Performance- Snow Leopard vs Mavericks

[Grant]

I have 2 MBP's, one old (2007 / 2008), the other new(ish).

The old one is running SL, the new one, Mavericks.

I have been mulling over upgrading the old MBP to Mavericks.

I have installed Mavericks onto an ext drive & used it to boot & run the old MBP - seems to perform quite well, despite the OS being contained on an ext drive connected via USB.

Anyone here upgraded an old MBP to Mavericks ?
If so, what is your opinion.

 

[Gadget Man]

I have a late 2009 MBP and I upgraded straight from SL to Mavericks (10.9.1, i.e. not updated to latest build). It feels slower and I sometimes wish I could go back. I have installed a 7200 rpm hard drive and that made little difference. I'm wondering if I should go SSD or just get a new machine. Tending to the latter option as the battery is showing signs of failing. Machine is now 4 years and a bit old.

 

[shanezn]

I'm wondering if I should go SSD or just get a new machine.

You'll need an SSD if you want to see any major speed improvement on Mavericks. I too miss the speed of SL, and felt it after upgrading to Mountain Lion, and then Mavericks, but after changing my HDD for an SSD, it made a world of difference. Start up and shut down is very snappy, and everything just runs quicker. I dumped my optical drive and installed the existing HDD in it's place to use as storage.

 

[bwana]

I have 2 MBP's, one old (2007 / 2008), the other new(ish).

The old one is running SL, the new one, Mavericks.

I have been mulling over upgrading the old MBP to Mavericks.

I have installed Mavericks onto an ext drive & used it to boot & run the old MBP - seems to perform quite well, despite the OS being contained on an ext drive connected via USB.

Anyone here upgraded an old MBP to Mavericks ?
If so, what is your opinion.

Clone your drive. Then you can alway roll it back if you're dissatisfied.

Alternatively pop the drive you would have used to clone it into the Mac and do a fresh installation.

 

[koffiejunkie]

I have a late 2009 MBP and I upgraded straight from SL to Mavericks (10.9.1, i.e. not updated to latest build). It feels slower and I sometimes wish I could go back. I have installed a 7200 rpm hard drive and that made little difference. I'm wondering if I should go SSD or just get a new machine. Tending to the latter option as the battery is showing signs of failing. Machine is now 4 years and a bit old.

Be aware that the older MBPs don't have SATA III controllers, so you won't get all the crazy SSD speed.

That said, my old (2008 model) MBP had only a SATA I controller, but even so, the SSD I had in it (OCZ some or other 128GB) still performed way faster than the 7200rpm spinny disc I had before. Boot up Lion in 19 seconds (after the EFI bits) rather than about a minute.