Which OS X version for a Core Duo Mini?

ldc said:

...I also grabbed an old Mac Mini: Intel Core Duo 1.67 GHz with 1 GB of RAM. Will 10.6 run fine or should I stick with 10.5?

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10.6.8 is probably faster on your Core Duo, because it contains more optimizations than 10.5.8.

Snow Leopard (10.6) will be beast on it.
iLife 09 will probably run best.
I reccomend either Office 2004 (with the Open XML Plugin) or Office 2011.

ldc said:

Hi! Along with a G4 I also grabbed an old Mac Mini: Intel Core Duo 1.67 GHz with 1 GB of RAM. Will 10.6 run fine or should I stick with 10.5?
Also, what about iLife and Office? '08, '09, '11?
Thanks a lot!

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I'm not sure you are aware of this, but that machine can be highly upgraded... you can upgrade the processor with up to a Core 2 Duo T7600 @ 2.33 GHz, and also upgrade the firmware to Mac Mini 2.1 so it can take up to 4 Gb RAM... it is then fairly easy to install Lion on it, but I do prefer 10.6.8.

10.6 even if you have to add a bit of RAM. Its rock solid, quick and everything works. Something that can't be said for any of its successors.

I've taken my 2.53 through 10.7 and 10.8. Each time I rolled back to 10.6 and its going to stay there.

Here's one more recommendation to go to 10.6.8 and "stay there"...

Fishrrman said:

Here's one more recommendation to go to 10.6.8 and "stay there"...

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Same on the 10.6.8. And max the RAM, Lion and later is too much for that hardware.

Snow Leopard will probably go down as the best version of MacOS ever produced. As far as I'm concerned things have slowly been going downhill since then and now with Yosemite Apple appears to be trying to convince any doubters that yes, all signs of Steve Jobs having run the company are now being beat out - with a sledge hammer.

I want to upgrade my Mac Mini (A1176) to Lion because of "Back to My Mac" features I want to use. I know I need to bump the CPU, question is, what's the best/fastest CPU I can use that will be recognised? I'm seeing 3Ghz CPUs on EBay for $16, will those work (even if not quite at full speed)?

Or do I need to stick with the 2.3Ghz area?

Thanks!!!