minicolleen

Q: Mavericks upgrade

Hello,      I have an iMac 10.6.8 and would like to know if I can upgrade to Mavericks.   I clicked on the apple "about this Mac" and can't figure out how much ram or space I have it just says memory 1 GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM.  What does that mean?

 

Thank you,

Susan

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Oct 5, 2014 12:09 PM

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Q: Mavericks upgrade

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  • by Carolyn Samit,

    Carolyn Samit Carolyn Samit Oct 5, 2014 12:15 PM in response to minicolleen
    Level 10 (124,341 points)
    Apple Music
    Oct 5, 2014 12:15 PM in response to minicolleen

    Hi ..

     

     

     

    Is your iMac mid 2007 or later????

     

    To install Mavericks, you need one of these Macs:

    • iMac (Mid-2007 or later)
    • MacBook (13-inch Aluminum, Late 2008), (13-inch, Early 2009 or later)
    • MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid-2009 or later),
    • MacBook Pro (15-inch or 17-inch, Mid/Late 2007 or later)
    • MacBook Air (Late 2008 or later)
    • Mac mini (Early 2009 or later)
    • Mac Pro (Early 2008 or later)
    • Xserve (Early 2009)


    Your Mac also needs:

    • OS X Mountain Lion, Lion, or Snow Leopard v10.6.8 already installed
    • 2 GB or more of memory
    • 8 GB or more of available space

     

    From here >  OS X Mavericks: System Requirements

  • by stevejobsfan0123,Helpful

    stevejobsfan0123 stevejobsfan0123 Oct 5, 2014 12:14 PM in response to minicolleen
    Level 8 (44,007 points)
    iPhone
    Oct 5, 2014 12:14 PM in response to minicolleen

    It means you have 1GB of RAM, which is less than the 2GB required for Mavericks.

  • by minicolleen,

    minicolleen minicolleen Oct 5, 2014 12:15 PM in response to Carolyn Samit
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Oct 5, 2014 12:15 PM in response to Carolyn Samit

    Thank you Carolyn but does that mean the answer is no?  How do I find out how much memory I have and  how much space I have?

  • by Carolyn Samit,Helpful

    Carolyn Samit Carolyn Samit Oct 5, 2014 12:27 PM in response to minicolleen
    Level 10 (124,341 points)
    Apple Music
    Oct 5, 2014 12:27 PM in response to minicolleen

    Is your iMac 2007 or later?

     

    Your iMac has 1 GB of RAM  (memory) according to the specs you posted from, "About this Mac".

     

    Mavericks requires at the minimum 2GB's of RAM.

  • by minicolleen,

    minicolleen minicolleen Oct 8, 2014 6:38 AM in response to Carolyn Samit
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Oct 8, 2014 6:38 AM in response to Carolyn Samit

    Hi Carolyn,       Would it be possible for me to increase the ram and memory on my computer so that I can upgrade to Maverick?

     

    Thank you,

    Susan

  • by Allan Jones,

    Allan Jones Allan Jones Oct 8, 2014 6:54 AM in response to minicolleen
    Level 8 (35,311 points)
    iPad
    Oct 8, 2014 6:54 AM in response to minicolleen

    Colleen, we still cannot say because we still don't know the answer to the twice-asked question, "Is your iMac 2007 or later?" I realize Apple does not make it easy to tell model years, but try this:

     

    Click and hold on your black Apple icon at the left end of the menu bar. While holding, press the OPTION key on your keyboard. The first entry, normally "About this Mac" will change to "System Profiler." Launch it.

     

    Once Profiler is open, the main screen will look like this:

     

    Sys Profiler Main for intel iMac.png

     

    Note that I highlighted a code in the second line. On your computer, what is the code you see? DO NOT post a serial number here, however, just the code located where I indicated.

     

    From that we can give you a solid answer about upgrading.

  • by minicolleen,

    minicolleen minicolleen Oct 8, 2014 12:22 PM in response to Allan Jones
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Oct 8, 2014 12:22 PM in response to Allan Jones

    Hi Allan,       I bought my computer in september of 2006 so it is not 2007 or later.

  • by minicolleen,

    minicolleen minicolleen Oct 8, 2014 12:30 PM in response to Allan Jones
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Oct 8, 2014 12:30 PM in response to Allan Jones

    Allan,  your screen for system profiler did not show anything.   It's just white with a question mark in the middle but I did open my system profiler and I can tell you what it says.

  • by K Shaffer,

    K Shaffer K Shaffer Oct 8, 2014 12:54 PM in response to minicolleen
    Level 6 (14,567 points)
    Desktops
    Oct 8, 2014 12:54 PM in response to minicolleen

    Given what you've said, now, about your Intel-based Mac, that would be an

    early model and would not be able to upgrade to the latest OS X release.

