So I'm getting a 2006 iMac from a family member tonight, and I am wanting to put Yosemite on it, using this tutorial. I am wondering if anyone else has done this; if so, how does it work?
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Getting a 2006 iMac; putting Yosemite on it!
- Thread starter JerTheGeek
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I wouldn't bet on it, the 2006 iMac has a 32-bit EFI, which can't go past Snow Leopard. There might be some way, but it's too befuddling for me.
I'm trying it out with SFOTT. It is supported by Lion and supposedly as long as it is supported by lion it will work with Yosemite.
Only if the iMac has a 32-bit CPU is it stuck at Snow Leopard. 32-bit EFI officially maxes out at Lion 10.7.5, but there are ways of getting around that.
For now I'm just gonna stick with Tiger until I can get more RAM (it's at 512 mb now) and buy one of those lion usb drives
512MB? Yeah, keep that poor thing on Tiger. Heck, my iBook G4 has 1GB and it's stock. Tiger runs well on it though. Leopard not so much.
For a 2006 iMac in my opinion 2GB RAM plus Snow Leopard on a good working hard drive should run pretty well. Lion is a lot more graphically intense and causes some UI lag that drives me nuts but you may need it for certain apps to run. If it's just going to be browsing the web and running Office then SL would fit the bill.
If you can get Yosemite working on it than go ahead, but without hardware acceleration it probably won't be very pleasant. I speak from experience with an Early 2008 MacBook trying to run anything past Lion. I went back to SL before I sold it. MLPF was okay-ish but Mavericks wasn't quite so great.
Of course, if this is an early/mid 2006 iMac it will have a 32-bit Core Duo only so SL is your only option. If you're lucky enough to have the single model of late 2006 iMac that shipped with 512MB of RAM and a Core 2 Duo (MA710LL) than you'll have a shot. But most had 1GB. The 2006 model Core 2 with 512MB stock also only had the GMA 950 instead of the X1600 which is even slower than the GMA X3100 my '08 MacBook had. So good luck to you! And have a SL DVD/USB handy
For a 2006 iMac in my opinion 2GB RAM plus Snow Leopard on a good working hard drive should run pretty well. Lion is a lot more graphically intense and causes some UI lag that drives me nuts but you may need it for certain apps to run. If it's just going to be browsing the web and running Office then SL would fit the bill.
If you can get Yosemite working on it than go ahead, but without hardware acceleration it probably won't be very pleasant. I speak from experience with an Early 2008 MacBook trying to run anything past Lion. I went back to SL before I sold it. MLPF was okay-ish but Mavericks wasn't quite so great.
Of course, if this is an early/mid 2006 iMac it will have a 32-bit Core Duo only so SL is your only option. If you're lucky enough to have the single model of late 2006 iMac that shipped with 512MB of RAM and a Core 2 Duo (MA710LL) than you'll have a shot. But most had 1GB. The 2006 model Core 2 with 512MB stock also only had the GMA 950 instead of the X1600 which is even slower than the GMA X3100 my '08 MacBook had. So good luck to you! And have a SL DVD/USB handy
Yep this is a late 2006; it has core 2 duo. I'll probably upgrade the RAM to max, then put lion on it just for fun. Maybe even try Yosemite. This is just a fun computer for me; I have a MacBook Air 13' 2014 for everything I need in a Mac. So if it is laggy on the iMac that's fine; it will be a fun project either way512MB? Yeah, keep that poor thing on Tiger. Heck, my iBook G4 has 1GB and it's stock. Tiger runs well on it though. Leopard not so much.
For a 2006 iMac in my opinion 2GB RAM plus Snow Leopard on a good working hard drive should run pretty well. Lion is a lot more graphically intense and causes some UI lag that drives me nuts but you may need it for certain apps to run. If it's just going to be browsing the web and running Office then SL would fit the bill.
