iMac 2006

[The Samurai]

Hi

I'm being offered a late 2006 iMac pretty cheap (£50). Its running Lion and I intend on doing a SSD install.

I won't be doing anything strenuous on it compared to my new touch bar macbook pro but just want one for exhibitions and displaying content when doing exhibitions and using as a web browser now and then.

Will the machine be capable?

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

Too dear it is eleven years old!

Lion is a shocking operating system. Suggest installing Snow Leopard OS X.6 and leaving it there and not taking online. Apple still sells the Snow Leopard DVD at maybe an Apple St ore if you have one near, or use Google and search for Apple Online Store. $20 including postage.

 

[Fishrrman]

"Will the machine be capable?"
It will be (best way I can say it) "2007 capable".

That is to say, don't expect to run anything up-to-date on it.
Your browsing experience will be limited by the OS -- it can't go beyond "Lion".

Having said that...
I still use my 2006 white Intel iMac for music production. But the software I'm using is 8 years old, and I don't really do anything "on the net" with it any more. It still works well enough for my purposes. But to paraphrase Clint Eastwood, "a man's got to know his Mac's limitations..."

 

[redheeler]

I have a 2006 iMac 6,1 running 10.8.5 Mountain Lion thanks to MLPostFactor, on an SSD. Though Mozilla dropped support for 10.8.5 in never versions of Firefox, they will actually still run with a very simple modification. Same goes for Seamonkey, which is based on but a bit more lightweight than normal Firefox and my browser of choice for the 2006 iMac.

Another option is to install Linux which will support more browsers such as Google Chrome (the newest version of Chrome for OS X 10.7.5/10.8.5 is almost two years old).

 

[EugW]

IMO, don’t waste your time with a 2006. Get a 2008 or something.

 

[MultiFinder17]

I have a late 2006 20" iMac in my classroom that I use just for announcements and to display my seating chart; it sits quietly on a table by the door where the kiddos pick up their work. It works well enough for that, but I don't use it for anything more intensive. I'm going to have to do something about it soon; Dropbox is dropping support for Lion in January.