macOS Sierra on MacBook 5,1 (Late 2008)

[joshfairweather]

#1
Hi guys

After a bit of help! I've got a 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD (soon to be upgraded to 8GB ram and a ~500GB SSD) MacBook 5,1 2.0Ghz, model A1278 Late 2008. These upgrades will be taking place when I have the spare cash, with the RAM upgrade coming first and the SSD probably in the new year.

I want to upgrade to Sierra using the Sierra patch tool - I'm just wondering if anybody else on these forums has the same laptop and has upgraded to Sierra? Did you/do you encounter any troubles with it being unstable or things stopping working etc, or with this laptop and those specs am I G2G??


Would appreciate some quick replies as I'm looking to do patch the upgrade on Sunday afternoon!!



Thanks in advance

 

[EugW]

With SSD and 8 GB RAM, Maybe you should upgrade to High Sierra not Sierra, assuming there are no reported glitches on HS. Runs fine on MacBookPro5,5. Yes it’s slow but it was also slow on El Capitan. I don’t notice much difference between El Capitan and High Sierra for OS navigation speed, at least with SSD plus 8 GB.

 

[joshfairweather]

With SSD and 8 GB RAM, Maybe you should upgrade to High Sierra not Sierra, assuming there are no reported glitches on HS. Runs fine on MacBookPro5,5. Yes it’s slow but it was also slow on El Capitan. I don’t notice much difference between El Capitan and High Sierra for OS navigation speed, at least with SSD plus 8 GB.

And how about for now? Before I do the upgrades? 4GB RAM and 500GB hard drive? Thinking of doing it tomorrow afternoon..

 

[EugW]

And how about for now? Before I do the upgrades? 4GB RAM and 500GB hard drive? Thinking of doing it tomorrow afternoon..

I haven’t had a hard drive for many years in my 2009 MacBook Pro, so I can’t give you a proper assessment on that. My impression though even way back 5 years ago or whatever with Lion, 4GB RAM and HD, it was unacceptably slow.

High Sierra + 8 GB RAM + SSD is much faster than Lion + 4 GB RAM + HD.

However, I can also say that High Sierra + 4 GB RAM + SSD is OK for light usage.

 

[joshfairweather]

I haven’t had a hard drive for many years in my 2009 MacBook Pro. My impression though even way back 6 years ago or whatever with Lion, 4GB RAM and HD, it was unacceptably slow.

High Sierra + 8 GB RAM + SSD is much faster than Lion + 4 GB RAM + HD.

I do currently run El Capitan and I find it to be very quick.. Maybe not lightning fast like the newer Books but Safari and other apps launch in 2-4 seconds.. Have used it for photoshop etc in the past with no issues, never any video editing software though. If I perform the Sierra patch upgrade and it IS slow, can I download a version of El Capitan and revert back? Or can you not downgrade software versions like with iPhones?

 

[EugW]

I do currently run El Capitan and I find it to be very quick.. Maybe not lightning fast like the newer Books but Safari and other apps launch in 2-4 seconds.. Have used it for photoshop etc in the past with no issues, never any video editing software though. If I perform the Sierra patch upgrade and it IS slow, can I download a version of El Capitan and revert back? Or can you not downgrade software versions like with iPhones?

You can downgrade easily. Just make sure you have a couple of bootable backups. Trust me though... you want to upgrade to SSD asap. A laptop hard drive in my 2009 MacBook Pro makes me want to tear my hair out. If you upgrade to SSD, it will feel like a brand new machine.

In any case I would suggest you post in the Sierra unsupported Macs thread and the High Sierra unsupported Macs thread and I'd still recommend High Sierra over Sierra if your hardware is compatible (and I believe it is). The guy who makes the High Sierra patcher is the same guy who did the Sierra patcher, and the High Sierra Gold Master is now out. It is likely effectively the final version that will be released on Sept. 25, or else very close.

This message was typed from High Sierra on a 2009 MacBook Pro.

 

[joshfairweather]

You can downgrade easily. Just make sure you have a couple of bootable backups. Trust me though... you want to upgrade to SSD asap. A laptop hard drive in my 2009 MacBook Pro makes me want to tear my hair out. If you upgrade to SSD, it will feel like a brand new machine.

In any case I would suggest you post in the Sierra unsupported Macs thread and the High Sierra unsupported Macs thread and I'd still recommend High Sierra over Sierra if your hardware is compatible (and I believe it is). The guy who makes the High Sierra patcher is the same guy who did the Sierra patcher, and the High Sierra Gold Master is now out. It is likely the final version that will be released on Sept. 25, or else very close.

Brilliant thank you. Bootable backup using super duper or something similar? Im new to the forums I didn't know there was an unsupported thread so I'll head there.. Would you recommend upgrading to SSD and keeping 4gb RAM over upgrading to 8gb RAM and keeping the hard drive? The RAM upgrade is only about £40-60 whereas a large enough SSD is £140+

 

[EugW]

Brilliant thank you. Bootable backup using super duper or something similar? Im new to the forums I didn't know there was an unsupported thread so I'll head there.. Would you recommend upgrading to SSD and keeping 4gb RAM over upgrading to 8gb RAM and keeping the hard drive? The RAM upgrade is only about £40-60 whereas a large enough SSD is £140+

Given those prices, I'd recommend both at the same time. However, yes, SSD with 4 GB is better than HD with 8 GB for most people.

Just be careful with the HD replacement since the cable can be a bit delicate. Overall it should be an easy upgrade though.

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Unibody+Model+A1278+Hard+Drive+Replacement/816

Probably the easiest way to do this is just to use SuperDuper! to clone your existing drive directly to the SSD (in a SATA dock or something), and then after making sure the SSD is bootable, just replace the drive.

Note though there may need to be an EFI update to get maximum speed. Not sure though for your model.

https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT201518

 

[joshfairweather]

Awesome thank you for all your help - I know who to come to if I get stuck!!