Macbook Pro early 2008 Mountain Lion

How'd it go?

I have the 15-inch version (macbook pro 4,1) from the same era and have been looking for some feedback on how it performs on these machines. I had a bit of trouble with Lion when I first installed it, slow peformance, etc., so I'm a little wary of this update.

Your model is Early 2008, only Late 2008 and above are supported, sorry.

We're talking Macbook Pros here, not Macbooks. For MB Pros it says mid/late 2007 and newer.

I have the 15" early 2008 Macbook Pro and have wondered about performance-- will it slow everything down like what happens on iOS devices. Look forward to hearing how it goes for you.

I've installed ML on my 15" early 2008 MacBook Pro and can report a seamless installation and absolutely no problems. I like Mountain Lion, it's definitely worth upgrading, especially for the minimal outlay. In my opinion, it's worth it for the improvements to Calendar and Contacts alone; they still look tacky but at least their functionality has been largely restored. The only software which needed updating was Vodafone Connect (the old kext was presumably only 32 bit) but the latest version works perfectly. Battery life is still good, the BootCamp partition was unaffected. All in all, a model upgrade.

Late 2007 MBP 17" with 4Go of RAM.

I had performed a clean install of ML; performances are similars to Lion or at least, I didn't feel any significant difference. Only missing AirPlay mirorring feature but the upgrade worth it with only exception of the RSS disparition in Safari. 🙂

Man, that's a bummer about AirPlay. That was the main thing I was excited about. Didn't know it was limited to new machines.

All the same, glad to hear that it's working well.

I am assuming with the comments on the 2007 upgrade that the Macbook Pro you were using is all stock parts with max ram and the 5400rpm hard drive? My macbook pro is all stock and was hoping to get an apples to apples comparison on MLion.

I am currently running Lion and it runs fine. I do miss Snow Leopard and snow seemed to run a bit snapper.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Mike

Snow leopard is quicker on old machines... this is inevitable as they were build in accordance with the power and CPU demand for SL. If you do not need any of the new features they you can backup your computer using time machine and they use your SL install disk.

insert disk and reboot

hold down alt key

select the SL disk with the right arrow key

follow instructions (make sure you select restore from time machine)

I am running SL now but will be upgrading to mountain lion just for features such as airdrop and a slicer safari.

(Mac Book Pro 2008 4GB Intel Core 2 Duo - currently blazing on SL)

I have an early 2008 15" MBP - 2.4GHz, 4Gb RAM, upgraded to 500Gb 7200rpm HD. I tried using Mountain Lion on it for a few weeks and I've gone back to Snow Leopard. Snow Leopard seems faster on my machine, with much smoother animations and better responsiveness to keyboard / mouse click inputs. Snow Leopard also has RSS.

Only bummer about Snow Leopard is that it's not iCloud or SkyDrive compatible, and I can't update Aperture 3 on it.

One change from my previous posts, I upgraded my Memory to 6 gigs of ram and Mountain Lion seems to be running very well. Snow Leopard is drifting off in my memory.

I plan on getting a solid state drive to replace my 5400rpm drive and I am sure that will make my machine even better.

The features of lion are pretty good and I have grown to rely on them.

Sorry to resurrect but I'm on Lion 10.7.5 with my late 08 MacBook Pro (2.4 Ghz). I upgraded to a SSD (Samsung 830 Series) which I understand is closest to the Apple shipped model and 8 Gb Crucial RAM.

Lion flies - much snappier than SL and I've so far, had no issues with battery distortion, beechballs or anything. The SSD and the RAM have essentially given the old thing a new lease of life and therefore, I have no plans to upgrade it at this point.

Mountain Lion, for my Late '08, remains out of bounds until the reviews improve on the App Store!

Did you do the install of the SSD yourself?

Where did you buy it and how big did you go?

I am still liking MT Lion although I do notice it running a big warmer which is kind of nice in the winter.