Upgrading older Macbook

[SevenCities-PPK]

Have myself a Macbook5,2 (Early '09); C2D 2GHz, 4GB RAM (2*2) and an upgraded 80GB Intel SSD.

Works for what it is, not a main machine, but it's a Mac. Wondering if it's worth it to buy a 6GB kit (4GB +2GB) from OWC (or similar, from eBay, etc), or just track down a 4GB DDR2 SO-DIMM? Not 100% sure either way, but I have seen that it can take 6GB of RAM. So if I will see a difference is up in the air, does anyone have experience with this particular vintage and this particular upgrade?

For what it's worth, it's as up-to-date as Apple allows it; El Capitan 10.11.6 as of right now. Have it on Sierra (10.12) for a while, but the brightness was always at max. Thinking about trying it with High Sierra for a bit, maybe the brightness thing has been tweaked or fixed otherwise?

Thanks for any insight!

 

[gooser]

if you say it works for what is why mess with it? i have a similar model and i see no need to upgrade. and i'll probably keep it as long as the dvd drive works. these were and still are very good machines. i'm still running 10.6 on mine so that i can run some older and less bloated software. you've already made the necessary upgrades.

 

[SevenCities-PPK]

Well I ask because I remember when Macs were PowerPC (G4/G5) the more RAM you had the better off you were for most tasks. Not sure if that's still true to basically max out RAM on any Mac or not.

 

[Kierikka]

What software are you runnng on the computer?

As gooser say you have made the necessary upgrades. If you only use it for simple tasks like surfing and some simple writing I would not upgrade. The computer is old and I would only do that upgrade if it cost max $10-$15 or even better buy a new battery instead if you have a bad one.

 

[Project Alice]

There are reports that the 5,2 MacBook will support and use 8GB of ram. The 5,2 is not a very popular model so people seem to forget about it.
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ooks-early-or-mid-2009.2089350/#post-25635539

I would upgrade the ram. I have a mid 2009 (2.13ghz) with only 4gb in it right now running High Sierra 10.13.2. Now this computer runs like a dream and is a great web browser, but 4gb is a bare minimum for even just web browsing today. With only one or two safari tabs my ram usage is 70-90%. The more ram the better.
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For what it's worth, it's as up-to-date as Apple allows it; El Capitan 10.11.6 as of right now. Have it on Sierra (10.12) for a while, but the brightness was always at max. Thinking about trying it with High Sierra for a bit, maybe the brightness thing has been tweaked or fixed otherwise?

The High Sierra patcher now includes a fix for the brightness. Brightness works like normal after you install the patch. You have to reinstall the patch after every OS update.

 

[EugW]

4 GB is the minimum, but 8 GB definitely works better if you multitask. This is especially true with a hard drive of course, but even if you have an SSD, 8 GB can help. When I had 4 GB (with 128 GB SSD) in my MacBook5,1 with 10.13 High Sierra, there were occasional pauses with extended usage, but that has basically disappeared with 8 GB RAM.

In your case I'd stick with 6 GB if you want to upgrade, given that some people claim 8 GB can cause problems. However, truth be told, 4 GB is fine for it for very light usage as a secondary machine. My MacBook5,1 is a kitchen machine so really, 4 GB is mostly fine for that too. It depends upon how you want to use it, but the time I noticed the slowdowns was when I was running multiple tabs with Safari and Chrome and running MS Office at the same time. No, this isn't exactly heavy usage, but it's not extremely light usage either. If you're just running 2-3 tabs with a single browser and not much else, 4 GB is OK.

As for Sierra or High Sierra, there are some other issues with that machine apparently including some WiFi modules not working, and the trackpad being seen as a mouse. But you could always try it and if you run into significant problems, just reinstall 10.11 El Capitan on it. I assume you had WiFi support on Sierra, correct? If so, then presumably you would have WiFi support on High Sierra as well. It's just that some MacBook5,2 units shipped with incompatible WiFi modules.

My 2008 MacBook5,1 and 2009 MacBookPro5,5 work fine though with High Sierra. Both are 8 GB with SSD. The main reason I upgraded the second machine was because I intend on giving these to my kids eventually, and because I found a super cheap deal on RAM. If you can believe it, Amazon.ca was selling 4 GB Transcend RAM modules for CAD$22.50 each, or about US$17.50.

Still, it would be easy for you to upgrade to 6 GB. If you can find properly spec'd RAM that matches your existing RAM, you can keep one of your existing 2 GB modules and add in a 4 GB module.

EDIT:

Scratch that. Stick with 4 GB. My machines use DDR3, including my MacBook5,1, and that RAM is reasonably priced. Unfortunately, despite being newer, your MacBook5,2 uses DDR2, which is a problem. 4 GB modules are insanely expensive. I just checked Amazon.com and Newegg.com in the US and a single 4 GB PC2-5300 667 MHz module costs as much as two to three 4 GB PC3-8500 1067 MHz modules, and much much more than what I paid for them on sale (US$35 for 8 GB). A single 4 GB PC2-5300 667 name brand module goes for $80+, and noname brand modules are still $65+. Ouch.