OS X Lion on the 13-inch MacBook Aluminum (Late 2008)

[i'm.huMAC]

I just wanted to inquire on OS X Lion's performance on the 13-inch MacBook Aluminum released in late 2008. Is it too sluggish? Should I upgrade or what?

Processor: 2GHz Intel Core 2
Memory: 2GB 1067 MHz DDR3

 

[simsaladimbamba]

I could run it on a 2007 iMac with 2GHz and 4GB of RAM without problems, and it seems a bit faster than Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, So if you run SL, there shouldn't be a problem running Lion.

 

[hellfried]

I could run it on a 2007 iMac with 2GHz and 4GB of RAM without problems, and it seems a bit faster than Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, So if you run SL, there shouldn't be a problem running Lion.

I am running lion on an imac which i bought in late 2007. it has 2.4GHz and 2GB of RAM. Feels a bit sluggish for me but serviceable. Do you think doing a clean install would make much of a difference?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

I am running lion on an imac which i bought in late 2007. it has 2.4GHz and 2GB of RAM. Feels a bit sluggish for me but serviceable. Do you think doing a clean install would make much of a difference?

I did a clean install on a separate partition, but I haven't tried Lion for more than a day, so maybe I have overlooked something?
I also replaced the iMac's original HDD with a slightly faster one.
And the extra 2GB RAM I have could have helped me with a fluent experience.

 

[PBP]

Runs perfectly here on my alu 13'' MacBook 2,4ghz , but i have 4GB RAM.
Don't know how it run with 2gb.

 

[Chundles]

Running sweet as a nut on my 2.4GHz Alu MacBook.

You'd want to get more RAM though, 4GB is pretty cheap and I'm fairly sure one of the recent firmware updates enabled support for up to 8GB in the Alu MacBook.

 

[MacBookPro13"]

Upgrade your RAM to 4GB and you will be fine.

 

[CodeBreaker]

Works like a charm

I works totally fine and way faster than SL. I have installed it on a separate partition. The free memory at start-up is about 1 GB. It started to use swap space after I started Borderlands. But it doesn't at all feel sluggish.

Specs:
Al MacBook, 2.4 GHz, 2GB DDR3, nVidia 9400M

 

[hellomoto4]

I'm running it on a Late 2008 Macbook, 2GHz, upgraded to 4GB RAM.
Overall it's definitely not sluggish. Much like Snow Leopard, Applications can take a few seconds (up to 10) to open up, depending on which one it is of course.
Otherwise, I run Safari, Mail, iCal and iTunes at all times and it seems fine. Often will open up Pages or Keynote and Photoshop and it will be fine as well. You should be all good.

 

[Synaesthesia242]

Get more RAM yeah, but nothing beats the speed upgrade of an SSD, I recommend looking out for one! Lion is incredible on SSD's.

 

[JSMencer]

I did an install of lion on my late 2008 macbook. I have 2ghz processor, and 5gb of RAM. it seems to be running fine. It has the original hard drive, and I have a 16gb SSD in the computer with Lion installed on that as well so I can boot to either hard drive. Works well on both. theres a few little complaints, but nothing major.

 

[urkel]

I was hoping to get the wife a used 11" MBA just as a spare computer but all these "get more ram" suggestions make me worry about how well it will run on a stock 2010 Air where "more ram" isnt a (cheap) option.

 

[RJCP]

I just wanted to inquire on OS X Lion's performance on the 13-inch MacBook Aluminum released in late 2008. Is it too sluggish? Should I upgrade or what?

Processor: 2GHz Intel Core 2
Memory: 2GB 1067 MHz DDR3

Hi! That's my system. I tried running it with only the original 2GB of RAM and it was a nightmare. I then upgraded to 4GB for 36GBP and it's way faster than SL. Takes a little longer to boot, but shuts down in the same amount of time and application generally only bounce once before opening.