Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
El Capitan Performance on Mid 2007 iMac
- Thread starter Stuey3D
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
When installing 10.11 is it better to do a fresh install and migrate after? or just let it update normally? I want to be able to have all my content and setting available. Just letting it normally update the current partition seems the easiest but will it be as fast as you are describing with your iMac? I mean eventually if I wait till GM then I will end up just updating normally anyways. I have a 2013 Macbook Air and I have already installed 10.11 on a separate partition but ended up just deleting it because its kinda useless for me without all my normal stuff.
Is the consensus still that El Capitan is better than Yosemite on a Mid-2007 iMac? Or at least not worse than Yosemite. I'm hoping to perform a fresh install of El Capitan on my 20" 2007 iMac this weekend. I already have 4GB of RAM and an SSD installed.
Did a clean install on my mid 07 iMac, same specs as the OP except with 6GB of RAM and a 120 GB SSD. Definitely runs a lot better than Yosemite, though part of that may be due to doing a secure erase on the SSD. Enabled TRIM too. I'd go for it.
Can anyone compare 10.6.8 to 10.11 on a mid 2007 machine? I am forced to upgrade due to iOS9/iTunes trap ( iTunes !!! 11.4 proposed to upgrade my iPhone to iOS9, just to tell me later that it can no longer communicate with my iPhone.
as iTunes 12 is not for 10.6.8 and downgrading to iOS 8 is no longer possible, i am trapped. )i've got 4GB ram. 10.9 was hardly possible on that machine. (an 10,000 emails were lost during import...)
Thanks
btw, before upgrading:
i think i got a bootable usb stick (and a DVD) with SL. is that in combination with TM Backup ok, or is it of advantage to create a real image with apples disk utility. thats what i did last time to recover, but it takes so long for a 400GB image ...
i think i got a bootable usb stick (and a DVD) with SL. is that in combination with TM Backup ok, or is it of advantage to create a real image with apples disk utility. thats what i did last time to recover, but it takes so long for a 400GB image ...
Last edited:
Hey i tried it. I even failed to do a clean install, accidentally just overwrote the old one. First start of Apps was slow of course, but then almost like 10.6.8. 2.4 GHz Core Duo, 4GB RAM on a mid 2007 iMac
I found this post and it gave me confidence to go ahead with an upgrade. I made an install disk and started up the iMac to kickoff the installation, however it is telling me I "cannot upgrade this version of OS X."
Here's the photo....
Could you help me understand what's wrong?
Thanks!
Alistair
hey so i have a iMac (20-inch, Mid 2007) processor
2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, memory
2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, graphics
ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro 256 MB,
So i was wondering how i can or what i can i put on this pc to make it run faster? it has os 10.11.1 el capitan.....what else can i update to make it as fast as the latest ones
2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, memory
2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, graphics
ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro 256 MB,
So i was wondering how i can or what i can i put on this pc to make it run faster? it has os 10.11.1 el capitan.....what else can i update to make it as fast as the latest ones
You can upgrade the RAM to 4 or 6 GB and you can replace the HDD with an SSD and get at least S-ATA 3.0 Gbps speeds. Replacing the HDD is not that easy, but doable with steady hands and patience.
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iMac+Intel+20-Inch+EMC+2105+and+2118+Hard+Drive+Replacement/1092
Like Gwendolini said you can upgrade to SSD and increase RAM but your Mac still has slow processor and GPU which won't be helping things. For light use El Capitan may work but it won't be anywhere as fast as 10.6.8.
I too have the mid 2007 iMac, 2.0 ghz, 4gb ram... I tried both Yosemite and mavericks and both slowed the Finder down quite a bit. I could not take it and went back to snow leopard. Im tempted to try El Capitan but I'm worried I'll get the same results... finder operations were quite slow, things like copy files and folders, creating new folders, moving things to the trash, things like that. if anyone has El Captian on a imac like mine, id love to hear how it runs and performs..
Sounds like we have the same machine. My question is where did you buy the RAM. I found 1 site but they needed me to buy a 3 1/2 inch converter which i really didn't want to do... Thanks!
Hey Stuey--
I have the same mid-2007 (24") iMac that you did in the initial posting, running 10.11.6, now. I am considering selling the machine OR upgrading the RAM--do you have any hope for me upgrading the RAM to improve speed of use? It's very laggy now, even with just Safari running, so I just have been avoiding using it in favor of my MBA.
I currently have 3 GB of RAM installed (I upgraded several years ago from 2!) and have read that I can go up to 6 GB. Will this make any difference? Is it worth it or should I start thinking about investing in a new machine and not spend any more $$ on this survivor?
Thanks--JB
I have the same mid-2007 (24") iMac that you did in the initial posting, running 10.11.6, now. I am considering selling the machine OR upgrading the RAM--do you have any hope for me upgrading the RAM to improve speed of use? It's very laggy now, even with just Safari running, so I just have been avoiding using it in favor of my MBA.
I currently have 3 GB of RAM installed (I upgraded several years ago from 2!) and have read that I can go up to 6 GB. Will this make any difference? Is it worth it or should I start thinking about investing in a new machine and not spend any more $$ on this survivor?
Thanks--JB
- - - - -
Hello JB (t0m4t0) ~
The decision to keep or dispose of your mid-2007 24-inch iMac will likely depend on its original intended function. That is, does your MacBook handle all of your mission critical computing now? If the quick answer is yes, then perhaps it’s time to retire your older desktop machine (if you haven’t already).
