iM 4,1-14,4 iMac4,2 OCLP Monterey

[flang]

can the iMac4,2 core duo 1.83G be updated to Monterey with OCLP?
Or will be just too painfully slow?
My brother refuses to buy even a used Mac of more recent vintage yet is always complaining that Safari, Firefox no longer loads this or that.
It is otherwise OEM ram and 80G 7200 rpm.
He also still has a "Jetson" iMac aka CRT from '99.

 

[theMarble]

It's not a case of speed, you physically can't even get Lion (10.7) onto an iMac4,2 due to it having a 32-bit CPU (the Core Duo). Even if you did upgrade the CPU to a 64-bit Merom-based Core 2 Duo, it still has 32-bit firmware, no SSE4.2 and the GMA 950 graphics chip, none of which are compatible with any semi-modern release of OS X/macOS.

It's only useful as a retro 10.4 (or XP) machine for very basic tasks, due to the GMA 950 graphics chip, which was much slower than almost all of the later PPC Macs (which had ATI or NVIDIA chips).

 

[flang]

as I figured. Darn the Luck ! ! !

 

[bkmoore773]

can the iMac4,2 core duo 1.83G be updated to Monterey with OCLP?

I have one of these, iMac 4,1 with a 17-inch screen. You can upgrade the CPU to a Core2Duo, flash the ROM to 5,1 and upgrade the RAM to 3Gb and install an SSD. Once all that is done, using NexPostFacto you could install unsupported versions of OS X, up to about Mavericks, (with lots of caveats)... A few people did this mod back around 2011, when these computers were only about 5 years old, and they were looking to get a couple of years more out of them. That being said, is doing this worth doing in 2025? ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!.........

My brother refuses to buy even a used Mac of more recent vintage yet is always complaining that Safari, Firefox no longer loads this or that.

I think if your brother needs to reconsider, if he wants to have a half-way usable computer for modern online web activities, or use semi-modern productivity tools. If he's non-technical, wants to have MacOS, he should consider a used M1 or M2 iMac or Macbook Air. If that's out of his budget, I would recommend the latest model Intel Mac that's still within your budget. Maybe look at charity auctions. I recently acquired a mid-2015 Macbook Pro 15" for less than $200, for example. If even that is out of his budget, maybe gift him a chrome book....

 

[flang]

yea, figured it was a long shot. I think an M is what he has to consider.