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Using Mavericks with late 2009 MacBook

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Brittw1

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 21, 2014
25
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I recently purchased 8Gb of RAM (upgrading from 2Gb) for my late 2009 MacBook. And was wondering from your experience if i will be able to run Mavericks smoothly with it. I currently am running OSX Lion. I know buying a SSD would probably make it ideal for mavericks but i was going to see if i could avoid that.

Thanks
 
Brittw1 said:
I recently purchased 8Gb of RAM (upgrading from 2Gb) for my late 2009 MacBook. And was wondering from your experience if i will be able to run Mavericks smoothly with it. I currently am running OSX Lion. I know buying a SSD would probably make it ideal for mavericks but i was going to see if i could avoid that.



Thanks
Click to expand...


It will run a little bit better than Lion from my experience. Adding an SSD will make it a new machine.
 
Mavericks and an SSD would be a great experience on it. And what better way to install mavericks than a fresh install onto an SSD?
 
Brittw1 said:
I recently purchased 8Gb of RAM (upgrading from 2Gb) for my late 2009 MacBook. And was wondering from your experience if i will be able to run Mavericks smoothly with it. I currently am running OSX Lion. I know buying a SSD would probably make it ideal for mavericks but i was going to see if i could avoid that.

Thanks
Click to expand...

You do not need an SSD to have a good experience on that machine with Mavs. I installed Mavs on my daughter's 2008 Macbook with 4GB and a hard drive and it was very smooth and worked just fine.
 
Thanks for the quick reply. I think i may consider an SSD now. The samsung evo seems really reasonably priced. What are the best ways to transfer the data from the HD to the SSD if i don't want to clone it?
 
Brittw1 said:
Thanks for the quick reply. I think i may consider an SSD now. The samsung evo seems really reasonably priced. What are the best ways to transfer the data from the HD to the SSD if i don't want to clone it?
Click to expand...

Just DL Mavs now from the App Store and quit the installer when it launches. Then use this utility along with an 8GB USB key to make an Mavs installer. Then option key boot to the USB key and you will get this screen.

Xm7rMyl.png


From there launch Disk Utility and in the erase tab erase the new SSD to Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Then quit Disk Util and click install OS X and wait for install to finish.

Once that is done setup your account on the new machine and go to the Startup Disk pane in System Prefs and select the new SSD as the boot drive.

Now manually resinstall all your apps then manually move all your data over from a backup drive.

This will give you a clean install of Mavs.

That said, if you are not having trouble with your current install, this is a lot of work for very little if any benefit. I would install Mavs now then clone the old disk to the new and be done with it.
 
Weaselboy said:
Just DL Mavs now from the App Store and quit the installer when it launches. Then use this utility along with an 8GB USB key to make an Mavs installer. Then option key boot to the USB key and you will get this screen.

Xm7rMyl.png


From there launch Disk Utility and in the erase tab erase the new SSD to Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Then quit Disk Util and click install OS X and wait for install to finish.

Once that is done setup your account on the new machine and go to the Startup Disk pane in System Prefs and select the new SSD as the boot drive.

Now manually resinstall all your apps then manually move all your data over from a backup drive.

This will give you a clean install of Mavs.

That said, if you are not having trouble with your current install, this is a lot of work for very little if any benefit. I would install Mavs now then clone the old disk to the new and be done with it.
Click to expand...


I broke down and bought an SSD. Thanks for the info ill probably just clone it to make it easier.
 
Brittw1 said:
Do any of you run TRIM with yours? Is it necessary to do so?
Click to expand...

I don't use TRIM. If OWC doesn't suggest TRIM on their Sandforce SSD (classically the most buggy ones) it's probably not needed on a Samsung EVO. You could expect something like a 5-10% speed improvement at the cost of CPU usage for managing TRIM.
 
Altemose said:
I run Trim Enabler to enable TRIM support. Is it necessary is up for debate! I believe the Samsungs should have it on.
Click to expand...

brdeveloper said:
I don't use TRIM. If OWC doesn't suggest TRIM on their Sandforce SSD (classically the most buggy ones) it's probably not needed on a Samsung EVO. You could expect something like a 5-10% speed improvement at the cost of CPU usage for managing TRIM.
Click to expand...

Okay thanks for the input! I will probably use TRIM Enabler to be save.
 
Brittw1 said:
I recently purchased 8Gb of RAM (upgrading from 2Gb) for my late 2009 MacBook. And was wondering from your experience if i will be able to run Mavericks smoothly with it. I currently am running OSX Lion. I know buying a SSD would probably make it ideal for mavericks but i was going to see if i could avoid that.

Thanks
Click to expand...

I just bought a late 2009 which was running Mavs already with only 2gb. (I have already ordered 8gb for upgrade) but it runs okay with just the 2gb as long as you aren't going anything crazy
 
Just installed the SSD and 8gb of RAM. Its like a whole new machine. Application launch instantly. Thanks for all the help!
 
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