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Snow Leopard for Early Intel iMac 2006 - Worth it?

I was curious....

I wonder if anyone could tell me if going to Snow Leopard from Tiger on a mid 2006 Intel iMac would be worth the money and trouble. The upgrades on some of my apps are tempting, but would there be a significant difference in performance?

I know my Mac, with its Intel Core Duo, is 32 bit. Does Snow Leopard really boost speed and performance on a a 32 bit chip, as opposed to 64?

Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Posted on Sep 21, 2009 10:19 AM

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Posted on Sep 21, 2009 10:35 AM

Hi. Yes the upgrade to Snow Leopard is fully worth the upgrade. You will see a speed increase on any Intel Based mac you have because Apple did a lot of work to slim down the OS and make everything faster from start-up to shut-down.

You can check out all of the improvements here http://www.apple.com/macosx/refinements/

Hope this all helps!
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Question marked as Best reply

Sep 21, 2009 10:35 AM in response to Mikemacx

Hi. Yes the upgrade to Snow Leopard is fully worth the upgrade. You will see a speed increase on any Intel Based mac you have because Apple did a lot of work to slim down the OS and make everything faster from start-up to shut-down.

You can check out all of the improvements here http://www.apple.com/macosx/refinements/

Hope this all helps!

Sep 21, 2009 10:41 AM in response to Mikemacx

I don't know if the performance would be boosted a huge amount or not, but personally I think the few "big" new features Apple touts & others it does not make it a worthwhile upgrade from Leopard. If you are still running Tiger, as your profile suggests, I think you will find upgrading to Snow Leopard is an incredible bargain, whether you buy the box set or just the Snow Leopard retail product.

Sep 21, 2009 11:22 AM in response to Mikemacx

Take precautions like backup, do a full format/erase, boot from SL DVD.

You're going from Tiger to 10.6.1.

Cleaning up your old system and hard drive may help. 10.6 may use more memory.

Unlikely to see a real boost.

Oh, and many or can I say most, have seen problems with their external hard drives afterwards.

I'd buy it but I might hold off until later.

Sep 21, 2009 12:12 PM in response to Mikemacx

There is no way we can judge "worth it" to you. I just upgraded my pre-intel iBook to Leopard, and I would have taken it to Snow if I had been able. But, I like to experiment with new systems, so I am not a standard upgrader. I think that the performance difference you might notice would be minimal. And, Sno is giving many fits. It you decide to move to Sno, then I wouldn't do so without a bootable clone of my system on an external. To update your apps, you'll need to buy the Sno boxed set or buy the apps separately.

Message was edited by: donv (The Ghost)

Sep 21, 2009 12:24 PM in response to The hatter

1. I don't think a format/erase is necessary, or usually even desirable. One reason is that the new installer will isolate some incompatible apps already installed. Another is that it will make choices about supplemental software to install based on what already is on the normal startup HD. It even checks the HD for adequate space for the install & does a check of the file system. And the result of a simple upgrade install is a cleaned up system -- the installer doesn't patch any old files or do some of the other things that older upgrade installers did that left remnants of old OS pieces on the drive.

2. Some users have seen problems with external HD's after the upgrade but there is no indication that most have. That conclusion would require a survey of a representative sample of all users, which forums like this one obviously don't provide. For example, who would start a topic here just to say, "hey, my external drives work fine"?

Sep 21, 2009 1:36 PM in response to Mikemacx

Upgrading, from my experience seems to be very desirable over "clean" install. Just as RCR said, the
Snow Leopard installer is very much more efficient than previous OS X versions. I have found from
experience though, it is best to start the upgrade by booting from the SL DVD and manually selecting
the install volume, rather than starting the upgrade via the desktop installer.

Kj

Sep 21, 2009 1:53 PM in response to The hatter

I with the (mad) hatter. I prefer be as sure as I can that I don't bring any existing problems forward to a new system--especially Sno (i.e., Sno seems to generate some exceptionally hard problems to solve). Thus, I prefer an erase and install. In this regard, I also wouldn't migrate users and settings to Sno. And, I just drag and drop my files, although migrating would be OK. With Sno, I'd even reinstall my apps--which doesn't really take that long. To each his own. These are my preferences; they are neither right nor wrong.

But, once I get an exceptional install (as I usually do) and get it cloned I am good to go forever. I have no problem accepting the idea that the concept behind the Sno installer is very good. It's just that I am not convinced that its concept is an idea whose time has come given that its installing Sno. And, what's a little extra time when the result is likely to be safe rather than sorry?

Message was edited by: donv (The Ghost)

Sep 21, 2009 6:39 PM in response to donv_the_ghost

"I with the (mad) hatter. I prefer be as sure as I can that I don't bring any existing problems forward to a new system--especially Sno (i.e., Sno seems to generate some exceptionally hard problems to solve)."

Hi Ghost:
That's what good backups (clones) are for. Also if you are unsure of your 10.5 integrity, an archive
and install will fix any problem before upgrading to Snowie. That may seam like overkill, and in some cases it may very well be. It just depends on how complex your 10.5 install is. Mine
consisted of over 200 apps. I use my machine for web development. It just isn't practical to do
a clean install. Spending two weeks or more (off and on) getting everything back somewhere close
to working order is just not acceptable at all. Migration assistant leaves a lot to be desired too
when you try to migrate a installation such as mine. It will break registration on just about every
piece of software in sight.

If you use your computer just to surf the 'net, chit chat, email and play songs and movies, then by
all means do a "clean install" and migrate or reinstall the rest.


Kj ♘

Sep 21, 2009 7:23 PM in response to donv_the_ghost

donv (The Ghost) wrote:
I prefer be as sure as I can that I don't bring any existing problems forward to a new system--especially Sno …


A worthy goal, but what makes you think you, me, or any other users can do a better job of this than the new upgrade installation method does on its own?

FWIW, I have been keeping an informal running score of users posting Snow Leopard problems to this forum who say a "clean" install corrected them vs. those who say it had no effect. So far, it appears that a clean install is almost always ineffective, & where it is not there is some uncertainty about what actually resolved the problem.

Plus, while a lack of posted information makes it hard to say if it is real or illusory, there is some indication that users doing some form of clean install are +more likely+ to have post-install problems than those who opt for the upgrade installation.

Snow Leopard for Early Intel iMac 2006 - Worth it?

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