HT201364: OS X Mavericks system requirements
Learn about OS X Mavericks system requirements
-
All replies
-
Helpful answers
-
Sep 14, 2014 8:45 PM in response to bismailby Niel,You need to buy and install more RAM; this isn't the same as drive space. Use a source such as OWC or Crucial, and click here for upgrade instructions.
(112747)
-
Sep 14, 2014 9:08 PM in response to bismailby MichelPM,As Niel pointed our you are confusing hard drive storage space with RAM (Random Access Memory).
These two things are entirely different concepts.
Your iMac needs more RAM.
Your year and model iMac can take a total of 6 GBs of RAM.
Seriously advise you purchase and install the full 6 GBs of RAM.
Correct, compatible and reliable Mac RAM can only be purchased from online Mac RAM sources Crucial memory or OWC (macsales.com).
OWC is the only source for the 6 GB RAM kit.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/apple/memory/iMac/Intel_Core_2_Duo
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 (strongly recommend, at least, 4 GBs of RAM or more)
- 8 GB or more of available space
Before embarking on a major OS upgrade, it would be wise, advisable and very prudent if you backup your current system to an external connected and Mac formatted Flash drive OR externally connected USB, Thunderbolt or FireWire 800, Mac formatted hard drive. Then, use either OS X Time Machine app to backup your entire system to the external drive OR purchase, install and use a data cloning app, like CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper, to make an exact and bootable copy (clone) of your entire Mac's internal hard drive. This step is really needed in case something goes wrong with the install of the new OS or you simply do not like the new OS, you have a very easy way/procedure to return your Mac to its former working state.
Next,
If you run any older Mac software from the earlier PowerPC Macs, then none of this software will work with the newer OS X versions (10.7 and onward). OS X Snow Leopard had a magical and invisible PowerPC emulation application, called Rosetta, that worked seamlessly in the background that still allowed older PowerPC coded software to still operate in a Intel CPU Mac.
The use of Rosetta ended with OS X Snow Leopard as the Rosetta application was licensed to Apple, from a software company called Transitive, which got bought out, I believe, by IBM and Appe could no longer secure their rights to continue to use Rosetta in later versions of OS X.
So, you would need to check to see if you have software on your Mac that maybe older than, say, 2006 or older.
Also, check for app compatibilty here.
If you have any commercial antivirus installed and/or hard drive cleaning apps installed on your Mac, like MacKeeper, CleanMyMac, TuneUoMyMac, MacCleanse, etc. now would be a good time to completely uninstall this apps by doing a Google search to learn how to properly uninstall these types of apps.
These types of apps will only cause your Mac issues later after the install of the new OS X version and you will have to completely uninstall these types of apps later.
Once you have determined all of this, you should be able to find the latest version of Mavericks by clicking on the Mac App Store icon in the OS X Dock and then login to the Mac App Store using your Apple ID and password.
You can then begin the download and installation process of installing OS X 10.9 Mavericks from the Mac App Store.
Good Luck!