Which adobe creative suite for my 2007/8 imac?

[farmboyuk]

Hi,
My wife has given me her old imac which is a 2007 or 8 (sorry at work at the moment so cann't check) and I know she has updated the operating software to snow leopard and I am going to update the RAM to 4MB.
I just want to use to do some design work but after looking googling I am unsure which Adobe Creative Suite would be compatible with this imac/operating system and I don't want to lay out a few hundred quid on software which won't work. The earlier version and cheaper the better as I only use Photoshop and Illustrator on the PC in the past, if anyone can recommend what I require it would be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

 

[chibiterasu]

As you don't know which one you have got I'm going to assume you have a 20 inch 2007 basic config iMac. Which means you have a 2.0ghz intel core 2 duo with a ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT 128mb with as you mentioned 4gb of ram. I would say you can run cs5. I think this because I'm running cs5 on my MacBook (specs below) without any problems. Obviously with cs6 around the corner cs5 will drop in price but seeing as you only have used illustrator and photoshop an older version would be fine just watch out because adobe are nasty with some of there software like I can't open an indesign file created in cs5.5 in cs5 (unless its in an .idml format which is another headache). Hope this helps

 

[BryanSanDiego]

Chibiterasu,

Just like farmboyuk said I also have no issues with running CS5 on a late 2008 Macbook Pro 15” this shares similar specifications as your iMac. I would have to say a must is 4gb of ram. I have found that OWC makes a 6gb ram kit for your iMac and I know a few friends or coworkers that use the 6gb kits in the older macbooks like mine. Apple claims support only to 4gb however it is worth it if you are already upgrading.


Best of luck,
Bryan Simonson

 

[Moonjumper]

Adobe have 1 month free trials on their current software. Try that. If the latest version works (which I suspect it will), then any version will.

 

[thekev]

Adobe have 1 month free trials on their current software. Try that. If the latest version works (which I suspect it will), then any version will.

I know they are dropping support for 32 bit efi macs. http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2012/03/ps-cs6-drops-vista-32-bit-mac-support.html

If it's too old and you must run CS6, Windows 7 under bootcamp might be an option. They previously cited this was because Apple was doing the same with Mountain Lion. It will probably annoy quite a few people as this looks like a worthwhile release. Anyway... this doesn't truly surprise me.

 

[farmboyuk]

Thanks to all who have replied. Much appreciated.

 

[Medic278]

I have the CS4 suite on my MBP and I love it. I think it would work very well for you and generally can be found cheaper. There is nothing that it hasn't been able to do yet!