iM 4,1-14,4 Monterey on iMac (27-inch, Late 2009)

[ejj18]

I am trying to upgrade my iMac (27-inch, Late 2009, 16Gb RAM), to continue working on photos with the new version of PhotoLab, which is becoming rather slow and even unstable on this mac.

Is it possible to:

1. CCC the 1TB HDD (extended, journaled - no partition) from the current iMac (27-inch Late 2009) to a 2TB Crucial in APFS format?

2. Install Monterey on a different volume of the SSD and eventually Ventura with 0.6.8 OCLP, on another volume of the SSD?

 

[DCBassman]

What Processor? If the late 2009 Core 2 Duo, you're really stretching it. If it's an i7-equipped model, maybe, but anything past High Sierra won't perfom well graphically, maybe not at all for some apps.

 

[ejj18]

iMac (27-inch, Late 2009)
3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
16 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
ATI Radeon HD 4670 256 MB
High Sierra 10.13.6 (17G14042)

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

iMac (27-inch, Late 2009)
3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
16 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
ATI Radeon HD 4670 256 MB
High Sierra 10.13.6 (17G14042)

I think your iMac can be used as a display in Target Display Mode.
OS and Applications can be installed in a Mac Mini M1 or M2, which is fully supported with newer Mac OS.

 

[DCBassman]

iMac (27-inch, Late 2009)
3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
16 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
ATI Radeon HD 4670 256 MB
High Sierra 10.13.6 (17G14042)

I have taken mine to Monterey, but only in order to get updated apps. It's back on High Sierra now. I also have a mid-2011 21.5 running Monterey, and that seems to cope well. My rather unhelpful suggestion is to try and find a 27" 2011 machine, either equipped with, or upgraded to, an i7-2600 processor. The 27" has a beefier PSU and can handle the full-power 2600, which is still a very powerful CPU. This model can also take 32GB RAM. With a good SSD, it makes for a quick machine.

 

[ejj18]

Interesting.

I installed Monterey and Big Sur on my iMac (27-inch, Late 2009). They are both unstable.

BTW there is no Catalina upgrade.

How do you revert to previous version (Monterey to High Sierra), once you updated apps?

How do you remove an unwanted MacOS OCLP version (Big Sur) from your system? Erasing the Big Sur volume?

How much is a 27" 2011 machine, either equipped with, or upgraded to, an i7-2600 processor? and
How long an iMac 27" 2011 will support later MacOS installed with OCLP?

It looks like kicking the can down the road for another 2 or 3 years.
My 14-year old iMac (27-inch, Later 2009) is already difficult, if not impossible, to upgrade even with 0.6.8 OCLP.
A 12-year old iMac (27-inch 2011 ,with an i7-2600 processor) could have only 2 to 3 years left in terms of OS upgrade with OCLP.

 

[DCBassman]

Interesting.

I installed Monterey and Big Sur on my iMac (27-inch, Late 2009). They are both unstable.

BTW there is no Catalina upgrade.

How do you revert to previous version (Monterey to High Sierra), once you updated apps?

How do you remove an unwanted MacOS OCLP version (Big Sur) from your system? Erasing the Big Sur volume?

How much is a 27" 2011 machine, either equipped with, or upgraded to, an i7-2600 processor? and
How long an iMac 27" 2011 will support later MacOS installed with OCLP?

It looks like kicking the can down the road for another 2 or 3 years.
My 14-year old iMac (27-inch, Later 2009) is already difficult, if not impossible, to upgrade even with 0.6.8 OCLP.
A 12-year old iMac (27-inch 2011 ,with an i7-2600 processor) could have only 2 to 3 years left in terms of OS upgrade with OCLP.

Definitely unstable. As said, only to get to the later App Store to get iWorks apps.
Cataline only available via @dosdude1 patch from High Sierra or earlier.
I use a USB installer and simply blow the whole disk away, starting from scratch.
Here, UK, a 2011 machine anything from £75 - 125 and upward. As with all these 27" machines, faulty graphics cards can be a problem.
OCLP might well keep these going a few years longer than that, but plainly it's not open-ended. Machines past this are very difficult to upgrade or repair, but are easier to take onward to later macos versions.
Unless you absolutely need MacOS for a specific task, it would be cheaper to get hold of a Windows 10 machine. If MAcos is an absolute must, a later machine is definitely a better idea.Anything that will handle Catalina natively will push up to Monterey easily, and beyond, if this 2011 is anything to go by. But I don't do anything too taxing with it. I dare say if I suddenly had an urge to do some heavy Photoshop, it would fall over pretty quick!