the HDD to a 128GB SanDisk SSD it also has 4GB of RAM i am willing to upgrade if i have too.

I'm just not too sure what would run the best of the system i want the best performance i can get.

Specs bellow:
https://support.apple.com/kb/sp541?locale=en_US
Click to expand...
==========
My late-2011 runs like a rocket now, I installed two SSD 6GB transfers drive, 8gb of ram. OX El Capitan, PhotoShop, etc.. seems to run very fast. Go with Micron or Kingston SSD, see attached pic...

Dual SSD.png
 
Shaaun said:
I will be just using it for like Youtube, Twitch, Download a few movies and maybe do a little Photo editing with Creative cloud think it will do the job for that? Or should i upgrade the RAM to 8GB?
Click to expand...
From my experience, this model doesn't handle 1080p and 60 FPS Youtube videos very well, additionally it can only handle medium settings not source on Twitch (anything higher or within these resolution will cause the device to lag very badly). Not too surprised since these setting make newer macs load the CPU/GPU fairly well. Interestingly, this isn't so bad on the 2009 15" models (prior to Youtube's addition of 60 FPS, 1080p worked fine on the 13").
 
Last edited:
RoboWarriorSr said:
From my experience, this model doesn't handle 1080p and 60 FPS Youtube videos very well, additionally it can only handle medium settings not source on Twitch (anything higher or within these resolution will cause the device to lag very badly). Not too surprised since these setting make newer macs load the CPU/GPU fairly well. Interestingly, this isn't so bad on the 2009 15" models (prior to Youtube's addition of 60 FPS, 1080p worked fine on the 13").
Click to expand...

Well 1080p would because they resolution of the MBP is only 720p 1280x720 so kinda no point in streaming at that high quality, I stream from twitch at source quality since i have Fiber broadband i stream videos from Youtube at 60Fps on 720p and have no issues at all and running 10.11.X
 
jorgeu said:
==========
My late-2011 runs like a rocket now, I installed two SSD 6GB transfers drive, 8gb of ram. OX El Capitan, PhotoShop, etc.. seems to run very fast. Go with Micron or Kingston SSD, see attached pic...

View attachment 600876
Click to expand...
Ive put an SSD 128GB into my MBP also upgraded to 10.11.X and it runs great with no issues i am upgrading it to another HDD/SSD and upgrading the RAM to 8GB.
 
Just upgraded my wife's 2009 13" MBP to El Capitan 10.11.1 because 10.7.5 didn't support an iTunes versions that would enable her to restore from an i5s to a new i6s. Had to update iTunes, but couldn't bump its version far enough.
I had upped the RAM to 8Gb and installed a 256Gb SSD a couple of years ago.
Anyway, the upgrade went remarkably well and so far I'm very happy with the performance. It even feels just a little snappier than it had previously. But that could be wishful thinking.
 
Mine currently runs really good. Currently running El Capitan 10.11.1 with no issues. Have upgraded the Ram to 8GB. Couple of years ago the hard drive went out and I had it replaced/repaired...should've used the opportunity to upgrade to a better hard drive but its running fine.
most everything is saved to external hard drives.

Have been meaning to upgrade to a new/current model Macbook for awhile but I keep putting it off because this one runs pretty great.
 
I recently upgraded my 13" 2009 Macbook Pro with 8GB of Ram from Mavericks to El Capitan and I haven't had any problems.
 
I've been running the same model since 2009, have the RAM upgraded to 8GB, and installed a hybrid drive. It's still running almost everything I throw at it. I mainly use it for audio editing, some video editing, and general browsing. I'm still on Yosemite. I'm really like the new MBP models and there is some software I'd like to use that may not work well on my current setup, but until I run into some major performance issues, I'm holding onto my 2009 MBP.
 
I have update the Mac to 8GB of RAM is seen a big performance in the Mac with multiple apps opening not getting a wheel of death ever so I'm happy with the configuration now i also took out the SuperDrive out and put a 500GB Sata drive in for my Music and Movies it is great. 2009 MBP for life! ahahaAbout this Mac.pngStorage.png
 
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