The infamous 2007 iMac on Catalina

[ScreenSavers]

So here is is- the iMac that shipped with 10.4 Tiger running 10.15 and very fast at that.

Had to upgrade the CPU (cost me $0!) and the Wifi and Bluetooth shockingly worked out of the box, as well as brightness control. Got this whole thing with keyboard and mouse for $25, and upgraded the ram and put in an SSD.

Why is my 2.5 GHz T9300 showing 400MHz? It shows the same in SL as well.

 

[wardie]

Nice! Impressive for macOS. Is it usable though? Check this out for comparison W10 running on 2006 Pentium D hardware, just, not really feasible.

Can your old PC run Windows 10? The answer will surprise you

How low can you go? Pretty low, you just don't want to be there.

www.pcworld.com

 

[ScreenSavers]

It’s very useable. Just for a test I used chrome, FCP X, logic, and a bunch of other stuff. Threw a spare Magic Trackpad 2 with it and I’ve been using it all day. It’s sitting right next to my 5K iMac but this ones just so satisfying


No way it’s running at 400MHz. Wish I could figure that out.

 

[DVX]

Hey Screensavers,
plz give us more info - links, directions, accessories, erc ... - I’ve got one in my closet that I’d love get it back up and running something modern ?

D

 

[redheeler]

So here is is- the iMac that shipped with 10.4 Tiger running 10.15 and very fast at that.

Had to upgrade the CPU (cost me $0!) and the Wifi and Bluetooth shockingly worked out of the box, as well as brightness control. Got this whole thing with keyboard and mouse for $25, and upgraded the ram and put in an SSD.

Why is my 2.5 GHz T9300 showing 400MHz? It shows the same in SL as well.

Great to see old hardware like this up and running. Wish my Late 2006 iMac would have an upgrade path like this. It's amazing what a difference a single generation can make.

 

[ScreenSavers]

Hey Screensavers,
plz give us more info - links, directions, accessories, erc ... - I’ve got one in my closet that I’d love get it back up and running something modern

D

It’s actually pretty simple! Upgrade the processor to an old T9300 Core 2 Duo (I had some laying around, quite difficult to get to of course,) put in an SSD while you’re in there, max out the RAM, and use Dosdude’s Catalina patcher. This took several tries and a bunch of messing around, but I finally realized it won’t work at all unless it’s APFS formatted. That means when I boot into the Snow Leopard partition I can’t access my Catalina files but who cares about that? Otherwise it’s very useable and the speed feels great for a Core 2 Duo!

 

[ScreenSavers]

Great to see old hardware like this up and running. Wish my Late 2006 iMac would have an upgrade path like this. It's amazing what a difference a single generation can make.

I have a late 2006 iMac too- the LCD is full of lines. I’m surprised yours isn’t... I also have a Core Duo iMac but that would be an early ‘06.

 

[redheeler]

I have a late 2006 iMac too- the LCD is full of lines. I’m surprised yours isn’t... I also have a Core Duo iMac but that would be an early ‘06.

The 17" and 20" models are prone to issues like that. Mine is a 24" and still going strong, with the factory-upgraded Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT GPU and T7600 CPU. It's fast enough to handle 1080p video playback (if the software is optimized well like VLC), which I don't think is true for any of the other models.

It's limited by software because it is stuck at OS X 10.8.5. This has to do with later versions requiring 64-bit kernel extensions which were never provided by Apple for this particular GPU. Very frustrating use of planned obsolescence that occurred with these (though luckily not the 2007 iMacs, which were supported through El Capitan).

 

[ScreenSavers]

I guess you're using MLPostFactor... this one can play 1080P video off of YouTube with Catalina pretty easily- that's impressive, considering this thing is on it's twelfth operating system!

 

[redheeler]

I guess you're using MLPostFactor... this one can play 1080P video off of YouTube with Catalina pretty easily- that's impressive, considering this thing is on it's twelfth operating system!

Are you using Safari to play YouTube? The Safari in Mountain Lion is too old to be an option anymore. I typically use VLC to play YouTube via youtube-dl, playback works in Waterfox too but drops more frames.

Another issue is that sites like Hulu which require DRM no longer work in Mountain Lion. They did work in Firefox Legacy as recently as a few months ago...

So you can see what a difference a few more years of support would've made for this iMac, even if it had ended after OS X Mavericks (likely El Capitan would be possible, though unofficially). It's great that your 2007 iMac is able to run newer versions of MacOS all the way up to Catalina.

 

[FlorisVN]

400mhz cpu speed in system profiler could perhaps be fixed by upgrading/changing firmware to a 08 iMac model.. ?

Maybe there is a firmware upgrade tool available for the 07 imac to 08 firmware, I dont know this.
But this might perhaps fix this wrong info text..
[automerge]1572207270[/automerge]

 

[ScreenSavers]

Are you using Safari to play YouTube? The Safari in Mountain Lion is too old to be an option anymore. I typically use VLC to play YouTube via youtube-dl, playback works in Waterfox too but drops more frames.

Another issue is that sites like Hulu which require DRM no longer work in Mountain Lion. They did work in Firefox Legacy as recently as a few months ago...

