Upgrade or Not?

[HIMAN1998]

I'm buying my dad this (http://www.macofalltrades.com/Apple-MacBook-13-inch-2-1GHz-Early-2008-p/mb-13-21-e08w.htm) MacBook for Christmas. No upgrades from the site. It comes with Snow Leopard, a 2.1GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM, and a 120GB hard drive. Should I put more RAM in there for Snow Leopard? I don't have the money for an SSD, and I'm keeping Snow Leopard on there. All he does is go on Facebook and Risk online, no extra stuff that requires significant power. I will put programs that he might need, like Office/iWork.

 

[WildCard^]

10.6.8 is great, i have the same machine but late 2007 with only 1GB ram. He will like the gift.

 

[HIMAN1998]

Would there be any advantage to upgrading to 10.7 (Lion)? I've only dealt with 10.2, 10.5, 10.8, and 10.9

 

[trevm999]

I would leave it. Just make sure he knows to shut it down completely every once in a while. If he wants it a bit faster, upgrade his RAM for his birthday present or something.

It would be slower on Lion. The main benefit is that you can use some iCloud features

And you can install the server app

But most software still supports 10.6

 

[WildCard^]

Agree with Trev. Many post here saying 10.7 slows things down with iCloud being the only major advance.

2GB compatible RAM chips run appx $20/ea on eBay currently. Just ordered two for my 2007 and a SSD to take advantage of some speed gains.

 

[HIMAN1998]

I'll probably do the RAM later. He doesn't use much but Chrome really, so it will be fine.

 

[brdeveloper]

I'll probably do the RAM later. He doesn't use much but Chrome really, so it will be fine.

If you're planning building a Mac "netbook" to your father, think about installing a small ssd (e.g. 64GB) and Mavericks. On my late-2009 Macbook it really saves energy and increased battery life. More RAM is nice, but I think a SSD will provide a more perceptible performance improvement. Of course, with such a small capacity, it will look essentially like a ChromeBook, but in the future it will be pretty upgradeable with a bigger SSD and RAM.

 

[HIMAN1998]

If you're planning building a Mac "netbook" to your father, think about installing a small ssd (e.g. 64GB) and Mavericks. On my late-2009 Macbook it really saves energy and increased battery life. More RAM is nice, but I think a SSD will provide a more perceptible performance improvement. Of course, with such a small capacity, it will look essentially like a ChromeBook, but in the future it will be pretty upgradeable with a bigger SSD and RAM.

The model I'm getting is an early 2008, and can't run Mavericks. He doesn't do enough to justify spending the extra money on an SSD, if I buy an SSD, it will be for my laptop before my parents since I'm more of a power user. Facebook games don't require much RAM, so 4GB will definitely be enough.