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I've been meaning to upgrade the OS X on my Oct 2008 MacBook Pro4,1 (2.4 GHz, 2GB RAM) forever. I just purchased an iPhone 5S and don't want to get ahead of myself.

Three (maybe four) inter-related questions:

  1. What is the highest OS X upgrade to run smoothly on my MacBook Pro4,1? It is still running OS X 10.6.8. and I just loaded iTunes 11.1.1 and I'm still able to backup the new iPhone 5S running iOS 7.1.1 directly to computer.

  2. What is the highest pairing of OS X AND iOS AND version of iTunes, that will run smoothly on my computer and still allow me to backup my iPhone to the computer?

  3. If I upgrade phone to iOS 8.1.1, will I need to upgrade iTunes to ver. 12 and will it run on OS X 10.7.x or will I need to upgrade to 10.8? I thought I saw somewhere that 10.7 was highest OS X to run on my MacBook Pro4,1?

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According to EveryMac That machine can run any OS up to Yosemite.
Whether it will run it smoothly or not is a different matter.
Whatever the figures might say, I've never known a machine to run faster on a newer OS, with perhaps the exception of the jump from Leopard to Snow Leopard…. or the memory handling from Mountain Lion to Mavericks. I've yet to try Yosemite myself...

As far as I'm aware, you'll need the latest iTunes to get the latest iOS, so your phone at the moment is stuck in limbo. If you ever need to restore, you'll find Apple will no longer sign iOS 7 on any device that is capable of running iOS 8.

I don't know whether iTunes 12 will run on Snow Leo; there's one way to find out, but all the steps you are about to take are going to be pushing you firmly in the direction of Yosemite.
Edit: iTunes 12 needs 10.7.5 at minimum.

Another stumbling block is going to be actually getting hold of any OS other than Yosemite. Apple removes previous OSes from the App Store - though you'll find the listing for it, it won't download unless you have previously 'bought' it.

TL:DR Apple want you to move to Yosemite, iOS 8 & iTunes 12.
Trying to avoid any part of that is going to involve finding some dodgy download of Mavericks etc, or finding a friend who already has the installer.
Your phone will be in limbo on iOS 7, might work for now, but can't be restored without iOS 8.
iTunes 12 requires a higher OS than you have.

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iTunes 12 will not run on Snow Leopard; but, iTunes 11 is sufficient for a 5S running iOS8. I have that exact configuration at home; and have upgraded my iPhone 5S with no issues.

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