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iMac early 2006 worth it

slooksterPSV

slooksterPSV

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Apr 17, 2004
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Nowheresville
Hey all,

It's been a long long long time since I was last on MacRumors. However, I'm looking to get back into the world of Macs. I was wondering if an iMac 2006 would be worth it. Its limited, but I'm curious what items would be supported or still available to work with it.

Thanks!
 
slooksterPSV said:
Hey all,

It's been a long long long time since I was last on MacRumors. However, I'm looking to get back into the world of Macs. I was wondering if an iMac 2006 would be worth it. Its limited, but I'm curious what items would be supported or still available to work with it.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Welcome back to MacRumors!

I think OS X Snow Leopard is the last officially supported operating system for the 2006 iMac.
 
slooksterPSV said:
Hey all,

It's been a long long long time since I was last on MacRumors. However, I'm looking to get back into the world of Macs. I was wondering if an iMac 2006 would be worth it. Its limited, but I'm curious what items would be supported or still available to work with it.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Worth what?
 
Mine has got osx lion and windows 7 and is still my main desktop. The sound from the speakers is great, especially for an 11 yr old computer
 
Is it the early-2006 iMac with a "Core Duo" processor or the late-2006 model with the "Core 2 Duo" processor? Either way it's not worth more than a few bucks at this point and I wouldn't rely on it heavily, but the Core Duo in particular is extremely dated and 32-bit only.
 
Short answer, no. Have been running one for my son and simply not worth the trouble as a main machine. File server etc sure.
 
slooksterPSV said:
Hey all,

It's been a long long long time since I was last on MacRumors. However, I'm looking to get back into the world of Macs. I was wondering if an iMac 2006 would be worth it. Its limited, but I'm curious what items would be supported or still available to work with it.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Whether or not a 2006 iMac is worth it depends on the price and specs.

I own a Late 2006 iMac 6,1 that is pretty much as good as it gets for a 2006 iMac, and there is still plenty it can do. However, it is maxed at OS X Mountain Lion (at least if you want decent performance), which has aged badly since its release in 2012. A lot of newer Mac software simply doesn't support it, or forces you to use older versions. Luckily, you can still get a current version of Firefox to work for basic web browsing (all the other major browsers are limited to older versions), and certain apps like Kodi, VLC, and LibreOffice are still current for 10.8.5. iLife, iWork, Microsoft Office all need older versions to work.

Alternatively, you can install Linux and get more current apps (such as Google Chrome) working that way. On my iMac there is a slight screen tearing issue (noticeable when smooth-scrolling mostly) I was never able to solve in Linux (it has an Nvidia GPU).
[doublepost=1502205804][/doublepost]Just noticed in your title you're referring to an early 2006. That one would need to be upgraded to a Core 2 Duo to even run Mountain Lion, otherwise you're stuck on Snow Leopard and 32-bit apps only. Core 2 Duo CPUs of that age are pretty inexpensive now, so it still may be worth it to get.
 
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if its no cost and there are specific things you want to try or accomplish then by all means its worth trying. But if there is much cost associated with it, best off finding a cheaper newer alternative (iMacs, Mac minis, etc) that have better value and can run most recent apps/OS X versions
 
I'm actually using one right now as a secondary computer next to my work PC, found it in the basement with all the old IT equipment to eventually be recycled and pulled it out. Hadn't been booted since 2012.

Anyway it's a base model 1.83 GHz Core Duo 17" iMac, not much to it but I did put in 2GB RAM from some other laptops that had DDR2 in them, installed a clean copy of Snow Leopard from my disc and installed Windows 7 32bit in Boot Camp for running some legacy apps our Windows 10 PC's won't run properly (plus Java 6 SE for some older still in use networking equipment).

It actually runs great and gets booted up and running faster than most of our Windows 10 laptops and PC's around here. Snow Leopard app support is the hard part and being 32bit limits it even further. You can get up to Firefox 45 ESR and an old 32bit version of Chrome is stuck back on version 38 (now at 60 as of this post).

Office 2011 will run fine and Outlook still connects to our Exchange server just fine, as does Finder with our SMB shares. Adobe CS5 (32 bit) runs well too for basic Photoshop and Indesign work I've done on it. Outside of that, there's not much of anything up to date but it will still do modern work alright.

Windows 7 is a different story however, I have all the drivers installed and working and it will still run Chrome version 60 (latest) and the latest Firefox and Office 2016 and most other applications that are still being updated as there are still a lot of Win 7 users. But that takes some of the Mac out of it of course, but may be worth it to run up to date software.

If it's free it's still a fine iMac, and cool to have the first Intel Mac model as well. I wouldn't pay much for one though. It'd be fine for a someone writing papers, visiting basic websites, email, or doing simple photo editing and such. But not much beyond that now.
 

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I got a 2.0 GHz Core Duo 2006 20" iMac for free. I basically never use it. None of the major browsers support it, so I'm stuck using really old versions of browsers, and Netflix can only be run in low quality mode because it does not have h.264 hardware decode support. Plus it only has 2 GB RAM and a hard drive.

I put it in my home theatre room for those times I might need to check something online really quickly, but even then I don't use it, because it's actually better to use my iPhone most of the time.

Don't waste your time with anything less than a Core 2 Duo with 4+ GB RAM.
 
It may be worth it as a collectors item. That's about it. For ultra-basic tasks (simple web pages, word processing,) you can run Linux on it and use it. Sadly, in the past few years, many websites have become so complex, even for simple-looking websites, that the Core Duo just can't cut it any more.

While YouTube worked fine on it in the past, the current YouTube is near-unusable as well.
 
