Snow Leopard or Lion for 2007 MacBook?

[appleguy123]

I recently bought a 2007 MacBook 2.16 ghz from Craigslist for $300(is this a good deal?). I plan to upgrade the computer to have 2gb of ram. It is running 10.4(Tiger) right now. We have iPhone 4s so it needs to used with Snow Leopard or Lion.

Which operating system would you use? Would Lion be prohibitively slow?

 

[alust2013]

Lion would work fine, but you will have to upgrade through snow leopard anyhow. Also, go ahead and put 4GB in, rather than 2GB. It will accept 4GB and recognize around 3GB, which will be beneficial if you want to run Lion. I'd say you got a pretty good deal at $300

 

[appleguy123]

Lion would work fine, but you will have to upgrade through snow leopard anyhow. Also, go ahead and put 4GB in, rather than 2GB. It will accept 4GB and recognize around 3GB, which will be beneficial if you want to run Lion. I'd say you got a pretty good deal at $300

I didn't know that it could accept 4gb. Will it accept my 1066mhz ram from my MacBook Pro? I know it won't run at native speed, but it should work, right?

I ask because I already ordered 2gb from Amazon, but if it will recognize 4 I can upgrade the ram in my MBP and use the old ram in it.

 

[alust2013]

I didn't know that it could accept 4gb. Will it accept my 1066mhz ram from my MacBook Pro? I know it won't run at native speed, but it should work, right?

I ask because I already ordered 2gb from Amazon, but if it will recognize 4 I can upgrade the ram in my MBP and use the old ram in it.

That won't work unfortunately, as the 2007 uses DDR2, while the 1066 is DDR3, and they are physically incompatible. I would say if you're going to stick with the 2GB, Snow Leopard would probably be better, but if you decide to do the 4ish GB route, Lion would likely perform better.

 

[appleguy123]

That won't work unfortunately, as the 2007 uses DDR2, while the 1066 is DDR3, and they are physically incompatible. I would say if you're going to stick with the 2GB, Snow Leopard would probably be better, but if you decide to do the 4ish GB route, Lion would likely perform better.

My dad won't use the computer for anything serious, just to sync his iPhone and edit video. Would Snow Leopard perform better?

Also, I have the Lion DMG on a Flash Drive. Do I really need to upgrade to Snow Leopard first, or can I just boot from the flash drive?

 

[alust2013]

My dad won't use the computer for anything serious, just to sync his iPhone and edit video. Would Snow Leopard perform better?

Also, I have the Lion DMG on a Flash Drive. Do I really need to upgrade to Snow Leopard first, or can I just boot from the flash drive?

At the moment, SL would perform better, but as time goes on, Lion should be better about managing resources. Either way, I don't think Lion would be slow on that computer, it's got about the same resources as a 2010 13" Air, so it should be fine.

 

[tom vilsack]

-lion will boot.
-go for 4g ram.
-$300...you did very good.

 

[mcdonap]

I have the exact same MacBook.
As has been suggested, I have the 4GB of RAM. Get a matched pair - the system will only recognize about 3, but you'll get a slight speed boost with 4.
I am currently running Lion with no issues at all. I haven't done any benchmarks, but it feels faster than Snow Leopard. That said, I do also have an SSD, so YMMV with a regular HD.

$300 sounds like a great deal.