Best OS for 1GHz eMac?

8thMan · Mar 25, 2009, 09:42 AM

I have received a 1Ghz eMac with 1GB of RAM, running 10.5. It seems sluggish: windows open slowly, Youtube vids play unevenly. My old 667 tibook running 10.4 is a lot smoother. Is 10.5 too much for this machine? Should I install a lesser OS? Thanks.

scienide09 · Mar 25, 2009, 01:30 PM

I would definitely downgrade to 10.4.x, especially with only 1GB of RAM. Leopard's a little too demanding for that. If you can bump the RAM cheaply, it may be worth it. But even then, I doubt you'd see huge improvement.

Bacong · Mar 25, 2009, 01:46 PM

Heh. I'm running Leopard on a machine with 1.25 Ghz and 1.25 GB of ram and it's not quite as fast as the macs I use at the Apple Store, but it's not much slower. I'm quite pleased with it. I'd try a fresh install of Tiger, that should work swimmingly.

txnoob · Mar 25, 2009, 02:08 PM

I have 10.5.X on my 1.25Ghz eMac. When I first got it I put Leopard on it, and then bumped back to 10.4 because the difference was significant enough for me warrant the downgrade. Then I upgraded it to 1GB of Ram an reinstalled Leopard. It worked well enough for my daughter just going to Disney channel and ePets. I didn't notice it being overly slow for her. Significantly better than the G4 800 she had, but 10.4 was surely smoother. Then I found out you could actually put 2GB of Ram in the eMac. So I installed that and replaced the hard drive w/ a 7200 RPM drive and now it's quite nice. Not for the faint of heart, but fun for me. I can see her using this already nearly 5 year old machine for another 2 years unless it were to fail.

hughvane · Mar 25, 2009, 04:48 PM

Agreement with other posts on this - Tiger is probably the most you want to put on the eMac 1 GHz. You are however limited to 1 Gb RAM maximum in that model (ref: Mactracker), which is a strong argument in my book for stopping at Tiger.

CarlisleUnited · Mar 25, 2009, 06:41 PM

Windows Vista

Mar 25, 2009, 09:42 AM	#1
8thMan macrumors regular Join Date: Feb 2006	Best OS for 1GHz eMac? I have received a 1Ghz eMac with 1GB of RAM, running 10.5. It seems sluggish: windows open slowly, Youtube vids play unevenly. My old 667 tibook running 10.4 is a lot smoother. Is 10.5 too much for this machine? Should I install a lesser OS? Thanks.
	0

Mar 25, 2009, 01:30 PM	#2
scienide09 macrumors 65816 Join Date: May 2007 Location: Canada	I would definitely downgrade to 10.4.x, especially with only 1GB of RAM. Leopard's a little too demanding for that. If you can bump the RAM cheaply, it may be worth it. But even then, I doubt you'd see huge improvement. __________________ I'm a librarian. iMac 27" i7 2.8 \| mid-2011 MBA \| iPhone 8GB (original) \| iPhone 5 (black) \| Backup: RAID-1 640GB NAS.
	0

Mar 25, 2009, 01:46 PM	#3
Bacong macrumors 6502a Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Westland, Michigan	Heh. I'm running Leopard on a machine with 1.25 Ghz and 1.25 GB of ram and it's not quite as fast as the macs I use at the Apple Store, but it's not much slower. I'm quite pleased with it. I'd try a fresh install of Tiger, that should work swimmingly. __________________ iPhone 5 16gb White Nexus 7 Windows 7 Enterprise Desktop
	0

Mar 25, 2009, 02:08 PM	#4
txnoob macrumors 6502 Join Date: Mar 2009	I have 10.5.X on my 1.25Ghz eMac. When I first got it I put Leopard on it, and then bumped back to 10.4 because the difference was significant enough for me warrant the downgrade. Then I upgraded it to 1GB of Ram an reinstalled Leopard. It worked well enough for my daughter just going to Disney channel and ePets. I didn't notice it being overly slow for her. Significantly better than the G4 800 she had, but 10.4 was surely smoother. Then I found out you could actually put 2GB of Ram in the eMac. So I installed that and replaced the hard drive w/ a 7200 RPM drive and now it's quite nice. Not for the faint of heart, but fun for me. I can see her using this already nearly 5 year old machine for another 2 years unless it were to fail. __________________ 27" 2011 iMac, iPhone 4s 16gb Black -eMac 1.25GHz G4, 2GB RAM, 250GB HD
	0

Mar 25, 2009, 04:48 PM	#5
hughvane macrumors 6502 Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Banks Peninsula, New Zealand	Agreement with other posts on this - Tiger is probably the most you want to put on the eMac 1 GHz. You are however limited to 1 Gb RAM maximum in that model (ref: Mactracker), which is a strong argument in my book for stopping at Tiger. __________________ G4 eMac 1.25, 2 Gb RAM, OS 10.4.11 G3 iMac 600, 1 Gb RAM, OS 10.3.9 G3 PPC 350 b/w, dual drives, OS 10.3.9, OS 9.2.2 Numerous peripheral gadgets - all working.
	0

Mar 25, 2009, 06:41 PM	#6
CarlisleUnited macrumors 6502 Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Nederland	Windows Vista
	0

Thread Tools	Search this Thread
Show Printable Version Email this Page	Search this Thread: Advanced Search
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode

Similar Threads
thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
best OS for iBook G4 1ghz?	gr8gatzby	PowerPC Macs	4	Nov 18, 2009 02:12 PM
Best OS for my system	jsucher	Mac OS X	10	Oct 1, 2006 08:21 PM
Best OS for G3 and G4 (different uses each)	lind0834	Mac OS X	11	Jan 14, 2006 07:23 PM
What's the Best OS for VirtualPC 7?	Makosuke	Mac Applications and Mac App Store	16	Apr 11, 2005 10:27 PM
Best OS for Virtual PC 6?	orthodoc	Mac Help/Tips	5	Feb 3, 2003 06:37 PM