olafwr
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: RAM and OS upgrade

Are there any services in New Zealand or does anyone know where I can send my iMac late 2006 to in order for them to upgrade the RAM to 2GB and install OS X Lion on it? One store asked for $125, is this cheap or not for a fresh install of OS X Lion and a 2GB RAM upgrade?

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8), Late 2006 iMac

Posted on Nov 4, 2012 4:42 PM

by BGreg,Solvedanswer
BGreg BGreg
Level 6 (17,522 points)
A:

You really can do this yourself ... and 2GB, while the minimum for Lion, really should be 4GB for general performance. So if you're going to upgrade, recommend 4GB. Look at this Apple note on replacing the memory. Here's a video that shows how to do that.

 

OS X 10.7 Lion is available via download from the App store. You have to call your in-country online Apple store, which in New Zealand is 0800-MY-APPLE. They'll take your order and send you a code via e-mail which you can then use to download Lion. You can do this yourself. Be sure you have a good, bootable backup, whether you or a store does it for you. Note a Time Machine backup is not a bootable backup.

 

2GB of memory runs around (US) $30 to $40 (remember 4GB recommended for Lion). OS X 10.7 Lion download is (US) $30. You really can replace the memory yourself as well as install Lion yourself and save some money. However, if it makes sense for someone else to do it, you should have some idea now of how much at least they are charging for labor.

 

You probably know when you upgrade to Lion that PowerPC code will no longer work. Up until Lion, the Rosetta emulator ran PowerPC code on the Intel systems. Some people discovered this after Office 2004 would no longer work.  If this is an issue, you could keep a bootable backup of Snow Leopard 10.6 and use it when needed. I set up two partitions on my hard drive, one for 10.6 Snow Leopard and another for 10.7 Lion, which is another way to handle it.

Posted on Nov 4, 2012 5:10 PM

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olafwr

Q: RAM and OS upgrade

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  • by Kasee,

    Kasee Kasee Nov 4, 2012 4:53 PM in response to olafwr
    Level 1 (20 points)
    Nov 4, 2012 4:53 PM in response to olafwr

    You may have a look at this link

    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2821?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

    and see if you can do the upgrade yourself.. and Mountain Lion installation was easy for me...

  • by BGreg,Solvedanswer

    BGreg BGreg Nov 4, 2012 5:10 PM in response to olafwr
    Level 6 (17,522 points)
    Nov 4, 2012 5:10 PM in response to olafwr

    You really can do this yourself ... and 2GB, while the minimum for Lion, really should be 4GB for general performance. So if you're going to upgrade, recommend 4GB. Look at this Apple note on replacing the memory. Here's a video that shows how to do that.

     

    OS X 10.7 Lion is available via download from the App store. You have to call your in-country online Apple store, which in New Zealand is 0800-MY-APPLE. They'll take your order and send you a code via e-mail which you can then use to download Lion. You can do this yourself. Be sure you have a good, bootable backup, whether you or a store does it for you. Note a Time Machine backup is not a bootable backup.

     

    2GB of memory runs around (US) $30 to $40 (remember 4GB recommended for Lion). OS X 10.7 Lion download is (US) $30. You really can replace the memory yourself as well as install Lion yourself and save some money. However, if it makes sense for someone else to do it, you should have some idea now of how much at least they are charging for labor.

     

    You probably know when you upgrade to Lion that PowerPC code will no longer work. Up until Lion, the Rosetta emulator ran PowerPC code on the Intel systems. Some people discovered this after Office 2004 would no longer work.  If this is an issue, you could keep a bootable backup of Snow Leopard 10.6 and use it when needed. I set up two partitions on my hard drive, one for 10.6 Snow Leopard and another for 10.7 Lion, which is another way to handle it.