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Just bought an iMac, but I need some information

user1690

user1690

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 13, 2011
146
6
Searching....
Hey guys,

Since my 2006 MacBook died, i decided it was time for something else, rather than a laptop this time, a desktop. So i bought a 2nd Hand iMac, its specs are as follows:

Apple iMac 20-inch (Late 2006 - Lol, me and 2006 based hardware.... :p )
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.16GHz
2.5GB DDR2 667MHz Memory (Upgradeable to 3GB)
250GB Hard Drive
Built in iSight Webcam
ATI Radeon 128MB X1600 Graphics Card
Slot Loading Super Drive
3x USB, 2x Firewire 400, 1x Ethernet, Audio In/Out
Mini DVI output
Airport Extreme Wi-fi Card (802.11a/b/g/n)
Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR

If im honest this is better considering my old Macbook specs were 2Ghz Core Duo, GMA 950 GPU (64MB) and 2GB RAM Limit.

So i just need some more information for future reference;

Is the processor upgradeable? If so, what must i get? (Socket type, etc...)

Is there anything i need to know about this model of iMac? (For example, is the GPU prone to failure after XX months? (XX being a number)

Anything else you feel i need to know?

-Thanks :)
 
If it is able to be swapped out (I have no idea whether or not it can be), the Core 2 Duo processors were LGA775. I had a Q6600 (Quad Core) that ran like a champ and that someone else in MN paid me nearly $100 for 4 years later (still working!)

You will want to check around though to make sure the processor is removable but the options to upgrade are going to be limited as Intel really didn't get much past 3.06 GHz for Quads and 3.33 on Duos on those chips and they run HOT! And even though the clock cycles look good, it is not just about the speed it runs.

Even still, processor upgrade prices to the highest speed chips are still running near $350 on the top ones...I don't know how comfortable you are paying that much for 5 year old technology
 
Congrats!

No not really they are known to be pretty reliable. I had the exact same model for over 3 years running day and night until its hard disc went dead (which can happen to any computer)
 
Good to know these are reliable, dont want another random death on me again like my MacBook did.

If processor is upgradeable, i'll probably hold off on it since at the moment im not willing to fork out so much on the highest processor it can take. I forgot to ask, can anyone give me a link to exactly what RAM these iMacs take? A quick eBay search turned up with different sizes (By sizes i mean some sizes were that of what you'd find in a laptop, and some were the size you would find in a desktop (The Legnth of the module)) and can anyone provide me with a link to the nessecary firewire cable i would need if i want to transfer applications/data from another mac? (Put my dead macbooks Hard disk in my friends macbook and i would like to use the migration assistant if possible.)

-Thanks.
 
max ram is only 3 gigs -- so spending any money on more ram is kinda a waste.

I highly doubt if the processor is upgradeable. No where have I ever seen it. And again, spending say, $200 on a on a $400 iMac doesnt make a lot of sense either.
 
Badger^2 said:
max ram is only 3 gigs -- so spending any money on more ram is kinda a waste.

I highly doubt if the processor is upgradeable. No where have I ever seen it. And again, spending say, $200 on a on a $400 iMac doesnt make a lot of sense either.
Click to expand...

I guess your right about the RAM thing, but for future reference (And incase i decide to max it out anyway) what type of ram do i need? (And please provide a link if possible.)

As for processor, i heard they were upgradeable but i cant confirm it, most results i keep getting relate to the G5 iMac, which wasn't upgradeable.

-Thank you.
 
Here is the RAM you would need, it's pretty cheap.

Also, you could upgrade the CPU, but the best upgrade you could do would be to a 2.33GHz CPU, which wouldn't really be worth the time or money.
 
alust2013 said:
Here is the RAM you would need, it's pretty cheap.

Also, you could upgrade the CPU, but the best upgrade you could do would be to a 2.33GHz CPU, which wouldn't really be worth the time or money.
Click to expand...

