MacBook – Reviving white macbook (Early 2009)

macbook properformance

I'm trying to revive my old college laptop which is a white macbook from early 2009. I pasted the hardware a software specs below. The last thing that I did with it was update it to Mountain Lion, which turned out to be somewhat of a mistake because it is now painfully slow (which is why I haven't touched it in a while). I'm looking for suggestions for how to bring it back up to speed.

Here's what I have in mind:

  1. Update the RAM. 4Gb at least and 6Gb if possible
  2. General cleaning. I'm considering CleanMyMac 2, but I'm not sure if the gains I get from it will be worth the $40.
  3. Lastly, I'm considering upgrading to an SSD.

Thanks in advance,

Hardware:

Model Name: MacBook
Model Identifier: MacBook5,2
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version: MB52.0088.B05
SMC Version (system): 1.38f5
Serial Number (system): W89064CJ4R1
Hardware UUID: F898BAE6-8231-55EE-9CE8-604194507E5A
Sudden Motion Sensor:
State: Enabled

Software:
System Version: Mac OS X 10.7.5 (11G63b)
Kernel Version: Darwin 11.4.2

Best Answer

If you really want to make your old mac happy I would say the best thing is the SSD. It will make it feel faster than it was out of the box and that is because it is. A RAM upgrade isn't really necessary and I would suggest investing that money over into a new battery. If the unit hasn't been used in a good long while chances are your battery will be dead or inches away from death.

A new battery (directly from Apple) will be guarantied for a year and will give you a notebook to take with you (using an SSD instead of a HDD also gives you a few extra minutes in battery life.

CleanMyMac is not recommended! Instead install a new OS on the SSD and then using an external enclosure transfer the data via Migration Assistant. But always make sure you have a backup of your files.

Honestly I am more of a fan of keeping things fresh and installing 3PP programs fresh too and manually dragging over your documents, pictures, music, etc.

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