Run New OS's on my hardware?

[imisch]

I have a iMac , which was upgraded from a 1.83ghz cpu to a Intel Core 2 duo 7250 CPU at 2.0ghz (I plan to later go to a Core 2 Duo Extreme). For now, Im using a 7250, and i am curious if I can run Yosemite or Mavericks. I currently only have 1gb of ram but I will upgrade to 4GB in like a week or two.

Thanks in advance!

 

[SandboxGeneral]

Which iMac do you have? Year and model number?

 

[imisch]

Which iMac do you have? Year and model number?

iMac Late 2006 , MA710LL which i upgraded to a C2D 2.0ghz

 

[SandboxGeneral]

iMac Late 2006 , MA710LL which i upgraded to a C2D 2.0ghz

It looks like the latest OS it can run is Lion, 10.7.5.

 

[imisch]

It looks like the latest OS it can run is Lion, 10.7.5.

I am curious as to why it cant run higher than Lion, is it a hardware requirement?

 

[SandboxGeneral]

I am curious as to why it cant run higher than Lion, is it a hardware requirement?

Yeah. Apple designed their OS's to run on specific hardware, and at some point they decide to make them only work so far back. I looked up your Mac in MacTracker and it advised that 10.7.5 was the highest OS that particular Mac would run.

 

[imisch]

Yeah. Apple designed their OS's to run on specific hardware, and at some point they decide to make them only work so far back. I looked up your Mac in MacTracker and it advised that 10.7.5 was the highest OS that particular Mac would run.

What about upgrading my hardware, to like a Intel Core 2 Duo Extreme X7900 and 4GB of ram(has been done before)

 

[SandboxGeneral]

What about upgrading my hardware, to like a Intel Core 2 Duo Extreme X7900 and 4GB of ram(has been done before)

I don't know about upgrading CPU's on Mac's, but I have to assume there is a limit to what can be done, and the OS can detect what it there and either allow or disallow an installation based on the detected parameters.

I guess that, for all intents and purposes, 10.7.5 is all you could get onto that Mac.

 

[velocityg4]

You might want to peruse this thread on installing Mavericks on older Mac's. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1593194/

The biggest issue I know of is the Intel integrated graphics. Given that your iMac has the ATI Radeon X1600 it may be possible to get Mavericks to work with full video support. You'd have to dig into that unless someone knows.

 

[Altemose]

What about upgrading my hardware, to like a Intel Core 2 Duo Extreme X7900 and 4GB of ram(has been done before)

The Intel graphics is the limiting factor. You have a 32 bit GPU with a 64 bit CPU. Mountain Lion/Mavericks/Yosemite are all entirely 64 bit operating systems.

 

[Intell]

That iMac cannot use an Intell X7900. The fastest CPU it can use is the Intell T7600 which runs at 2.33Ghz with a 667Mhz bus. That iMac's limitation in running newer CPUs is its 667Mhz bus.