Upgrading OS X on A1260 15" MacBook Pro

[tkmcguire1]

I bought for my daughter for college a MacBook Pro A1260 it is running with the 2.5ghz c2duo,2gb ram and a 250gb hd on snow leopard. I wanted to get a newer model,she had a new retina MacBook but it was stolen,but with the holidays it was all I could afford.She hardly uses a laptop anyways,she mainly uses her iPad Air 2,but she does occasionally need a laptop.
It says that it should be able to run El Capitan according to compatibility list but I don't want to bog it down. My question is which OSX should I upgrade to to still have it running fast and smoothly? I.e. ...Lion,Mavericks,Yosemite or El Capitan ?

 

[pigoo3]

Here's the deal.

- OS 10.7 Lion is newer than Snow Leopard…but is still pretty old (and is a $19 download).
- Unless you downloaded Mavericks (10.9) and/or Yosemite (10.10) when they were available…then these aren't options since they are no longer available to "1st Timers".
- Then there's the newest OS El Capitan (10.11).

So I would say your two choices are Mountain Lion (10.8) for $19…or El Capitan 10.11 for free. Unless of course you can download Mavericks or Yosemite.

FYI…most folks feel that El Capitan is a refinement of Yosemite. So installing El Capitan might be like installing a "better" Yosemite.

- Nick

p.s. With 2gig of ram…this MacBook Pro should be upgraded to at least 4gig of ram (max. is 6gig).

 

[MacInWin]

Welcome to the forum!

That's a pretty old machine if I got it right. Early 2008, so it's now getting to 8 years old. You may not have much choice. You can get Lion here. Apple has pulled all the others but El Capitan from the App store, so unless you (or she) have already downloaded Mavericks or Yosemite, all that is now available is El Capitan.

If you or she DID download one of the others, it will be under your/her account as "purchased" and you can get it again.

2GB of RAM is not enough for El Cap to run well. OWC (www.macsales.com) says that that model can handle up to 8GB of memory. You'll need at least 4 to run El Cap well, all 6 would be much better.

 

[MacInWin]

Dang, while I was researching Lion availability, Nick beat me to it. I HAVE to learn to type faster.

 

[tkmcguire1]

Welcome to the forum!

That's a pretty old machine if I got it right. Early 2008, so it's now getting to 8 years old. You may not have much choice. You can get Lion here. Apple has pulled all the others but El Capitan from the App store, so unless you (or she) have already downloaded Mavericks or Yosemite, all that is now available is El Capitan.

If you or she DID download one of the others, it will be under your/her account as "purchased" and you can get it again.

2GB of RAM is not enough for El Cap to run well. OWC (www.macsales.com) says that that model can handle up to 8GB of memory. You'll need at least 4 to run El Cap well, all 6 would be much better.

Yea she had a 2015 rmacbook,but it was stolen,and I just got an iPad pro myself,so this will have to do till after the holidays,then I'll grab her at least an 2011 or 12 model. I think I downloaded Yosemite on one of my macs before so it might be saved,and Mavericks ,will it run Mavericks or Yosemite with 2gb or should I stick with lion? Also does lion support Apple Music as that is important to her.

 

[chas_m]

Sounds to me like you're looking at a RAM upgrade for that machine ASAP. Apple Music isn't supported on anything less than Yosemite IIRC, and even Lion will struggle with 2GB of RAM, you need to max it out. If you're going to replace that machine very shortly, then don't worry about further upgrades, but otherwise I would replace the HD with an SSD to get tolerable performance for someone used to a modern Mac notebook.

Overall, I would not have recommended such an old machine, but as you said you're likely to turn it around quickly. Have you checked with your insurance company about the stolen Retina MacBook? You might be able to recover the purchase price for that.

 

[tkmcguire1]

I have a question,for $100 more I could resell that and get a 2010 white unibody MacBook ,would that be a better computer for now?nfound one in great condition with 2.40ghz c2duo and 4gb ram already with El Capitan running on it for $350, I paid $250 for the 2008 pro.

 

[chas_m]

No. A MacBook (other than the 2015 version) is a lesser computer than a MacBook Pro, even with the age difference.