So you can see what a difference a few more years of support would've made for this iMac, even if it had ended after OS X Mavericks (likely El Capitan would be possible, though unofficially). It's great that your 2007 iMac is able to run newer versions of MacOS all the way up to Catalina.

I’m actually using Chrome. Seems to work fine. Chrome is a very solid browser all the way back to snow leopard. Chrome 49, the last version to run on snow leopard gets an HTML 5 test score of 481, the same as the latest version which I believe is 77. Chrome running on mountain lion is very capable of playing YouTube.

Some of the early 70s versions of chrome got way higher scores but they have started to go back down a lot. In fact, chrome 39 on leopard is still relatively modern!

Chrome is still my browser of choice for Windows XP as well.

 

[ScreenSavers]

400mhz cpu speed in system profiler could perhaps be fixed by upgrading/changing firmware to a 08 iMac model.. ?

Maybe there is a firmware upgrade tool available for the 07 imac to 08 firmware, I dont know this.
But this might perhaps fix this wrong info text..
[automerge]1572207270[/automerge]

Not sure if there is an option to change the firmware. Interesting thing is the terminal shows 2.5 GHz when you list the CPU details.

 

[redheeler]

I’m actually using Chrome. Seems to work fine. Chrome is a very solid browser all the way back to snow leopard. Chrome 49, the last version to run on snow leopard gets an HTML 5 test score of 481, the same as the latest version which I believe is 77. Chrome running on mountain lion is very capable of playing YouTube.

Some of the early 70s versions of chrome got way higher scores but they have started to go back down a lot. In fact, chrome 39 on leopard is still relatively modern!

Chrome is still my browser of choice for Windows XP as well.

The video is noticeably brighter than it should be in Chrome 49 for some reason. The issue isn't present anywhere else.

 

[FlorisVN]

Not sure if there is an option to change the firmware. Interesting thing is the terminal shows 2.5 GHz when you list the CPU details.

yeah it will just run fine on the stock speeds, 400mhz is not the real speed.
perhaps you can fix this if you want to, bu upgrading the imac firmware I dont know..

 

[Cramelito]

So here is is- the iMac that shipped with 10.4 Tiger running 10.15 and very fast at that.

Had to upgrade the CPU (cost me $0!) and the Wifi and Bluetooth shockingly worked out of the box, as well as brightness control. Got this whole thing with keyboard and mouse for $25, and upgraded the ram and put in an SSD.

Why is my 2.5 GHz T9300 showing 400MHz? It shows the same in SL as well.

Nice information ScreenSavers ! I like to read that.
My wife owns an iMac 7,1 A1225 24" with 10.11 and I am upgrading it like you have done. My goal is to give her access to Catalina
First -> 6 Go RAM (a long time ago)
Secondly -> I ordered a T9500 CPU
Thirdly, I plan the purchase of an SSD to replace my HDD 3To which will replace my optical drive or become external HDD.
Thus, I'll have material bases to make it work without too many slowdowns.

But I have a question about your wifi and bluetooth because I read everywhere that the original chip is no longer recognized : Wifi card not working under Mojave
Has it been changed by the previous owner or is it still the genuine chip delivered by Apple ?
Can you show us what is exactly your chip ? Thank you

 

[ScreenSavers]

I was very surprised that the original Wifi and Bluetooth cards worked. The 2008 iMac cards typically don’t work, but maybe the 2007 isn’t affected?

Anyway, I no longer have the iMac but I know it was all stock. Pretty interesting that this one happened to be compatible.

 

[Cramelito]

Good news and thak you. I will try and I'll give to you and the community my own results.
Dosdude’s Catalina patcher explains that
Machines that ARE NOT supported:
2006-2007 Mac Pros, iMacs, MacBook Pros, and Mac Minis:

• MacPro1,1
• MacPro2,1
• iMac4,1
• iMac5,x
• iMac6,1
• iMac7,1
• MacBookPro1,1
• MacBookPro2,1
• MacBookPro3,1
• Macmini1,1
• Macmini2,1

The 2007 iMac 7,1 is compatible if the CPU is upgraded to a Penryn-based Core 2 Duo, such as a T9300.

Nothing about wifi problems. So I think I can be optimistic

 

[BigBoy2018]

I think it's the SSD that makes the most impact when you're talking about running any recent (last 5 years) mac OS.

On a side note, I would have gone with Mojave rather than Catalina on that thing, but I get it, you were trying to prove a point by installing the very latest OS.

 

[Cramelito]

Hopeful => Another proof that Catalina works well on 7,1 (with SSD)

 

[ScreenSavers]

Actually, I’m not against Catalina like everyone else seems to be. I’ve moved on from 32bit apps. It is my daily driver OS on my machines.

 

[Regbial]

Ok but why is this machine "infamous"??

 

[ScreenSavers]

Because it’s the absolute oldest machine that can run Catalina. And it needs a processor upgrade to work.

And it’s gotten 12 macOS versions!

 

[Regbial]

I see... Damn... I have one, but I didn't think to upgrade the processor. :/ Just recently got a new iMac. Anyway, that's awesome, that you got it to run.

 

[ScreenSavers]

Yeah. It was pretty fun. Thanks.