Thank you. I guess your right, if the max CPU i can have is a 2.33Ghz Core 2 Duo, then it wont be worth the time and money.
 
if your interested in prolonging the usefulness of this machine have you not considered upgrading to an SSD? Your boot time and general system responsiveness should improve dramatically. Would probably make more sense financially than a small but costly cpu upgrade or a mere extra half gig of RAM
 
Good idea!

Paulywauly said:
if your interested in prolonging the usefulness of this machine have you not considered upgrading to an SSD? Your boot time and general system responsiveness should improve dramatically. Would probably make more sense financially than a small but costly cpu upgrade or a mere extra half gig of RAM
Click to expand...


I have loads of spare modules of RAM, i just wanted to make sure that any of the ones i had would fit. So RAM isnt a problem, that can easily be maxed at no extra cost to me. However i like the SSD idea, however i've seen even a 64GB SSD go for £200+ and im a person who needs lots of space. But i may consider getting a small SSD, and then a larger external HDD for file storage such as movies/etc.
 
user1690 said:
Please, do explain why as im curious. :)

And of course want to save money, hehe.
Click to expand...

If, for example, you already had a working iMac with 2GB of RAM, you would see more performance improvements from expanding RAM to 8GB than to upgrade the processor while staying with 2GB of RAM. I think it's important to match CPU speed to size of RAM. This would of course depend on what you were doing with the computer; some environments would do better with faster CPU, others with more RAM.
 
old-wiz said:
If, for example, you already had a working iMac with 2GB of RAM, you would see more performance improvements from expanding RAM to 8GB than to upgrade the processor while staying with 2GB of RAM. I think it's important to match CPU speed to size of RAM. This would of course depend on what you were doing with the computer; some environments would do better with faster CPU, others with more RAM.
Click to expand...

If it helps, this is what i plan on doing with the machine:

Photo and Video editing.
Watching movies
Internet surfing.
Small amount of gaming (Half-Life 2 and below, nothing too system-intensive.)
 
user1690 said:
I have loads of spare modules of RAM, i just wanted to make sure that any of the ones i had would fit. So RAM isnt a problem, that can easily be maxed at no extra cost to me. However i like the SSD idea, however i've seen even a 64GB SSD go for £200+ and im a person who needs lots of space. But i may consider getting a small SSD, and then a larger external HDD for file storage such as movies/etc.
Click to expand...

I'd recommend double checking your prices, you can get perfectly good 120/128GB SSDs for under £200 nowadays which should be more than enough for most peoples as a "boot/apps only" drive.

Im quite jealous of this. When the hard disc in mine died i simply put a new conventional hard drive in it, sold it and bought a new iMac. Should have just put an SSD in it and got a few more years use out of it. boo hoo :(
 
Paulywauly said:
I'd recommend double checking your prices, you can get perfectly good 120/128GB SSDs for under £200 nowadays which should be more than enough for most peoples as a "boot/apps only" drive.

Im quite jealous of this. When the hard disc in mine died i simply put a new conventional hard drive in it, sold it and bought a new iMac. Should have just put an SSD in it and got a few more years use out of it. boo hoo :(
Click to expand...

Most of my prices for stuff like this come from eBay, admittedly the last time i looked at a 64GB SSD was on eBay about 3 months ago and they were in fact going for over £200, i originally thought it was due to the read/write speed since some SSD's (the stock 8GB Asus Eee PC SSD's for example) are really slow. If anyone has any specific SSD recommendations, would love to hear it :)

Edit: Also, just watched a video on howto replace the hard disk in an iMac, looks a little complex for me, never liked removing screens from anything, they are so easily breakable. Heh, i guess when the 250GB one in the iMac dies, then i'll get a new one. Just a quick question on hard disks though, does any mac actually utilize a hard disks S.M.A.R.T functionality? Because my friend said he knew his hard disk was failing (few bad blocks, read errors/etc.) but the mac would report the S.M.A.R.T status as Verified.
 
Hi User1690,
just get app. 'SMARTReporter'.
Here is a screenshot, it resides in your bar (as you can see the green HD icon):
 

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