Upgrade to OSX Mavericks?

Hello, New Mac user here with what's probably a really stupid question, but I'm not ashamed and am gonna ask away. I have a Macbook Pro. How do I find out what the spec's are for my model. I have been reading forums and have seen that there are different models. I'd like to know what mine is, just so that I know. Also, I know very little about the different versions of OSX. I am on OSX 10.8.5......so that's Mountain Lion, is that right? I see that I have an upgrade available to OSX Mavericks.....Should I go for it? Thanks in advance....please bear with me
David.

If it can run Mountain Lion then it will run mavericks.

Its a free upgrade and brings quite a few benefits, especially better battery and RAM management, as well as a tabbed finder and file tagging.

If any of those sound good then go for it, have a time machine backup in place just in case you want to role back to Mountain Lion, but I doubt it.

To find out details about your MBP, click on the Apple icon in the upper left corner of the screen, then About This Mac and a small box will open with basic details. If you want more, you can then ask for more from there.

Thanks for the info, advice and instructions. I'm not sure what to do? Should I use the time machine feature before I upgrade? Concerning the time machine...I have ANOTHER question. I have a newish external hard drive that I could use for the time machine. At the moment it's got a full back up of my old windows laptop. Will I also be able to use it for time machine or will I need to delete everything from it and re format it for mac? Sorry for all the questions, I'm actually not bad with computers but my knowledge is limited. Mac is a whole new ball game

Yes, you should use Time Machine before upgrading to Mavericks. It's always best to have a backup just in case.

Your hard drive with the Windows backup on it can be used for Time Machine. However, Time Machine will wipe out everything on the drive and reformat it for use with your Mac. So if you need any info on that drive, copy it to another drive first or it will be lost forever.

Thanks for the clarification.

If you haven't done so already, I'd suggest (for either Mountain Lion or Mavericks) having 8GB of RAM or more. Lion, ML and Mavericks all work better in (greater than 4GB) of RAM, and for most users 8GB is either the most their machines can handle (pre-2010 models) or the best value for money for non-power users. It's a very inexpensive upgrade that will definitely make the machine work better, so if you haven't already ...

Thanks Chas.........sorry, I don't quite understand what you're suggesting. In my short time on these forums it's become v clear that you know your stuff so I'm very happy to follow your advice, just not clear on what you're advising....that I buy more RAM? how do I do that?

If you haven't added RAM, yes, that's advised. To see how much you have, click About this Mac in the Apple menu (upper left) and then Hardware and Memory. If you're not comfortable determining which memory chip you need, or installing it yourself, then take it to an authorized Apple repair shop to have it done.

Go here and enter your exact machine and they will tell you what memory you need to buy. And they have videos of how to open your machine, swap the old memory for the new and then reassemble the machine. It's easy to do.

Before you start that process, however, click on the Apple icon in the upper left corner of the screen, then About This Mac and get the information about your Mac. To get the right memory you'll need the model identifier, which is available if you if you get a full system report. It should look like this: " Model Identifier: MacBookPro8,3." What is important is the "8,3" or whatever your machine is. That will be what you need to make sure you have the right memory modules for your specific MBP. If you want to run Mavericks, you are going to want 8GB of memory to have it run efficiently, although it will fit in 4GB.

If you aren't confident with small tools and small parts after watching the videos, then you can always buy the memory from the Apple store and have them install it, but they do charge a lot more for the same thing.

Thanks Jake. I will follow your advice, it all looks straightforward enough It will have to wait a few weeks till I can afford to buy the extra RAM. In the meantime I am going to stay on Mountain Lion and spend some time learning all things Mac, lots more questions to ask! I've just bought a good book on windows to mac too that has some great tutorials so I'll try not to ask things that I can find out for myself. Thanks again.

I agree with Chas, 8 GB is the best price/performance mark. That said, 16GB of Mac certified ram cost about $160 USD plus tax from other sites like Amazon, Newegg and TigerDirect. Just FYI..

If the machine is new, would opening it ourselves invalidate the warranty?

AFAIK, upgrading memory does NOT invalidate the warranty. If anyone knows otherwise, chime in and keep us all straight.

MacInWin said:

AFAIK, upgrading memory does NOT invalidate the warranty. If anyone knows otherwise, chime in and keep us all straight.

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My reason for asking is, I read something about opening a computer under warranty would invalidate it, so I thought I'd ask just in case, though I never heard of it being invalidated just for upgrading memory. Sometimes my fingers type what I think, without thinking it through, that you would not advise it if it did invalidate the machine. I'm really embarrassed.

It wouldn't surprise me if the company says they have to do it. Of course, they get the big bucks.

Quietone said:

My reason for asking is, I read something about opening a computer under warranty would invalidate it, so I thought I'd ask just in case, though I never heard of it being invalidated just for upgrading memory. Sometimes my fingers type what I think, without thinking it through, that you would not advise it if it did invalidate the machine. I'm really embarrassed.

It wouldn't surprise me if the company says they have to do it. Of course, they get the big bucks.

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Don't be embarrassed! You've raised an important question! I hadn't thought of that at all, it's always worth asking questions and that's what forums are for. Thanks everyone for being so helpful

Perfectly valid and sometimes confusing question. There have been times in the past with certain Mac models where changing memory or hard drives on certain Mac models voided the warranty.

I'm having trouble pulling up a specific answer for your machine. The whole thing hinges on whether Apple considers the memory a user serviceable part for your machine. Check the documentation for your Mac If it has directions for how to replace/install the memory then you should be able to do it without voiding the warranty. Of course, if you damage anything in the process that damage is usually not covered.

I'd be afraid of damaging my machine, warranty or not, though occasionally I get adventurous, but only if the instructions are clear and there's some decent illustrations or videos. When I got my first desktop PC, I wanted to learn how to install the battery, modem card, and anything else I needed, though I was afraid to put in an extra HD or disk drive, so I got help with those. During my first times installing, I'd have someone watch over me and give me directions. Now I have no one, so I do my best, know my limitations, and not afraid to ask for help.

The help here is very good.

Quietone said:

I'd be afraid of damaging my machine, warranty or not, though occasionally I get adventurous, but only if the instructions are clear and there's some decent illustrations or videos.

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FWIW...ifixit.com is probably the best Macintosh DIY computer repair website out there. Pretty detailed...and lots of photos.

- Nick

pigoo3 said:

FWIW...ifixit.com is probably the best Macintosh DIY computer repair website out there. Pretty detailed...and lots of photos.

- Nick

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Agreed. If you are more inclined to follow video directions here's a good place to start.