Ôld mac upgrade

I want to upgrade my old iMac 7.1 mid 2007,
Any ideas how to do this?

Welcome to Mac-Forums..

"upgrade" doesn't tell us what you want to do. You will have to be a LOT more specific about what you want to do.

Here is one update you could do, https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206886.

If you mean hardware upgrades...not really worth it on such an old computer. But if you were determined to do this...we would need the exact specs of the computer.

- Nick

Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac7,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.8 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 800 MHz
Boot ROM Version: IM71.007A.B03
SMC Version (system): 1.21f4
Serial Number (system): W88052CBZCV
Hardware UUID: 00000000-0000-1000-8000-001EC21320F9

Raz0rEdge said:

Welcome to Mac-Forums..

"upgrade" doesn't tell us what you want to do. You will have to be a LOT more specific about what you want to do.

Click to expand...

Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac7,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.8 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 800 MHz
Boot ROM Version: IM71.007A.B03
SMC Version (system): 1.21f4
Serial Number (system): W88052CBZCV
Hardware UUID: 00000000-0000-1000-8000-001EC21320F9

It's very slow running, the browser is not supporting a lot of websites

So, that iMac, is capable to support 6GB ram (memory), but it will only accept 1-4GB & 1-2GB sticks. In my opinion, not worth it, since you already have the 4GB installed.

Here are the full specs, http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/specs/imac-core-2-extreme-2.8-24-inch-aluminum-specs.html.

Installing El Capitan, as I posted above in post # 3, will work, and it will get the iMac on to a supported OS X version.

I just want to upgrade the OS if possible, maybe it's time for a new one.

Ok, thanks for all your help.

Terrytown said:

I just want to upgrade the OS if possible, maybe it's time for a new one.

Click to expand...

Yes...I agree with you...it's time for a new one!

As member ferrarr mentioned...you could install a newer OS version (El Capitan)...and then you would have newer versions of the Apple apps (including Safari)...but the computer may not run any faster. In fact...since you may be upgrading from a very old version of the macOS...El Capitan may not run well. The main problem is it's a 10 year old computer...with a 10 year old design and 10 year old graphics hardware. The graphics hardware is very very important to how fast a computer operates with the things computers do in 2017 (the CPU too).

Even with a RAM upgrade (from 4gig to 6gig)...you may not notice much of an improvement. And...that 6gig RAM upgrade is expensive (especially compared to the current value of the computer).

Time for a new one (or a much newer used one). You got 10 years out of this one...that's pretty darn good when it comes to computers!

- Nick

I just want to upgrade the OS if possible, maybe it's time for a new one.

Click to expand...

FWIW, our similar 2007 2.4Ghz 24" 6GB RAM iMac is still doing Roman service with OS X 10.5 El Capitan recently installed. Works fine.

The specific everymac.com URL that Bob posted for your iMac model provides various possible "upgrades" options if you're interested.




- Patrick
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pm-r said:

FWIW, our similar 2007 2.4Ghz 24" 6GB RAM iMac is still doing Roman service with OS X 10.5 El Capitan recently installed. Works fine.

Click to expand...

I knew you would chime in with positive advice for keeping the old-girl running. Great to hear your 2007 iMac is doing fine with El Capitan and 6gig or RAM!

Maybe the OP's hard drive is getting full, needs maintenance, or is starting to fail (leading to the slowness issues).

- Nick

pigoo3 said:

I knew you would chime in with positive advice for keeping the old-girl running. Great to hear your 2007 iMac is doing fine with El Capitan and 6gig or RAM!

Maybe the OP's hard drive is getting full, needs maintenance, or is starting to fail (leading to the slowness issues).

- Nick

Click to expand...

Thanks Nick, as is my old 2007 15" MBPro 2.2 GHz 4GB still quite operational for most of our needs.

Both have had their HDDs replaced, WD 1TB Black in the iMac and a 240GB Crutial SSD in the MBPro.

Assuming their HDD has enough spare room, I always found a good maintenance speedup was to make or use a current backup CCC clone, boot from it and wipe and nuke the internal HDD with a zero-out or one pass security using Disk Utility, (that maps out any bad sectors), and a step that must not be skipped, then use CCC to clone it back.

The increased speed difference was always quite incredible for our's and others with their HDD Macs with the same procedure performed.

PS: Using SuperDuper! for some reason did not produce such dramatic results as CCC (Carbon Copy Cloner) would do.

Sure can't hurt to try.




- Patrick
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