upgrading 2006 iMac -- Best OS?

[MBHockey]

I am upgrading an old C2D iMac with a samsung ssd and 2gb of ram. I am debating between loading Snow Leopard or Lion.

I am leaning towards SL because it is a great, stable, optimized OS and only required 1 GB of ram while Lion requires 2 gb (the max I can put in the iMac).

what do you think?

 

[wim.v]

I'm also a huge fan of SL.
After SL, OSX went downhill in my opinion.
Since using Lion and Mountain Lion I feel like I need to format my macs once every year or even more…
SL was indeed the most stable OS!

 

[Phazer]

With your machine I would definitely suggest installing Snow Leopard

 

[MBHockey]

Thanks, yeah I think i'll stick with SL. I agree, things got strange after SL. I wish I could install SL on my new Air.

I did read that I can actually put 4 GB of ram in this imac, though. So between the 4 GB of ram, SSD, and SL i think the machine is going to work well for a few more years.

Not bad, considering I picked it up in 2009 for a few hundred bucks off eBay.

 

[davegoody]

Thanks, yeah I think i'll stick with SL. I agree, things got strange after SL. I wish I could install SL on my new Air.

I did read that I can actually put 4 GB of ram in this imac, though. So between the 4 GB of ram, SSD, and SL i think the machine is going to work well for a few more years.

Not bad, considering I picked it up in 2009 for a few hundred bucks off eBay.

The iMac will, indeed, work with 4GB of RAM, but the Sandy-Bridge chipset for this model will only be able to access 3.5GB of the RAM. "About this Mac" will display 4GB, but only 3.5GB of it will be accessible by the OS.

 

[Brian33]

I've got a 24" Early 2008 Core 2 Duo (2.8 GHz). I'm now happy on 10.8 Mountain Lion, but I have 6 GB of RAM.

I would agree with the other that 10.6 is probably best for 2 GB of RAM, but that's just a gut feeling. I loved SL -- the only reason I upgraded to ML was because I wanted to put a do-it-yourself Fusion Drive in my iMac.

If I were you I would get the machine all set up nicely with SL, and reliably backed-up. Then if you ever feel the need for ML, you can try it out and if it doesn't work well on your machine you can go back by restoring your SL setup.

 

[vockman]

Watch out with 10.6.8 Snow Leopard

My 2006 or 2007 I mac (first generation metal iMac) started crashing inconsistently and was unrepairable after upgrading from leopard to Snow Leopard with the 10.6.8 upgrade disc.

The was a whole thread about this phenomena n this forum a couple of weeks ago:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1262891/

 

[MBHockey]

My 2006 or 2007 I mac (first generation metal iMac) started crashing inconsistently and was unrepairable after upgrading from leopard to Snow Leopard with the 10.6.8 upgrade disc.

The was a whole thread about this phenomena n this forum a couple of weeks ago:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1262891/

Interesting, this is a late 2006 though. The white model, not aluminum.

I already made a bootable USB flash drive with SL on it from an old retail disc I had lying around the house. I'll be installing the drive later today and putting SL on it. The ram should arrive tomorrow. I ran an Xbench today before i took it apart to get the HD out, i'll report back with the results of the upgrade in terms of xbench and overall feel.

Hopefully it turns back on after all this...

 

[gavinstubbs09]

Snow Leopard! If the max it can run is Lion I usually just throw SL on it. If it has the capability to run ML/Mavericks, I'll install that.

 

[tomnavratil]

Even with upgrades (RAM etc.), I would stick with Snow Leopard! Very stable OS with only a few issues.

 

[jg321]

The iMac will, indeed, work with 4GB of RAM, but the Sandy-Bridge chipset for this model will only be able to access 3.5GB of the RAM. "About this Mac" will display 4GB, but only 3.5GB of it will be accessible by the OS.

Sandy Bridge is the 2nd generation of "Core i" processors. I think you're getting your bridges muddled up!

 

[MBHockey]

thanks all

Went with SL. Just restoring from the backup now. Recognized the Samsung SSD and installed SL without any hiccups.

The 4GB of ram comes tomorrow. I realize it may only use 3 to 3.5 GB, but according to OWC's tests for this model, 4GB outperforms 3GB, so I went with that.