I fixed my extremely poky computer by doing a clean install of 10.7.5 and I now I want to upgrade it one time to a newer version of the OS. I only have 4GB of Ram and I'm not sure that El Capitan would work on this older iMac without increasing the Ram. I used to have Mountain Lion installed but what do you think would work smoothly. I want to do just one upgrade.
Thanks in advance
Bob
There are only two options for you. Mountain Lion or El Capitan.
Upgrading to Mountain Lion
To upgrade to Mountain Lion you must have Snow Leopard 10.6.8 or Lion installed. Purchase a redemption code at the Online Apple Store: OS X Mountain Lion. Mountain Lion is $19.99 plus tax. Use the code to redeem a download of Mountain Lion from the App Store. The file is quite large, over 4 GBs, so allow some time to download. It would be preferable to use Ethernet because it is nearly four times faster than wireless.
OS X Mountain Lion - System Requirements
Macs that can be upgraded to OS X Mountain Lion
1. iMac (Mid 2007 or newer) - Model Identifier 7,1 or later.
2. MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer) - Model
Identifier 5,1 or later.
3. MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later.
4. MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer) - Model Identifier 2,1 or later.
5. Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later.
6. Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later.
7. Xserve (Early 2009) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later.
To find the model identifier open System Profiler in the Utilities folder. It's displayed in the panel on the right.
Are my applications compatible?
See App Compatibility Table - RoaringApps.
Upgrading to El Capitan
You can upgrade to El Capitan from Lion or directly from Snow Leopard. El Capitan can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for FREE.
Upgrading to El Capitan
To upgrade to El Capitan you must have Snow Leopard 10.6.8 or Lion installed. Download El Capitan from the App Store. Sign in using your Apple ID. El Capitan is free. The file is quite large, over 5 GBs, so allow some time to download. It would be preferable to use Ethernet because it is nearly four times faster than wireless.
Macs that can be upgraded to OS X El Capitan
1. iMac (Mid 2007 or newer) - Model Identifier 7,1 or later
2. MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer) - Model Identifier 5,1 or later
3. MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
4. MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer) - Model Identifier 2,1 or later
5. Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
6. Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
7. Xserve (Early 2009) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
To find the model identifier open System Profiler in the Utilities folder. It's displayed in the panel on the right.
Are my applications compatible?
There are only two options for you. Mountain Lion or El Capitan.
Upgrading to Mountain Lion
To upgrade to Mountain Lion you must have Snow Leopard 10.6.8 or Lion installed. Purchase a redemption code at the Online Apple Store: OS X Mountain Lion. Mountain Lion is $19.99 plus tax. Use the code to redeem a download of Mountain Lion from the App Store. The file is quite large, over 4 GBs, so allow some time to download. It would be preferable to use Ethernet because it is nearly four times faster than wireless.
OS X Mountain Lion - System Requirements
Macs that can be upgraded to OS X Mountain Lion
1. iMac (Mid 2007 or newer) - Model Identifier 7,1 or later.
2. MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer) - Model
Identifier 5,1 or later.
3. MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later.
4. MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer) - Model Identifier 2,1 or later.
5. Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later.
6. Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later.
7. Xserve (Early 2009) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later.
To find the model identifier open System Profiler in the Utilities folder. It's displayed in the panel on the right.
Are my applications compatible?
See App Compatibility Table - RoaringApps.
Upgrading to El Capitan
You can upgrade to El Capitan from Lion or directly from Snow Leopard. El Capitan can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for FREE.
Upgrading to El Capitan
To upgrade to El Capitan you must have Snow Leopard 10.6.8 or Lion installed. Download El Capitan from the App Store. Sign in using your Apple ID. El Capitan is free. The file is quite large, over 5 GBs, so allow some time to download. It would be preferable to use Ethernet because it is nearly four times faster than wireless.
Macs that can be upgraded to OS X El Capitan
1. iMac (Mid 2007 or newer) - Model Identifier 7,1 or later
2. MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer) - Model Identifier 5,1 or later
3. MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
4. MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer) - Model Identifier 2,1 or later
5. Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
6. Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
7. Xserve (Early 2009) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
To find the model identifier open System Profiler in the Utilities folder. It's displayed in the panel on the right.
Are my applications compatible?
And yes, you want to consider installing more RAM; newer OS versions run better on more RAM - 4 GB is considered a minimum. It depends on your workflow and what apps you use, but anything movie, video, images or graphics related would definitely benefit from more RAM.
Thanks, I had 10.9, Snow Leopard on the Computer before I did the install so I must have an upgrade DVD somewhere. If I go to the App Store it shows a free download to El Capitan. Would that install directly for free?
Of course more RAM would be better, but I basically only use the iMac to surf the web and to store my music library to load onto my iPad and my old iPod Touch.
If your iDevices are using iOS9 or are planning to upgrade them to iOS9,
you will have to have at least OS X 10.8.5 in order to install iTunes 12.3
which is the only iTunes version compatible with iOS9 devices.
Thanks for the heads up. Currently all of my IOS devices are also older and I am not planning to upgrade to IOS9. I guess eventually I will have to replace one of them. My daughter is still using an iPad one, my wife has and iPad two and I have an iPad three. BTW I still have my first Mac, a 1986 Mac 512k just like the one in your pic. It still works but it's basically useless.
Bob Cohen wrote:
..... I still have my first Mac, a 1986 Mac 512k ...
Put it up for bid on EBay. It may actually be worth some money to a collector
(one persons junk is another persons treasure), especially if you still
managed to keep some of the original disks and such. Just a thought.
FWIW, my first Mac was a MacPlus. Had a whole 1Meg of RAM and bought a whopping
40 Meg hard disk for it.
If I upgrade to Mountain Lion for $19.95 can I then upgrade to Mavericks instead of El Capitain? I don't have a lot of memory and my Mac is still running slowly even with Lion after a clean install.
Unless you have downloaded Mavericks previously, the answer is no (unfortunately). Mav was pulled when Yosemite came out; and Yosemite was pulled when El Capitan was released. Any OS past Snow leopard needs more RAM - Snow Leopard would hum happily with 2 GB; Lion and later need an absolute minimum of 4 GB, but 8 is much better as you won't be very happy with the performance using 4 GB. As for Lion, my personal impression was that they could have done without it - at least Mountain Lion was a bit better or what Lion should have been.
Yosemite is no longer available unless it has been purchased/downloaded previously. It was withdrawn when El Capitan was introduced.
What version of OSX works best on a mid 2010 iMac
