is el capitan recommended for an early 2008 imac?

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JasonBlank Author

Level 1

2 points

is el capitan recommended for an early 2008 imac?

Hello - I have a 2008 iMac, and wondering if it's recommended to upgrade OS to El Capitan?

Here are the specs:

24-inch, Early 2008 iMac:

2.8 GHz Intel Core Duo (processor)
4GB 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM (memory)
ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro 256 MB (graphics)

I'm already running OS X 10.9.5, which seems to work fine - just wondering if it's a good idea to upgrade, considering the age of this iMac, and whether the hardware can support it without trouble. Thanks!

iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5), 24-inch, Early 2008

Posted on Nov 10, 2015 12:12 PM

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Answer 1

Nov 10, 2015 12:17 PM in response to JasonBlank

If you have an external disk drive, you can install it there and test it.

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Answer 2

Nov 10, 2015 2:17 PM in response to JasonBlank

Just so you know, El Capitan uses 4.5G of ram or more on my iMac just surfing the web. Yosemite used an average of 2.4G or so doing the same things; so you might consider adding more ram , if you can, to run El Capitan or just upgrade to Yosemite. The last version of Yosemite ran very well for me.

Tom

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Answer 3

Nov 10, 2015 1:45 PM in response to EVISCERATOR

Since Yosemite is no longer available, how would he upgrade to Yosemite instead of El Capitan?

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Answer 4

Nov 10, 2015 1:50 PM in response to Allan Eckert

My mistake. Yosemite no longer available.

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Answer 5

Old Toad

Level 10

215,502 points

Nov 10, 2015 2:05 PM in response to JasonBlank

You can run El Capitan with that setup. Since that model can utilize 6 GB of memory it would be helpful to replace one of your 2 GB modules with a 4 GB module from either Crucial.com or Otherworldcomputing.com. That would help somewhat.

Also keep a minimum of 15-20 GB of free space on your boot drive for temporary cache and memory swap files. This will help optimize system and application performance.

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Answer 6

Old Toad

Level 10

215,502 points

Nov 10, 2015 2:17 PM in response to JasonBlank

You can run El Capitan with that setup. Since that model can utilize 6 GB of memory it would be helpful to replace one of your 2 GB modules with a 4 GB module from either Crucial.com or Otherworldcomputing.com. That would help somewhat.

Also keep a minimum of 15-20 GB of free space on your boot drive for temporary cache and memory swap files. This will help optimize system and application performance.

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Answer 7

JasonBlank Author

Level 1

2 points

Nov 10, 2015 2:16 PM in response to JasonBlank

Thanks everyone - I upgraded the RAM once - I need to take a look at it again and see how many slots I have - if memory is correct, seems like there were 2 slots, originally running 1GB each, which were then upgraded to 2GB cards (total of 4GB). Can't remember if I saw any appreciable difference in performance though! 😁 Just didn't know if the hardware architecture was too old to efficiently run an OS that's basically 7 years newer. Appreciate all the comments!

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Answer 8

Old Toad

Level 10

215,502 points

Nov 10, 2015 2:33 PM in response to JasonBlank

That model has 2 slots. So replace one of the 2GB modules with a 4 GB module.

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Answer 9

Eric Root

Level 10

685,233 points

Nov 10, 2015 5:19 PM in response to JasonBlank

I now have 6GB installed on a early 2008 iMac supposedly limited to 4 GB and noticed an improvement.

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Answer 10

JasonBlank Author

Level 1

2 points

Feb 1, 2016 5:17 PM in response to Old Toad

Hey Old Toad - finally got around to researching memory cards, so I could upgrade my early 2008 iMac to El Capitan. But stumbled on conflicting info about max memory capacity for that model, via the apple support site.

Install memory in an iMac - Apple Support

Memory specifications

These iMac computers have two side-by-side Synchronous Dynamic Random-Access Memory (SDRAM) slots in the bottom of the computer.

The maximum amount of random-access memory (RAM) you can install in the computer is:

Computer	Memory Type	Maximum Memory
iMac (Mid 2007)	DDR2	4GB (2x2GB)
iMac (Early 2008)	DDR2	4GB (2x2GB)
iMac (Early 2009)	DDR3	8GB (2x4GB)

You can use a 1GB or 2 GB RAM module in each slot for iMac (Mid 2007) and iMac (Early 2008). Use 1GB, 2GB, or 4GB modules in each slot for the iMac (Early 2009).

Unless this is outdated or something like that, this seems to cap the memory cards at 2GB (per slot) for early 2008 iMacs. Any thoughts?

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Answer 11

Allan Jones

Level 9

78,044 points

Feb 1, 2016 5:34 PM in response to JasonBlank

Jason,

Many Apple computer models will run higher RAM amounts than Apple states in its specs because, after the specs are engraved in stone, someone introduces larger compatible modules. Historically, Apple has never gone back and updated specs to reflect newer RAM modules. It does not make them money to test RAM in older modles that have already been paid for.

I have a old eMac G4 1.42ghz that Apple says can run only 1 GB RAM that is very happy with a full 2GB installed. A number of later MacBook Pros (when they still had RAM slots) are running 16GB RAM with no issues even though Apple says the max is 8GB.

The best way to check what RAM a Mac can handle in the real world is to get the free Mactracker database:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mactracker/id430255202?mt=12

It show what Apple's outdated specs state for max RAM and what is possible today:

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Answer 12

Jul 27, 2016 2:39 AM in response to Allan Jones

I'm still using Maverick as I found El Capitan too slow on my 4gb Imac. After reading this I now decided to bite the bullet to upgrade to 6gb so that I can still get several more years use of the machine and upgrade to El Capitan.

Windows 10 64 on bootcamp is excellent on my machine but slow when I was using El Capitan. Hopefully the upgrade of the ram will improve things.

The last upgrade I did is installing SSD which improved the speed of the boot up..

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