I am trying to decide which OS to upgrade to because I am not sure what my computer will handle

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I am trying to decide which OS to upgrade to because I am not sure what my computer will handle

I am trying to decide which OS to upgrade to because I am not sure what my computer will handle and I don't want to pay to upgrade to a version that I do not have the hardware to support (i.e. memory or CPU speed). I tried to install Turbo Tax and I was told I needed 10.7 or higher. Could you please help. I have an iMac and my OS is 10.6.8 plus the details below.

Model Name: iMac

Model Identifier: iMac11,2

Processor Name: Intel Core i3

Processor Speed: 3.06 GHz

Number Of Processors: 1

Total Number Of Cores: 2

L2 Cache (per core): 256 KB

L3 Cache: 4 MB

Memory: 4 GB

Thanks

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Posted on Mar 23, 2015 1:23 PM

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Answer 1

Mar 23, 2015 2:57 PM in response to runnergirlz

System requirements for OS X Lion

OS X Mountain Lion system requirements

OS X Mavericks system requirements

Apple - OS X Yosemite system requirements

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Answer 2

babowa

Level 9

78,574 points

Mar 23, 2015 3:52 PM in response to runnergirlz

Please note that Mavericks is no longer available unless you've downloaded it previously.

And, for any of the newer OS versions, you will want to add some RAM as 4 GB is generally thought to be the bare minimum - 8 or more would be much better. Here is the RAM from one of the two recommended vendors (the other one is Crucial):

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/iMac/2010/DDR3_21.5_27

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Answer 3

Old Toad

Level 10

216,118 points

Mar 23, 2015 5:08 PM in response to runnergirlz

Your iMac model can run Yosemite. With 4 GB of RAM it will be OK for simple tasks. However, if you plan on doing any video editing, high powered photo editing, etc. it would be prudent to upgrade your RAM to at least 8 GB. You iMac can use up to 16 GB of memory.

The two top memory suppliers for Macs are Crucial.com and otherworldcomputing.com (or macsales).

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