If you can get Yosemite working on it than go ahead, but without hardware acceleration it probably won't be very pleasant. I speak from experience with an Early 2008 MacBook trying to run anything past Lion. I went back to SL before I sold it. MLPF was okay-ish but Mavericks wasn't quite so great.
Of course, if this is an early/mid 2006 iMac it will have a 32-bit Core Duo only so SL is your only option. If you're lucky enough to have the single model of late 2006 iMac that shipped with 512MB of RAM and a Core 2 Duo (MA710LL) than you'll have a shot. But most had 1GB. The 2006 model Core 2 with 512MB stock also only had the GMA 950 instead of the X1600 which is even slower than the GMA X3100 my '08 MacBook had. So good luck to you! And have a SL DVD/USB handy
If you're running Yosemite on the 2014 MacBook Air, try Snow Leopard on the iMac. The last version of OS X before they started to remove the Aqua eye candyYep this is a late 2006; it has core 2 duo. I'll probably upgrade the RAM to max, then put lion on it just for fun. Maybe even try Yosemite. This is just a fun computer for me; I have a MacBook Air 13' 2014 for everything I need in a Mac. So if it is laggy on the iMac that's fine; it will be a fun project either way
My late 2008 MacBook Air, which is my fun computer, has Snow Leopard, Mavericks, Yosemite, and 10.11 installed on a 128 GB SSD. I just use whichever one I feel like at a given moment (most of the time Snow Leopard)
I love my 2007 iMac. Simply because I can boot into OS X Tiger (still have the original DVDs) and El Capitan. Haha. It's like having a little time machine. It's one of only two Macs that are capable of doing that. Snow Leopard was by far the fastest on it, but Mavericks is a very close second and El Capitan is shaping up nicely. Granted I do have an SSD in it with 4GB of RAM.
Have fun with it! It's surprising just how capable some of the older Macs are. Particularly if you've got one that's still supported. This 8 year old iMac (as of next month) is running the current version of Logic Pro X, Adobe Creative suite, Office 2016 preview, and more without so much as a hiccup. The only exception is MainStage 3 but it lags out on our Mac Pro and it's a known software issue. And Final Cut Pro isn't quite so great with a 128MB GPU, but hey, it's 8 years old. You can always run period software on it too. My iBook G4 runs Photoshop CS2, Office 2004, iTunes 6 and more very well because that's what it was designed for. Same applies to this iMac. Or any computer for that matter.
Have fun with it! It's surprising just how capable some of the older Macs are. Particularly if you've got one that's still supported. This 8 year old iMac (as of next month) is running the current version of Logic Pro X, Adobe Creative suite, Office 2016 preview, and more without so much as a hiccup. The only exception is MainStage 3 but it lags out on our Mac Pro and it's a known software issue. And Final Cut Pro isn't quite so great with a 128MB GPU, but hey, it's 8 years old. You can always run period software on it too. My iBook G4 runs Photoshop CS2, Office 2004, iTunes 6 and more very well because that's what it was designed for. Same applies to this iMac. Or any computer for that matter.
Oh how I wish I could run Tiger on my 2008 MacBook Air
10.11 is quite an improvement from Yosemite and even Mavericks. It may result in me spending slightly less time in Snow Leopard.
It had a 4200 RPM HDD when I got it, so you can imagine how slow that was running Yosemite. I soon got an SSD for it, but I'm stuck on 2 GB RAM (which Yosemite/10.11 runs surprisingly well on).
I have the 2007 Imac 7,1 I upgraded the CPU to a intel core 2 t9300 I can now run Os Mojave on an unsupported Mac i had the WiFi module upgraded too as the Original is not supported past Sierra
I'm also writing from a 2008 iMac that will make 11 years in a few months, I've put an SSD last year and still using it everyday. I also can do some light gaming and watch 1080p60 videos thanks to the nvidia 8800 graphic card
I use it El Capitan and works really nice for all my needs. It was my best investment so far.