But if you’re hesitant to arrive at that conclusion, then I would suggest a bit of pro/con brain-storming may help. The typical mid-2007 24-inch iMac featured a dual-core 2.4 GHz CPU and bus speed of 800 MHz (robust by 2007 standards, but sadly not today). So increasing RAM from the original 2 GB is a respectable idea, and will help the machine ‘breathe’ easier. The ‘speed’ catch is probably going to be directly related to the apps that are running on your 24-inch iMac, in terms of 32- or 64-bit. The bigger the bit-word, the less swapping that happens simply because more memory is addressed, and the faster the machine operates. Some technical wonk is free to jump in, but in my experience, the average iMac user back in 2007 likely wasn’t privy to many 64-bit apps. On the other hand, there was a plethora of 32-bit apps available, at affordable price-points.
While you’re pondering over your pro/con list, here’s a little back-story. . .
We have two older machines in this household. My wife has a mid-2009 MacBook Pro (dual-core 2.53 GHz), and I have the exact mid-2007 24-inch iMac that you have (I doubled the RAM to 4 GB about 6 years ago). Just last week I upgraded the MacBook to ‘El Capitan’ without a hitch, including the Java RunTime tools to accommodate/support older 32-bit apps that my wife was fond of, and wanted to keep using. All peripheral drivers, etc. were updated, and the MacBook is working exceptionally well (albeit nowhere near light-speed).
On the other hand, I’m still running Snow Leopard 10.6.8 on my old desktop. When I purchased this machine in the distant past, and brought it home, it was an instant sensation. I estimate my productivity increased 300-400%, and with great ceremony, I kicked my MS box to the curb (i.e. recycled it a week later). Even my wife admits that this desktop beauty was my new best friend, for a short time at least.
My ‘upgrade anxiety’ is based on the fact that I’m running Adobe Creative Suite version 4, software that I heavily rely on daily, and if the upgrade hiccups in any way, I may lose those apps. The irony here is that CS4 ran natively as 64-bit apps, but not on OS X (you guessed it, on Microsoft boxes). As you know, Adobe no longer provides stand-alone licenses for their production software, and like many other vendors, has moved to a cloud-based subscription business model. A model I’m not too keen on at the moment.
And now the ‘rub’ . . . I have another iMac sitting beside my ‘old friend’ . . . a late-2015 27-inch quad-core 3.2 GHz (with bells & whistles galore); just a ‘run-of-the-mill’ machine that gets stuff done a wee bit quicker than my old 24-inch ‘baby!’ . . . which I am keeping . . . at least until my own pro/con list is decided.
Cheers — RO
Just to chime in, I have a 20" 2007 iMac and I just upgraded the cpu to a T9300, and upgraded the the wifi and bluetooth to 802.11ac and bluetooth 4.0 and have 6GB of ram. I will say that macOS Sierra runs great on it and I have full handoff support. It all cost me $42 USD
I had a 2007 24" iMac also and it can indeed make use of 6GB of RAM total. A very worthwhile investment and the other upgrade I would do is to somehow get an SSD in there in place of the spinner. Then you've got a machine that's good for a few more years as the SSD breathes new life into the system. I don't think C2D nor the GPU are bottlenecks unless you make use of CPU/GPU intensive apps like playing computer games of running video/photo processing software.
You can also remove the useless superdrive and add a caddy for a second hard drive
RO -- Thank you so much for your response. And thanks to all for sharing your experiences, too!
In the last month and a half, I actually went out and replaced my laptop, upgrading to the new Pro (no Touch Bar, though; no thanks). Since I've done this, similar to your backstory, my productivity has increased two-fold at least and I haven't even touched the iMac. I think with this upgrade, my iMac should now be sent on to greener pastures.
Do you have any thoughts about setting an asking price for this workhorse?
-JB
Hi there Stuey3D,
Hope you don't mind me messaging you, but after reading your topic I thought you would be the right guy to ask.
I have only just found out that a Mid 2007 20 inch iMac can take 6GB of RAM! I myself upped my RAM from the bog standard 1GB to 4GB (2GB in each slot), but after find this snippet out I am now seriously think about upping it to 6GB. By what I can see, the way to do this is by getting a 4GB and a 2GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM cards. With that in mind, do you think I could get away with just buying and installing a 4GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM?
Am I right in assuming that the 4GB card will have to go into the 1st RAM slot?
Thanks in advance from a fellow Cobbler,
Phil
Hope you don't mind me messaging you, but after reading your topic I thought you would be the right guy to ask.
I have only just found out that a Mid 2007 20 inch iMac can take 6GB of RAM! I myself upped my RAM from the bog standard 1GB to 4GB (2GB in each slot), but after find this snippet out I am now seriously think about upping it to 6GB. By what I can see, the way to do this is by getting a 4GB and a 2GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM cards. With that in mind, do you think I could get away with just buying and installing a 4GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM?
Am I right in assuming that the 4GB card will have to go into the 1st RAM slot?
Thanks in advance from a fellow Cobbler,
Phil
I'd forget the RAM and install an SSD if you've not already done so. My 2007 24" iMac runs El Capitan with no lag and my SSD drive is at least 3 years old so new one's are probably much better. I also upgraded the RAM to 4GB but I believe the SSD made the real difference.
Likely by using info similar to what is available in this thread.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/os-x-el-capitan-on-unsupported-macs.1889851/