mattfromcanada42

Q: Should I Upgrade my 2009 iMac from Lion?

Hello All,

 

I'm struggling with the possibility of upgrading my late 2009 iMac Quad Core from Lion to the latest version (10.11?).  There are a few reasons why I think I should do this

 

  1. I can no longer upgrade iTunes
  2. I seem to be having more and more connectivity issues with my two AppleTv's (AppleTV 2 & AppleTV 3)
  3. Since I'm already several releases behind, perhaps there are other issues in the background running of my system that may be corrected
  4. Perhaps there's a chance it will improve the performance of my system

 

I currently have 6gb of RAM running on the system, and actively have about 50gb free on a 1tb hard drive - I plan to migrate most of this to an external hard drive which will free up about 600gb, but cost is a factor to me, so unless someone wants to give me a 6tb external!  If cost weren't a factor lets face it, I'd just go out and buy a new iMac!  Currently I have my iTunes library spread across 3 harddrives (iMac & 2 external) but ideally I'll go to a single drive; that's another story!

 

Some things that I'm struggling with as reasons to avoid an upgrade

  1. The old "if it ain't broke" mentality.  Admittedly, it does perform a bit slower, but it is 7 years old....I got about the same amount of time on my eMac (2003 to 2010)
  2. We know our way around iPhoto and was wondering if we would I have to upgrade to Photos, and if so, is it a smooth transition?  Is there some prep work that could make this easier?
  3. The big question, would the upgrade cripple my system?  Would additional RAM help?
  4. How integrated do I have to be on iCloud?  I'm not too keen on going completely cloudbased?  I back up my photos every month to a separate hard drive off site.

 

With regards to my AppleTV, are there any advantages from a connectivity concern?  Will my WiFi be more stable for my AppleTV?  It's not Apple Hardware (Linksys I think).  I'm not able to hardwire as my house isn't setup like that, and the cost isn't in the picture right now.

 

Any help / tips / warnings would be appreciated!

 

Thanks,

 

mattfromcanada

imac quad-core 27"

Posted on Apr 25, 2016 1:00 PM

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