Upgrade Q's

[generationxwing]

I got my iMac (2.0 Intel Core 2 Duo, 1gig of Ram) in April, and I love it as it is. Once I turn it on, the computer is ready to go in like 30 seconds (including time to log in). To me, that's awesome, and one of the highlights of my iMac. I really don't want to wreck that.

However, Leopard looks really cool and I want to upgrade to it. But I don't want to lose the performance that I currently have. So, if I added another gig of RAM, would that make a big difference? Or will Leopard even slow down my iMac very much at all if I leave the Ram as it is? I keep reading about how Leopard's 64 bit and I think my iMac is 64 bit, but I really don't understand most of that crap.

Also, when I install Leopard can I choose an "advanced" option where I can just not install the things I don't want?

I've never before upgraded a computer's OS, and this is my first Mac. I just want to know what kind of impact having a new OS will have on system performance.

Thanks for the help!

 

[72930]

Your iMac is 64bit, and Leopard will run as smooth as Tiger does...however another gig of RAM is always good

 

[flopticalcube]

To see if more RAM will help you, open Activity Monitor and look at the coloured disk. Lots of yellow and red (more than say 75%) and a page in/out ratio of less than 10:1 mean you will benefit from more RAM. Do this while working on your usual number of applications.

 

[MacinDoc]

10.5 should not be noticeably slower than 10.4, and may even be faster, depending on how well performance was tweaked in the final build.

"Advanced" installation may be available, but will not likely help you to improve performance. It won't allow you to not install eye candy, for example. Optional UI elemens can be turned off in System Preferences, however, or whatever they are called in 10.5.

For many demanding applications, performance is improved with increased RAM. OWC (www.macsales.com) has comparison charts for iMacs with different applications and RAM configurations.

 

[generationxwing]

To see if more RAM will help you, open Activity Monitor and look at the coloured disk. Lots of yellow and red (more than say 75%) and a page in/out ratio of less than 10:1 mean you will benefit from more RAM. Do this while working on your usual number of applications.

Here's a screen cap of what I had running a couple of IM programs, iTunes, Firefox and a finder window open. Now, that's with Tiger. I'm assuming that Leopard will use up more resources. So in the expert opinion of Mac fans who know waaaaaay more about computers than I do, will having 2 gigs of ram total make Leopard run about the same as Tiger currently does?

Thanks!!

 

[yetanotherdave]

Here's a screen cap of what I had running a couple of IM programs, iTunes, Firefox and a finder window open. Now, that's with Tiger. I'm assuming that Leopard will use up more resources. So in the expert opinion of Mac fans who know waaaaaay more about computers than I do, will having 2 gigs of ram total make Leopard run about the same as Tiger currently does?

Thanks!!

From everything I've heard and read Leopard will increase the performace without needing to add any extra RAM. In a stark contrast to microsoft, each upgrade actually is an upgrade, more efficient code that allows the same machine to do more.

More RAM is always nice though, not always necessary, I noticed a big difference in my macbook going from 1 to 2 gig though.

 

[rmh]

So in the expert opinion of Mac fans who know waaaaaay more about computers than I do, will having 2 gigs of ram total make Leopard run about the same as Tiger currently does?

You should be fine with 1GB. I say just go ahead and install Leopard with your current setup. If you notice that more memory is being used and your iMac starts to lag, then go ahead and bump it up to 2GB. However, I would just say if you've got the cash, go ahead and get the RAM anyway, it can't hurt.