Snow Leopard to El Capitan

[rosenthalm1]

Hi All,

I have a 2010 Imac 27" with 4GB Ram and 1 TB of HD space left. I run Snow Leopard and love it, however Itunes and some other things are not able to upgrade anymore unless I upgrade my OS. My question is, will El Capitan run okay on 4GB of Ram? I don't want a major slow down and love the look of Snow Leopard, but I also love new things and am wanting to be able to upgrade my apps and have more compatability with IOS 9. Please advise on your experiences.

Thanks,
Matt

 

[RobFog]

* compatibility

- You're better off with an SSD instead of a HD.
- 4GB of RAM is too little, especially in combination with a HD.

 

[rosenthalm1]

* compatibility

- You're better off with an SSD instead of a HD.
- 4GB of RAM is too little, especially in combination with a HD.

What is SSD? Every Mac has a Hard Drive. Why do they say 2GB Ram required if 4GB won't run?

 

[BrettApple]

Honestly, if you don't do a heck of a lot on that iMac, it should run just fine.

I've got over 50 Macs at my workplace that I manage and we have them from 2007 to current.

I just did an upgrade on one that was used for ProPresenter and lighting to El Capitan and it is a Late 2009 21.5" model with a Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD, and a 9400m.

Performance is still perfectly acceptable for running Ableton Live 9, ProPresenter, Byron Vista, and general web browsing/MS Office 2016.

That being said, I would highly recommend an SSD, I've been putting them in a lot of our Macs as the hard drives die (2007-2013 models thus far) and it makes a huge difference. More so than the RAM if you aren't doing heavy multitasking, even then I'd go for an SSD first. They are user installable if you can follow a guide and are careful.

 

[F1Mac]

Why do they say 2GB Ram required if 4GB won't run?

It's not that it won't run, it's that it will be slow. That's why they call it minimum system requirements 2GB or 4GB is really not much these days.

As for the SSD (Solid State Drive), the only thing you need to know is that they are much, much faster than regular HDs. If you want more details, have fun with this wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_drive

 

[rosenthalm1]

Would adding more RAM help? If so how much?

 

[F1Mac]

Would adding more RAM help? If so how much?

Depends on how much you want to invest... For 125$+ you can have 16 GB.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/iMac/2010/DDR3_21.5_27

 

[rosenthalm1]

Depends on how much you want to invest... For 125$+ you can have 16 GB.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/iMac/2010/DDR3_21.5_27

Thanks, it says a max of 16gb for my imac and I already have 4gb. So can I add a 8gb and a 4gb? Not sure how many slots are available.

 

[Ebenezum]

It also depends on what kind of software you use. For light use 4 GB could be enough. If you have more demanding needs I recommend at least 8 GB.

You probably won't enjoy El Capitan without SSD because 10.9 and newer is considerable slower on hard drive compared to Snow Leopard.

I also recommend waiting 2 or 3 updates to El Capitan before upgrading, I am not saying you will certainly have problems but if you look at El Capitan bug threads in this forum there are serious problems with some software (both Apple and third party).

 

[rosenthalm1]

It also depends on what kind of software you use. For light use 4 GB could be enough. If you have more demanding needs I recommend at least 8 GB.

You probably won't enjoy El Capitan without SSD because 10.9 and newer is considerable slower on hard drive compared to Snow Leopard.

I also recommend waiting 2 or 3 updates to El Capitan before upgrading, I am not saying you will certainly have problems but if you look at El Capitan bug threads in this forum there are serious problems with some software (both Apple and third party).

Does SDD replace HD? Do you remove HD to install an SDD? If so can you send a link to purchase one?

 

[rosenthalm1]

Would I just get an SSD large enough for the OS or do I need it for all of my files and apps?

 

[Ebenezum]

Yes SSD replaces HD. You need a 3.5>2.5 adapter because SSD is much smaller and its hard to secure without one. You can find instructions here. Its not exactly trivial so if your not certain it might be better to leave install to professional. Any SATA SSD will work, its up to you which model you want.

