Can I upgrade my iMac 6,1 to accept and run Maverick? Is it just a question of buying additional memory?

To the contrary, many of us search older posts looking for answers to our questions, and the info provided by 'Crank' is exactly what I have been searching for, even 2 full months after your exchange, and despite this being an even older thread. I have an older iMac 6.1 and do not reasonably expect more current posts to address questions like the one posed. Not sure why you seem so defensive about someone sharing info about possibilities, that perhaps you were not aware existed.

This is all just a fair exchange of info among people trying to assist each other. I hardly see the need to get confrontative.

I have attempted an upgrade of my iMac 6,1 to the 2.8 Core 2 Extreme X7900, the Mac won't boot with it (black screen, no chime). I also notice the pins on the cpu have a different configuration. Going back to my old 2.16 cpu, the Mac boots fine.

No, it's simply too old. Mavericks system requirements are:

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

Graham Frinton wrote:

Thanks. From an aesthetics viewpoint prefer the look of my machine to the new ones.

Is it possible to install a new processor and memory in the old shell?

No on CPU however the RAM can be upgraded.

Actually you are wrong. I am upgrading my old late 2006 iMac 6,1 24" to an X7900 Core2Duo Extreme 2.8Ghz processor ($45 shipped on eBay 🙂 ) and 6GB of ram, 4GB stick + 2GB stick ($84 shipped for both), this has been proven time and again that with the latest firmware update the older iMacs will accept and fully utilize 6GB, same with the older Intel Macbook Pro's. The Intel X7900 has been confirmed to work at full force with no heating or other issues on the 06 iMacs. There are a few other processors that are supported by this socket, FSB and wattage in the iMac.

I wish people wouldn't post stupid comments when they don't know what they're talking about. The processors on these macs are socketed, as are the graphics cards (MXM1 and 2 slots), so you actually can upgrade the CPU, the graphics card, and the RAM on these. Parts are cheap now, and if you have a couple hundred to blow, and know how to take these apart, it's a lot of fun and can breathe new life into our older machines. I also upgraded to a (SSD) solid state drive, 240GB PNY for $79 shipped on Amazon. This will make it MUCH snappier and responsive. As for upgrading to newer OS versions like 10.8 and 10.9, even 10.10 Yosemite, it requires some workarounds and edits, but installing newer Mac OS on "unsupported" hardware has been solved a million times by devs and coders, so anything is possible really. Just Google this stuff, and If you need help, please let me know. I know this is an older thread but thought I should correct it in case anyone else comes and finds this info 🙂

-Ryan

iMacs were never designed to be user upgradeable like PCs the vast majority of users would:

1. Not have the skill set to upgrade the internals, assuming it is even possible.
2. Not have the necessary tools.
3. Not have the resources to locate the required parts.

I wish those that have hacked their 10 year old computers together would not cast their opinions particularly when they are uncalled for and also not answer a near 1 year old thread that was soundly answered.

Fair enough - but my main point was the processor and GPU can be upgraded 🙂 Not just the RAM. The OP had/has the desire to upgrade his old iMac because he likes how it looks, as do I. I was simply responding with accurate info for his reference. I see entirely too many threads on various forums where dweebs say "no the cpu and gpu are soldered in, can't upgrade them" etc etc etc. I feel the need to correct them, that's all. Good day...

Also, one could argue that they were, to some degree, designed with upgrade-ability in mind due to the fact that both the GPU and CPU are socketed, and can be replaced with either the same, or upgraded parts. Just some food for thought. The hard drive is nearly as difficult to replace on these as the processor and graphics, but inevitably need to be replaced/upgraded over time. Yet you see many, many owners upgrading to SSD. Just saying. Thanks...