Anonymous Freak said:
It may be worth it as a collectors item. That's about it. For ultra-basic tasks (simple web pages, word processing,) you can run Linux on it and use it. Sadly, in the past few years, many websites have become so complex, even for simple-looking websites, that the Core Duo just can't cut it any more.

While YouTube worked fine on it in the past, the current YouTube is near-unusable as well.
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There's a browser named tenFOUR Fox which is pretty good for older Macs.
 
Sid The Kid said:
There's a browser named tenFOUR Fox which is pretty good for older Macs.
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TenFourFox is written for the PowerPC architecture, meaning it can only run in slow Rosetta emulation. Sadly there is no up-to-date Intel version.

Since it's based on Firefox 45 anyway, you're better off just going with that. No longer supported as of April this year.

This is why I strongly recommend the Core 2 Duo upgrade and update to Mountain Lion if you plan to browse the web on an old Early 2006 iMac. While Mozilla doesn't support Firefox 52+ on 10.8.5, somehow it still works just fine with a simple change of the minimum system version.

I just hope to see Leopard Webkit start maintaining a version for Snow Leopard again. But like TenFourFox, Leopard Webkit is also compiled for PowerPC.
willmtaylor said:
I’m surprised @eyoungren hasn’t chimed in yet. Seems up his alley.
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He doesn't frequent this area of the site, I've mainly seen him in the PowerPC Macs area.
 
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Sid The Kid said:
There's a browser named tenFOUR Fox which is pretty good for older Macs.
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If OP's iMac is Intel and not PowerPC then TenFourFox won't work. TenFourFox is a fork of Firefox for PowerPC Macs and does not run on Intel.
[doublepost=1502463766][/doublepost]
willmtaylor said:
I’m surprised @eyoungren hasn’t chimed in yet. Seems up his alley.
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redheeler said:
He doesn't frequent this area of the site, I've mainly seen him in the PowerPC Macs area.
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I have not chimed in for precisely the reason @redheeler states.

This is actually the very first time I have ever been in this area: https://forums.macrumors.com/forums/imac.91/

Next, it seems OP is dealing with an Intel Mac and my focus in these forums is generally on PowerPC Macs so I'm not usually in the Intel Mac sections.

And last but not least, next to the iBook/MacBook, the iMac is one of my least favorite Mac models so there's never been any reason for me to be in here.

Sorry, not trying to sound harsh, just relating the why. I appreciate the tag because it gets me into a section of MR I have never been in.
 
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eyoungren said:
If OP's iMac is Intel and not PowerPC then TenFourFox won't work. TenFourFox is a fork of Firefox for PowerPC Macs and does not run on Intel.
[doublepost=1502463766][/doublepost]

I have not chimed in for precisely the reason @redheeler states.

This is actually the very first time I have ever been in this area: https://forums.macrumors.com/forums/imac.91/

Next, it seems OP is dealing with an Intel Mac and my focus in these forums is generally on PowerPC Macs so I'm not usually in the Intel Mac sections.

And last but not least, next to the iBook/MacBook, the iMac is one of my least favorite Mac models so there's never been any reason for me to be in here.

Sorry, not trying to sound harsh, just relating the why. I appreciate the tag because it gets me into a section of MR I have never been in.
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Hahahaha. No worries! I got confused/hasty.
 
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Sorry to necro, but I rescued a 2006 Imac 4-1 from the recycle pile at work. Upgraded firmware to make it a 5-1. Don't bother with OSX. Windows 10 Pro X64 works great if you install any SSD you have lying around. Install T7600G and throttlestop. I'm at 3.0 running stable (don't forget the "G" when buying processor. It has an unlocked multiplier). And what makes a big difference is this- You have to upgrade the machine from IDE to AHCI. Follow easy procedure here:

When booted up, this machine works well. The only bothersome limitations are the ram, so you can't have more than half a dozen windows open at a time. I had most of the parts already, so I didn't really spend any $. The only money I spent was about $15 to upgrade to AC wireless, following proceedure here:

https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/162178/Wireless+Airport+Card+Replacement+with+New+802.11ac

Wifi speed is between 700 and 800.

Hope this helps anyone with one of these machines laying around.
 
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JB59 said:
Sorry to necro, but I rescued a 2006 Imac 4-1 from the recycle pile at work. Upgraded firmware to make it a 5-1. Don't bother with OSX. Windows 10 Pro X64 works great if you install any SSD you have lying around. Install T7600G and throttlestop. I'm at 3.0 running stable (don't forget the "G" when buying processor. It has an unlocked multiplier). And what makes a big difference is this- You have to upgrade the machine from IDE to AHCI. Follow easy procedure here:

And finally you'll want trim enabled on your SSD, so you'll want to upgrade to Intel RST 11.2. You can find modded version that will work on your machine on Win-Raid.com.

When booted up, this machine works well. The only bothersome limitations are the ram, so you can't have more than half a dozen windows open at a time. I had most of the parts already, so I didn't really spend any $. The only money I spent was about $15 to upgrade to AC wireless, following proceedure here:

https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/162178/Wireless+Airport+Card+Replacement+with+New+802.11ac

Wifi speed is between 750 and 800.

Hope this helps anyone with one of these machines laying around.
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Umm... That is not an iMac.
 
Are you saying that because it's running Windows? The link I included works for both old Mac Pro's and early intel iMac's.
 
Everything works. I was probably a little conservative when I said you could only have half a dozen pages open at a time. It has handled everything I have thrown at it so far. Even x264 video files play with the x1600 graphics.
 

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