     

    While looking in About This Mac, see the OS X name with info beneath...?

     

    Click on the small info under OS X to see up to three different items as

    you click, in rotation: one may be Serial Number, Build, Version. That, plus

    the additional info from system profiler when you click More Info, can tell

    almost everything in and about your current computer configuration.

     

    •How to identify iMac models

     

    You may be able to upgrade to Lion 10.7.5, but that may compromise some

    of the applications you already can use as they are, under Snow Leopard 10.6.

    So I'd not advise that. An upgrade of installed of chip RAM may help it, though.

     

    Upgrade to Mavericks

     

    If you go that route, there are recommendations on quality parts, and places

    to consider checking the correct specifications of the RAM, if you upgrade it.

    That way Snow Leopard would work better, and if desired, Lion 10.7 may too.

     

    Good luck & happy computing!

  • by minicolleen,

    minicolleen minicolleen Oct 8, 2014 2:27 PM in response to K Shaffer
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Oct 8, 2014 2:27 PM in response to K Shaffer

    Thank you K. Shaffer for the information.  It sounds rather complicated to add ram.  I guess I'm stuck with snow leopard.

  • by K Shaffer,

    K Shaffer K Shaffer Oct 8, 2014 2:53 PM in response to minicolleen
    Level 6 (14,567 points)
    Desktops
    Oct 8, 2014 2:53 PM in response to minicolleen

    There are instructions on how to access and remove/replace RAM chips

    and these vary a little depending on your build year model Intel-iMac:

     

    •iMac: How to remove or install memory

     

    And while the above Support link also offers suggested upgrade capacity

    or ceiling total of installed RAM, in some cases after introduction, it was

    found some of these same models did accept a higher capacity upgrade.

     

    If your iMac model has the Core 2 Duo intel-based processor, circa 2006

    there are some suitable RAM upgrade parts here; based on identification

    of the computer in exact terms of build model identifier & year...

     

    An example of that specific guessed-at iMac version's RAM, here:

    http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/apple/memory/iMac/Intel_Core_2_Duo_2006

     

    For a cross-section of all the possible memory (RAM) for most iMacs, see:

    http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/apple/memory/iMac

     

    OWC and Crucial are among the better reliable sources for Mac memory

    upgrade, and have a good reputation among many Mac users.

     

    So that's a possibility. Some early models can only use 3GB total.

    That would mean, across two memory slots in the Mac, one would

    take a 2GB chip while the other, would take a 1GB chip.

     

    However, others can be upgraded to more. Identification is very important.

     

    Good luck & happy computing!

  • by minicolleen,

    minicolleen minicolleen Oct 8, 2014 8:46 PM in response to K Shaffer
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Oct 8, 2014 8:46 PM in response to K Shaffer

    Thank you K Shaffer!     I do have the Intel Core 2 Duo.  I'll check out the links you provided,

     

    Thanks again for all the info.

     

    Susan

  • by Allan Jones,Solvedanswer

    Allan Jones Allan Jones Oct 9, 2014 10:33 AM in response to minicolleen
    Level 8 (35,311 points)
    iPad
    Oct 9, 2014 10:33 AM in response to minicolleen

    Colleen,

     

    The forums currently have a major glitch that keeps images from displaying consistently for some users. However, maybe I can do this with words.

     

    1) Close all actvive windows so that "Finder" appears next to your Apple icon at the left end of your menu bar.

     

    2) Press and hold SHIFT and COMMAND, then press the u key. That should open your utilties folder in the Finder.

     

    3) In the Utilties folder find System Profiler and double-click to launch it

     

    The opening screen with have a list of content down the left side--ignore that and look at the big main pane. It will have "Hardware overviw" at the top.

     

    Look at the SECOND line of data, "Model Identifier," that will have a code next to it. For my iMac the code is "iMac11,3" Please tell us what code shows there for your computer. It will probably be one of the following:

     

    iMac4,1

    iMac4,2

    iMac5,1

    iMac5,2

    iMac6,1

     

    If the numbers in the code are "7,1" or higher your iMac should be able to run teh latest OS version but you will definitely need to add RAM.

     

    If the numbers are 5,1 through 6,1, you can run OS 10.7 "Lion." It is still available for download:

     

    Mac OS X 10.7 Lion

  • by minicolleen,

    minicolleen minicolleen Oct 9, 2014 12:18 PM in response to Allan Jones
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Oct 9, 2014 12:18 PM in response to Allan Jones

    Hi Allan,     I found it, it's iMac 5,1.     Thank you so much for checking all that out for me.  It's much appreciated.  I will check into Lion.

     

    Susan

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