You mentioned that you upgraded to a PNY SSD? Hopefully you'll be happy with that cheap product - I would not allow anything PNY near any of my Macs as their products are rarely the quality a finicky Mac prefers. And, the reason the late 2006 iMac's graphic card can be upgraded is that it is one of the few models which were originally sold with a choice of the stock or upgraded card. This is not so with most iMac models as they are usually soldered to the logic board. So, it is entirely dependent on the model. Here are the specs which mention the different cards:

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/specs/imac-core-2-duo-2.16-24-inch-sp ecs.html

CrankTurner,

I'm not interested in debating or discussing this with you further. Good luck with your iMac and hope you get another 10 years out of it.

The PNY I purchased has excellent reviews on Amazon and comes with a 3yr warranty, I'm good. If it ends up being unreliable like you say, I will just swap it out for a larger Samsung. The trouble is that going top end is mostly useless since it's only Sata 1.5, and generally all SSD drives on the market are Sata 3.

Newer macs come with the choice of a stock and upgraded card, and they are still upgradeable/socketed MXM cards. Only the newest "thin" iMacs come with 1 choice, and are soldered on (both CPU and GPU), but even the first version of the thin iMacs had upgradeable GPU's. Up to at least the 2011 model, the CPU and GPU could be upgraded on the 27", and the 24", all of them up to the 2011-12 model can be upgraded. Not too sure on the 2013+.

I'm not complaining, I got this 24" 06 iMac for free! 😉

Crank, not sure you will see this some three months on but would be interested in communicating with you about these upgrades. Not enough of a computer geek to do these myself, but have friends who could assist me. Might you be willing to share do some tech back-and-forth as necessary, if I line up someone to potentially do these upgrades. thanks and let me know.

Dear CrankTurner,

Thank you. Your snippets of information were invaluable to me.

A few days ago I found an iMac 6.1 24" that somebody had thrown out, so I picked it up and brought it home. I've never owned a Mac before, so I'm learning on this one. But I'm not new to computers. I built my first micro-computer in 1978, learned the OS RT-11 on a PDP-11 mini-computer, and then learned MS-DOS on PCs. I have installed and used many Linux distributions on various hardware platforms.

I am quite capable of pulling any computer apart and re-building it. I have built dozens of computers from spare parts that people give me.

When I read that the iMac 6.1 could not take more than 3GB of RAM, and that modern OSXs need more than that, I was a little disappointed with my "new" iMac 24", and Kaufmann's inaccurate comments above disappointed me even further. But having read your comments above, I am greatly encouraged.

I have plenty of spare hardware that I could swap into this Mac box and make it run with the best of them.

I am in the unenviable position of being regarded by my friends as a "computer expert", and two close friends in particular, who both own Macs ( 1 with Snow Leopard, and the other with Lion) often call on me to help them with their Mac problems; but, having never used a Mac before, I am no expert. However, I can blunder my way through, and can often solve their problems.

My first project with this old iMac 6.1 24" will be to swap the HDD for a 500G then set it up to multi-boot Snow Leopard and Lion so I can learn enough to be more informed when I help them. I'll also install CentOS 7 Linux as a third boot option; it is a pretty nice OS.

But that's for next week!

Thank you again for your most enlightening comments.

Dear CrankTurner.

Re memory upgrades on an iMac 6.1 24" running OSX 10.4.11 Tiger.

When I found this machine, it had 1 GB RAM (2 x 512MB) installed.

I replaced the RAM with 1 GB RAM (2 x 1GB) and that worked pretty well.

I checked that the iMac has the latest Firmware updates, which it does. Then I replaced the RAM with 4 GB (2 x 2GB) to see how it would run.

With the 4 GB installed, System Information (About this Mac >> More Information) reports 4 GB, but when I check Activity Monitor >> System Memory, it reports only 3 GB of memory. It lists the processes using memory, as about 500K, and lists about 2.5 G free. So that figures.

I'm wondering how this discrepancy fits with your finding that you can use 6 GB ( 4GB + 2GB) on yours.

Just curious.

Perhaps it's an issue with the Tiger OS (10.4.11)?

I'll find out next week when I install Snow Leopard.

Mike