iMac Late 2006

[daveyanthony]

Hi, I am thinking about getting a 24 inch model for collecting, but I was wondering, since both the CPU and GPU are upgradeable, would I be able to hack mavericks or even yosemite to run smoothly (ie: a supported graphics card and drivers)? I know the OEM card is not supported but surely another MXM card is, like one from a newer iMac?

 

[Nicole1980]

Hi, I am thinking about getting a 24 inch model for collecting, but I was wondering, since both the CPU and GPU are upgradeable, would I be able to hack mavericks or even yosemite to run smoothly (ie: a supported graphics card and drivers)? I know the OEM card is not supported but surely another MXM card is, like one from a newer iMac?

Technically they are upgradeable, but it's really difficult and it involves tearing apart almost the whole system. That's not the real issue though. The real issue would be finding any kind of cpu or gnu upgrades that would work with that socket and motherboard that would give you any increase in performance worth bothering with.

If it were me, I would simply replace the SATA hard drive with a SATA SSD, which is a much easier upgrade than the cpu or cpu, and would definitely give you a noticeable performance gain.

Also, on the subject of OS's, for that system, were it me again, I would install the late great Snow Leopard on it. Especially if you are just keeping it as a collectors item, having what some people would argue is the 'best Mac OS ever' on that computer would seem fitting.