iMac 8,1 (2008) tips?

[Martyimac]

Just picked up a used 2008 iMac for $20, couldn't resist. My understanding is that it will take 6G of ram. Also am going to put an SSD in it from a defunct mini, OWC sells the adaptor sled for that.

Any other tips like which OS runs best on it? ETC.?

 

[EugW]

Just picked up a used 2008 iMac for $20, couldn't resist. My understanding is that it will take 6G of ram. Also am going to put an SSD in it from a defunct mini, OWC sells the adaptor sled for that.

Any other tips like which OS runs best on it? ETC.?

Best supported OS is OS X 10.11 El Capitan, at least if you have SSD and 4-6 GB RAM.

macOS 10.12 Sierra and 10.13 High Sierra will also run on it with a patched installer, but some iMac8,1 units have an incompatible WiFi unit. That means under 10.12 and 10.13, if you're unlucky then WiFi won't work, although if you're using Ethernet only, then that doesn't matter.

If you don't need WiFi, or if you happen to be lucky enough to have a compatible WiFi adapter, then I'd recommend 10.13 High Sierra with dosdude1's patch.

 

[Martyimac]

Best supported OS is OS X 10.11 El Capitan, at least if you have SSD and 4-6 GB RAM.

macOS 10.12 Sierra and 10.13 High Sierra will also run on it with a patched installer, but some iMac8,1 units have an incompatible WiFi unit. That means under 10.12 and 10.13, if you're unlucky then WiFi won't work, although if you're using Ethernet only, then that doesn't matter.

If you don't need WiFi, or if you happen to be lucky enough to have a compatible WiFi adapter, then I'd recommend 10.13 High Sierra with dosdude1's patch.

Thanks. Don't know if the wifi controller is the right one but it currently works and has El Cap on it so may try and format the SSD with El Cap and live with that. This is just a fun project and a beginner Mac for the wife to play with and see if she can get used to it.
The DoDude1 patches, while really cool, can be a pain to deal with, I tried on the 2011 Mini that finally died. To much hassle long term so will pass on it. But major kudos to DosDude1 for getting those patches figured out.

 

[EugW]

Thanks. Don't know if the wifi controller is the right one but it currently works and has El Cap on it so may try and format the SSD with El Cap and live with that. This is just a fun project and a beginner Mac for the wife to play with and see if she can get used to it.
The DoDude1 patches, while really cool, can be a pain to deal with, I tried on the 2011 Mini that finally died. To much hassle long term so will pass on it. But major kudos to DosDude1 for getting those patches figured out.

I’m running High Sierra on two pre-2010 machines. Now that High Sierra is mature with no more point updates, using the patch is easy. The only issue is sometimes those rare security updates won’t install easily but I can live with that.

To minimize compatibility issues, just use the HFS+ file system, not APFS.

The benefit of High Sierra is it can fully read and write to APFS. No need to make your machine APFS bootable, but it can still read external APFS drives.

 

[zackkmac]

I had the same exact iMac and bumped it up to:

3.06GHz C2D E7600 processor - from what I understood, the best possible compatible upgrade for this model, found in the 2009 iMacs.
6GB RAM
256GB SSD running Mojave (I know you said no patches but I did enjoy it on this iMac and it was painless for me)
802.11ac/Bluetooth 4.1 WiFi card upgrade

It was very enjoyable to use - I gave it to a family member who was wanting to try Mac and is now very happy they did.