Should I upgrade my iMac 2007 Core 2 Duo 2.8 to Lion?

[seasurfer]

Yesterday, I just replaced my iMac 2007 Core 2 Duo 2.8GHz hard disk after it broke, I installed it with snow leopard 10.6 and upgraded it to 10.6.8.

I also have an iMac 2011 Quad core 3.4GHz with 16GB of RAM, when I first brought it, it came with SL 10.6.7, when Lion came up, I upgraded it, after the upgrade, the only thing I don't like is the slower shut down speed, everything else seems fine, Safari seems faster.

Here is my dilemma, my iMac 2007 only has 4GB of RAM, I heard that Lion need a minimum of 4GB of RAM, if I install it on my iMac 2007, will I experience slower performance? Or should I just stick to 10.6.8?

 

[SRLMJ23]

I put Lion on my 2010 MacBook Air with only 2gb of RAM and it runs flawlessly, this is probably because of the Solid State Drive, however, with your 4gb's you should be absolutely fine. Other than that it comes down to if you want to take the plunge and go to Lion or stay with SL.

 

[Martyimac]

There are a lot of recent discussions concerning Lion vs Snow Leopard. Your best bet would be to read those threads then decide. As for me, on a system as old as yours, I would NOT install Lion.

 

[Feed Me]

I have the exact same computer as you. I would upgrade to Lion, it runs perfectly for me. I haven't noticed any changes in speed, if anything, it's faster - except shutdown definitely does take longer.

 

[robgendreau]

Without knowing what you do with these Macs it's rather impossible to give you anything but theoretical advice.

It doesn't sound like you miss anything by running what you've already got. If you've got older apps that won't run in Lion, then for sure keep the old system.

On the other hand if you need your systems to essentially mirror each other then upgrade.

From what you've already mentioned what you run is rather inconsequential.

Rob