Best osx version for a mid 2010 unibody a1342 macbook?

[matthewolsen]

Hello,


I am just wondering if anyone has any experience and/or suggestions regarding upgrading osx on a mid 2010 13 inch unibody a1342 7,1 macbook? I have been and currently am using 10.9.5 maverick without any issues. Although, besides the fact that a lot of new apps require 10.10 or 10.11 or above, I am worried about whether or not upgrading will affect the speed of my macbook.

I upgraded to 8gb RAM , still temporarily have the original HDD, and am wondering if anyone could suggest which version may be best for this macbook? Im considering either upgrading my HDD to a SsD, or adding a ssd in place of my cd drive soon.

My overall question is what has been the best version of osx for this,or any similarly older, macbook in terms of stability, speed, and updates??

Thanks for any/all input.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Your machine is capable of being upgraded macOS 10.13 High Sierra. You should AT LEAST upgrade to 10.10 Yosemite or 10.11 El Cap to make sure that you are continue to use recent apps. With your 8GB of memory and an upgrade to a SSD from your HDD, you should be fine running High Sierra and get a few more years of use out of it. Understand that High Sierra is the last version of the OS your machine will support. macOS 10.14 Mojave requires Macs post 2012.

 

[pigoo3]

I have a 2011 MacBook Air with only 4gig of RAM...and it seems to be performing fine with High Sierra (macOS 10.13). So I also vote for installing the latest & greatest your MacBook will support.

- Nick

 

[harryb2448]

Suggest replacing HD with SSD as High Sierra is the last operating system the MB will be able to run. HS is designed to work best on an SSD.

 

[matthewolsen]

Can I ask which upgrade you guys think would be best......
option 1) add a ssd using an adapter that allows me to put it in place of my cd drive while keeping my original hdd to work with it
option 2) getting a higher gb ssd and replace the original hdd

Ive gotten mixed results while trying to figure out if theres a difference in speed and stability or if it really doesnt matter. I know its cheaper to get a 150-250gb ssd sata 2.0 and adding it than it is to get a 500gb to 1tb ssd sata 2.0 and just flat out replace the hard drive. Basically, Im very limited on funds and am planning on getting a new battery, new dc in board, a new bottom(the rubber is separating ) , and a new trackpad. So Im trying to save money, although, I do want to do the best possible upgrades that i can. Im unemployed due to health issues . Although I just got hired and once I have steady income, plan on doing some much better upgrades or trade in or sell my macbook to upgrade to a more current model.

Thanks in advance for any input.

 

[ferrarr]

Put the SSD in the slot where the HDD is. Then move the HDD into the optical drive bay. That would give you the best speed increase.

I did that on my Late 2011 MBP and it worked great.

 

[nickyr]

+1 for swapping out the HDD with an SSD. And while you're at it and you've opened up your Mac, increase the RAM as well.

My updated 2010 MB Unibody is running HS with no problem.