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New old iMac: how to upgrade?

N

nameish

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 9, 2010
6
0
Hey, guys. I'm about to buy an iMac from 2008 with the following characteristics:

Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac7,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per processor): 4 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Disco: 500GB
Bus Speed: 800 MHz
Boot ROM Version: IM71.007A.B03
SMC Version: 1.20f4
Bought in 2008

I'm a graphic designer and use many graphic oriented softwares.

My question is: is this iMac do me any good or is it a waste of money?

And: what do I need to do to upgrade it for Leopard?

Thank you so much.
 
spinnerlys said:
You can upgrade the RAM to 6GB by buying one 2GB and one 4GB stick of 200-pin 667 MHz PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM.


And as Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard was released in 2007, it will already have Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard on it, if it was bought after 10/2007 (the model you are talking about ran from 8/2007 till 4/2008). If you are talking about Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, you can just buy the Snow Leopard Upgrade DVD for 29 USD.

Btw, check www.mac2sell.net for price recommendations.
Click to expand...



I meant Snow Leopard, sorry! :)

how much will that gonna cost me? 139$ + 29$?
 
nameish said:
yep! that's great. ;) but how snow leopard operates without those memory upgrades?
Click to expand...

2GB will suffice, but if you are running RAM hungry applications, the more RAM the better. I have the 2GHz iMac of that same iMac 7,1 series and have 4GB RAM and sometimes even that it too slow with Lightroom and PS.
 
spinnerlys said:
2GB will suffice, but if you are running RAM hungry applications, the more RAM the better. I have the 2GHz iMac of that same iMac 7,1 series and have 4GB RAM and sometimes even that it too slow with Lightroom and PS.
Click to expand...

thank you all so much. ;)
 
Yes I can def say that more RAM will help. I use Lightroom and PS CS5 on a daily basis and even with 4GB of RAM I am pushing it.
 
Zach Schible said:
Yes I can def say that more RAM will help. I use Lightroom and PS CS5 on a daily basis and even with 4GB of RAM I am pushing it.
Click to expand...

but for your reply, can I assume that, with the proper updates, it is a "safe" investment for graphic design? ;)
 
i've been running an 08/2007 iMac (with 3GB RAM) since it came out and it is still running flawlessly. runs Snow Leopard great (you just need to buy the Snow Leopard upgrade disc btw). runs Adobe CS3 great (i mainly use photoshop and illustrator). runs iLife 11 great. i don't use Lightroom, maybe that would require more RAM, but RAM is cheap these days. max out your RAM and you have a very capable machine!
 
My first question is how much are you paying for it? I have a 24inch iMac with the 2.8 gig processor and 2 gig ram, it runs awesome. But remember apple sells refurbished machines and has great deals on 27" iMacs. So make sure you are considering the price.
 
Grubster said:
My first question is how much are you paying for it? I have a 24inch iMac with the 2.8 gig processor and 2 gig ram, it runs awesome. But remember apple sells refurbished machines and has great deals on 27" iMacs. So make sure you are considering the price.
Click to expand...


It's a friend who wants to sell. She's selling for the biggest offer. Last week it was in 400 €
 
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