Should I take the Gamble and upgrade to 10.9

[Tsuchiya]

I had a similar model:

mid-2007
2.4GHz C2D
4GB RAM
Nvidia 8600m GT 256mb

I wouldn't recommend it with a mechanical HDD. I had a 500GB 7200RPM HDD in there and it was sluggish as hell (though it still performed better than Mountain Lion).

Once I installed an SSD the difference was dramatic. With more RAM (like your model) Mavericks would fly.

Either way, I'd avoid Lion/Mountain Lion. They leave a bitter taste in the mouth after the smoothness of Snow Leopard.

 

[Marty62]

OP is asking with reference to specific "PRO MUSIC APPS" use !!

In this case 10.9.x is NOT a good idea, google is your friend !!

For emails/ surfing and playing the latest "Pick your Candy Crush nose" games
then I'm sure that Mavericks is just about capable enough !!

M.

 

[twinsity]

I just cloned it now is it a hard process to revert back if I want to from the external cloned hard drive?

 

[twinsity]

I was thinking of grabbing a express card 128 gb ssd would that help if i ran mavericks off that?

 

[MartinAppleGuy]

Yours might be compatible. The mid to late 2007 models are apparently.

Can you install 8gb of ram, or is 6gb the max? Either way, machines can run mavericks with 4gb.

I'd say it's worth a try. My 2009 MBP seems to run fine, but I don't do anything too taxing with t anymore. I have 8gb of ram and a 500gb drive.

An SSD probably won't improve too much other than boot speed. Especially since the sata connection is limiting. The important spec here is RAM.

2Gb of RAM is the min for Mavericks. From what I have seen, 2Gb of RAM and an SSD perform well with 10.9 on basic-average tasks.

 

[simonsi]

Snow Leopard > Mountain Lion = Lion > Mavericks

Lion > Mavericks > Mountain Lion > Snow Leopard

The question was alphabetical order right?

I went from Lion (as shipped) >ML > Mavericks with no issues at all.

 

[cube]

Lion > Mavericks > Mountain Lion > Snow Leopard

The question was alphabetical order right?

I went from Lion (as shipped) >ML > Mavericks with no issues at all.

Even if there were no bugs, Lion removed rosetta and introduced arrowless scrollbars. Mavericks is a further downgrade by removing SyncServices.

 

[twinsity]

Well thanks for all the answers I got over the fears and made the Jump, So far so good got my matrox dualhead2go back up and working, Akai Mpc software updated Reason 7 installed... Looking good so far!!

 

[goMac]

Even if there were no bugs, Lion removed rosetta and introduced arrowless scrollbars. Mavericks is a further downgrade by removing SyncServices.

There are numerous upgrades in Mavericks though. App Nap, CPU timer colessing (saves a lot of battery life), working full screen apps, newer version of OpenGL, better Active Directory support, better Exchange support, iCloud documents, iMessage, lots of Safari enhancements, etc...

But sure. They removed arrows on the scroll bars, Rosetta, and SyncServices.

 

[doug in albq]

Snow Leopard > Mountain Lion = Lion > Mavericks

For some, math is not their strongpoint .

One can hope, and most likely count on, Napa does not sucking as bad as Mavericks.

 

[cube]

For some, math is not their strongpoint .

And some make baseless comments.

 

[MichaelLAX]

Well thanks for all the answers I got over the fears and made the Jump, So far so good got my matrox dualhead2go back up and working, Akai Mpc software updated Reason 7 installed... Looking good so far!!

DAMN: 2 days too late.

You should have partitioned and installed Mavericks in the new partition and "dual-boot" to run either Snow Leopard or Mavericks as you gain experience.

Installing Mavericks over Snow Leopard ruins the Snow Leopard environment, which can only be recovered by a wipe, and reinstall of clone, time machine or install from scratch.

 

[Jimmy James]

I have a mid-2007 mbp. Runs great. Upgrading from 2 to 4 GB ram made a big difference. Your machine should be fine.

 

[Felasco]

As others have commented, fear is completely unnecessary if you do it right. It might be wise to learn how to do it right, as that will protect you from all future OSX upgrades as well.

1) clone your Mac to an external drive (or other partition)

2) Upgrade the clone

3) Take your time testing the clone, while you continue to do your real work on your existing setup.

4) If the test is successful, copy the clone back to your Mac, replacing your old setup.

Testing takes some time, but you're going to be doing that anyway. Creating the clone can take hours, but just go take a nap or something while it runs.

You have to have a spare drive or partition available, but after that doing it the right way takes very little extra time.

PS: Should you make the mistake of suggesting that Apple teach you how to do this in order to spread this information on safe installing most efficiently, you will become an apostate blasphemer challenging the infallible wisdom of the Holy Mother Ship, and a mob of Apple fan boys will descend upon thee to correct your heresy. So skip this step.