Should I upgrade my 5 year-old iMac?

Hi,

I bought my iMac back in February 2007, I'm happy to say it hasn't caused me much trouble (other than the hard drive crashing 2 years ago, at least it was still covered under my Apple Plan). It's gotten regular use for 5 years now and although I have no major problems, I was wondering if it's enough machine for my needs? I'm clueless in this department! Here are my specs:

iMac OS X (Snow Leopard)
2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor
2GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM

It gets some fairly consistent use. iTunes is constantly going - if it's not iTunes, I'm watching shows or movies online; we're a cable-free family so what we watch is either on the computer or Apple TV. We also do a lot of online browsing, I do all my banking/communicating online. I love taking pictures so I have a LOT of pictures on my computer and do a bit of editing as well (for myself). My son plays online games sometimes.
We don't do anything super intensive, but we use the computer all the time. Would it benefit from a memory upgrade? We live in a rural area so our "high speed" internet is dodgy at best, so half the time I can't tell if my computer lags are from the internet connection or I really need to upgrade.
Would there be any suggestions for overall upgrading, or possibly a whole new computer. Thanks

That particular machine is still a good one. The only problem in doing any kind of upgrade is that the maximum amount of memory it can use is 3 GB. You can install 4 GB but it will only address 3 GB. Other than a larger hard drive (which is a difficult upgrade to do) there isn't much else.

Can't do much about the slow internet connection since you live in a rural area where you probably don't have much choice in internet providers. If you're using wireless, you might consider wired (ethernet connection) instead. That may give you some more speed.

Overall, if your iMac is still useful to you and serves its purpose, keep on trucking!

I agree with chscag. From what you use your Mac for it seems like it is the perfect computer for your needs. You might consider a memory upgrade but as chscag said the max you could go to would be 3GB.

Good luck!

chscag said:

The only problem in doing any kind of upgrade is that the maximum amount of memory it can use is 3 GB. You can install 4 GB but it will only address 3 GB.

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I've decided to do just that on my 5-year old Mini. I figure if it dies on me I'll remove the new RAM that I ordered for it and put the original sticks back in and just use those on my next Mini, if they can be useful. But, I suppose new Minis come with at least 4GB anyway in order to run Mountain Lion. My Mini has given me zero trouble, so I think it will last awhile with ML installed.