Upgrade recommended??

Only if you have a need to do so. Upgrading will involve possible updating of third-party software, and will prevent the continued use of old PPC software. Apple will no longer provide security support for Snow Leopard. This may influence your decision.

Upgrading from Snow Leopard to Lion or Mavericks

To upgrade to Mavericks you must have Snow Leopard 10.6.8, Lion, or Mountain Lion installed. Purchase and download Mavericks (Free) from the App Store. Sign in using your Apple ID. The file is quite large, over 5 GBs, so allow some time to download. It would be preferable to use Ethernet because it is nearly four times faster than wireless.

OS X Mavericks- System Requirements

Macs that can be upgraded to OS X Mavericks

1. iMac (Mid 2007 or newer) — Model Identifier 7,1 or later

2. MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer) —

Model Identifier 5,1 or later

3. MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer) — Model Identifier 3,1 or later

4. MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer) — Model Identifier 2,1 or later

5. Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer) — Model Identifier 3,1 or later

6. Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer) — Model Identifier 3,1 or later

7. Xserve (Early 2009) — Model Identifier 3,1 or later

To find the model identifier open System Profiler in the Utilities folder. It's displayed in the panel on the right.

Are my applications compatible?

See App Compatibility Table — RoaringApps.

Upgrading to Lion

If your computer does not meet the requirements to install Mavericks, it may still meet the requirements to install Lion.

You can purchase Lion at the Online Apple Store. The cost is $19.99 (as it was before) plus tax. It's a download. You will get an email containing a redemption code that you then use at the Mac App Store to download Lion. Save a copy of that installer to your Downloads folder because the installer deletes itself at the end of the installation.

Lion System Requirements

1. Mac computer with an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7,

or Xeon processor

2. 2GB of memory

3. OS X v10.6.6 or later (v10.6.8 recommended)

4. 7GB of available space

5. Some features require an Apple ID; terms apply.

Not sure what you mean by "worth upgrading". For some people it is, and for others it is not.

You should be aware that once you install OS 10.7 or higher, power pc apps will just not run. In other words you may find that some of your favourite apps just don't work. So one of the considerations you should make - that will influence the "worth it?" calculation - is the cost of upgrading any apps that you will need to use, that will not work in the newer OS.

This site has info about OS compatibility of various apps.

http://roaringapps.com

Office 2011 for OS X will run on Snow Leopard and later.