Late 09' Aluminum Mac with OS Sierra?

[SR 7]

I have a Late 09' Aluminum Mac that needs a new HD and was wondering if this MacOS Sierra would work well on this device? I ask because I don't see how I could install El Capitan on it and would have to do the current Mac OS.

Would it 1) be compatible and 2) would it function properly or would it be extremely slow?

 

[BrianBaughn]

Not sure what you mean by "Late 09' Aluminum Mac". Could you be more specific?

 

[SR 7]

That is what it is labeled as if I recall correctly because the 09' also had the white laptops? something like that.

 

[BrettApple]

Well, though the process of deduction if it truly is a Late 2009 model and aluminum, it must be an iMac. The only Late 2009 model compatible with Sierra is the iMac, as the Late 2009 MacBook is a white polycarbonate model.

So yes it should work, and it'll run about like a 8 year old Mac can, though if you put in an SSD instead of a hard drive it will be vastly quicker.

Also, just to make sure it isn't a "Mid 2009" model like the MacBook Pro

 

[SR 7]

You know what, you are right so this might be a late 08' unibody MacBook then.

 

[BrianBaughn]

Same one I have. El Capitan is the last officially supported macOS version on that. You can try a later version with the workarounds that are described in these forums. I tried Sierra...it ran but I didn't like the results so I went back to EC.

You can put 8GB of RAM in there and I recommend it. That...and the cheapest decent SSD (the SATA bus is a lowly 1.5GB/s) makes it a pretty usable machine.

Full screen browser video was terrible for me until I discovered the Maxthon browser. Runs video in full screen with very little issues and the fans don't go nuts like they do when I use any of the other browsers.

You're going to have to make a USB installer on another Mac if that one's hard drive isn't working or is missing. The official route is to buy a Snow Leopard DVD and upgrade from there but you don't even know if the DVD drive is working. So a USB installer is the way to go. The only other thing I can think that might be an issue is the USB installer could possibly not see a new SSD in there...that happens sometimes but I don't know if it's an issue particular to that model.

 

[SR 7]

Same one I have. El Capitan is the last officially supported macOS version on that. You can try a later version with the workarounds that are described in these forums. I tried Sierra...it ran but I didn't like the results so I went back to EC.

You can put 8GB of RAM in there and I recommend it. That...and the cheapest decent SSD (the SATA bus is a lowly 1.5GB/s) makes it a pretty usable machine.

Full screen browser video was terrible for me until I discovered the Maxthon browser. Runs video in full screen with very little issues and the fans don't go nuts like they do when I use any of the other browsers.

You're going to have to make a USB installer on another Mac if that one's hard drive isn't working or is missing. The official route is to buy a Snow Leopard DVD and upgrade from there but you don't even know if the DVD drive is working. So a USB installer is the way to go. The only other thing I can think that might be an issue is the USB installer could possibly not see a new SSD in there...that happens sometimes but I don't know if it's an issue particular to that model.

I went with a SATA, it is 7200 with 6GB/s which isn't too bad. I dont want to get an SSD on something that is a secondary system. Just for minor usage.

I tried to download el capitan to put it on a USB but it said I have a new system so it won't allow me to even download the file from the App store.

If i recall correctly I had upgraded the ram to 6GB or maybe 5GB years ago.

So would MacOS Sierra work just to get this going if there isn't a way to get El Capitan or something else onto a USB thumb drive?