 

[MacRobert10]

You can get by with 4GB of RAM, however you will notice an increase in page out/swapping.

You might want to try it on either a test volume or an external drive first. El Capitan will seem like a turtle compared to Snow Leopard and you may not be impressed.

 

[Toutou]

4GB of RAM is too little

it's that it will be slow

For light use 4 GB could be enough

I have a 4 GB rMBP and i would say (from my experience) that four gigs of RAM in OS X, as of today, is enough for hobby DSLR photo editing (I do that), programming (I do that), web browsing of any kind (I do that a lot), watching 4k video (I've done that) and multitasking with around ten apps open (I use it that way), with memory pressure still in green (I can see that). It works, it isn't slow, it isn't limiting. If this guy needs to ask on Macrumors whether 4 GB is enough, he's not a pro photo/video/audio maker/editor/whatever user who knows his hardware needs.

To OP: Get an SSD, those things are dirt cheap and make a huuuge difference. Only worry about the RAM if there's a need (or spare cash ).

 

[fessen]

I tested El Capitan beta for a couple of days with my 2009 MacBook Pro running a HDD. (It's a 7500 rpm upgraded HDD, not the original 5400 rpm HDD). I didn't do extensive testing, but for just browsing the web and watching youtube videos, the HDD was just fine for El Capitan.

I'm not saying don't get an SSD if you want one and can afford one. Just that you won't necessarily be crippled in El Capitan if you only have a HDD. As with anything, it depends on what you will be using the computer to do.

I'm sticking with Snow Leopard until reliable third-party drivers are available for El Capitan for certain devices I use.

 

[leman]

It will run fine with 4GB. People tend to have very high expectations nowadays I mean, its a 2010 computer after all and it will of course be much slower than a 2015 computer, but it won't be that much slower than it already is with 10.6

 

[bmac89]

To OP: Get an SSD, those things are dirt cheap and make a huuuge difference. Only worry about the RAM if there's a need (or spare cash ).

Dirt Cheap!? Am I missing something!!!!?

 

[Ebenezum]

It will run fine with 4GB. People tend to have very high expectations nowadays I mean, its a 2010 computer after all and it will of course be much slower than a 2015 computer, but it won't be that much slower than it already is with 10.6

In my experience 10.6 is much faster in older Macs with hard drives when compared to 10.9-10.11. I am not saying 10.11 will be too slow for normal use but later OS versions are more demanding and it's likely OP will notice the difference between 10.6 and 10.11 in speed.

 

[BrettApple]

Dirt Cheap!? Am I missing something!!!!?

You may have, SSDs have come down a ton in the last few years. I put a 120GB SSD in my 2008 MacBook back in 2011/12 and it was nearly $200. I can get the same size/speed for under/at $50 today. Even 256GB drives are well under $100 for the 850 EVO and MX200/BX100.

"Cheap" is relative of course, but I'd say under $50 for a major performance boost is pretty cheap. Provided you don't have a lot of media or use external storage.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

What follows is my opinion only.

With a 2010 vintage iMac, you may be disappointed with how El Capitan runs from the internal platter-based hard disk drive.
That's to say, your overall experience may S-L-O-W D-O-W-N somewhat.
Perhaps a great deal.

Whether or not one may be bothered by such slowdowns is "a personal thing". What bothers me may not bother you.

So....

If you DO decide to try the upgrade, MAKE SURE that you create a BOOTABLE CLONED BACKUP (using either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper) on an external drive BEFORE you install El Capitan.

If you are unhappy with the upgrade, a bootable cloned backup makes it EASY to "get back to where you once belonged" with your older OS.

If you skip the above, you may find it very difficult to go back.

One other thought:
WIth a 2010 iMac, I would suggest you try OS 10.8.5 "Mountain Lion".
This will "move you forward" somewhat, but won't clog up the older iMac...

Again, my opinion only.
Others will disagree.
Some will disagree vehemently.