Uprades for 20" 2.66GHz iMac (early 2008 model)

[rb76]

Hi everyone

I'm hoping somebody can help me out with this multi-layered question.

Having installed Lion (besides being annoyed with losing Rosetta support!) my iMac is running noticeably slower than under Snow Leopard, so I want to know what upgrades I can do to my machine.
Also, I'd like to try dual-boot option for 10.6 / 10.7 as I really need to use some older PPC applications (yeah, I got suckered into the whole Lion release excitement and didn't check or even think about PPC support in the new OS! Now kicking myself, although I do love Lion).

So... I've tried to find out if I can add 2nd HDD into my machine, or if it will work with a nice new super-duper fast SSD?

My machine specs currently are:

20" iMac (April 2008)
2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro 256MB GDDR3
320GB HDD (as shipped)
2GB DDR2 RAM (as shipped)
Iomega iMAX 500GB external FW400 HDD

First idea came to my head was the obvious and very easy RAM upgrade to 4GB which I've just ordered from Crucial... but is there anything else at all I can do like add 2nd HDD, upgrade graphics, upgrade to SSD?
Can't find much info on it, all I can see is how to max out newer iMacs and Mac Pros

Any help very much appreciated.

Thanks

PS: I'd love to be able to afford a newer iMac, but just can't at the mo so have to try and make do

 

[rkaufmann87]

Upgrading RAM is all you can do. The GPU nor CPU are upgradeable. You could upgrade the HD if you want however that will only provide more storage, that would only help if your system was almost out of HD space.

 

[rb76]

Thanks for the info.

Do you know if my iMac will take an SSD drive? If so, any recommendations on which one to go for?

Many thanks

 

[robgendreau]

Try:

http://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/42219/Installing+a+HD+in+optical+drive+bay