Mac Mini- Os Upgrade, should I or should I not?

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Morning, Afternoon, Evening?

I would like to first point out that I know very little about Macs, I know enough to get around and make people happy when a problem comes up. Mostly dealing with the software installed on the computer... Not the OS itself.

With that being said- I recently bought a Mac Mini from a friend of mine that was about to donate it. The Mac's specs are:

Mac Os X Version 10.4.11
Processor 1.66Ghz Intel Core Duo
Memory 512MB 667Mhz


I was doing a little bit of research and I came crossed that this thing is running, what two versions old OS? So my question is, can I upgrade this machine to Lion? And if so can I do it with out going to Snow Leopard (10.5?)?

Thanks,
Kyle
 
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Your Mac's Specs
iMac 2.66 GHz 20", iPad Mini2 32GB, iPhone6 64GB, Watch Sport 42mm Black, iPad Air 2 128GB
You need a minimum of 2GB of RAM to install Lion. I had to upgrade my own MacMini for that.

Even worse, I am not sure your processor is up to running Lion. I think you need an Intel Core 2 Duo at least. I don't think that can be upgraded :(

Try checking for which version of MacMini you have (Apple menu, About this Mac) then search on the Apple website to see if it is compatible.

Alternatively, when I tried to install Lion on my MacMini, it advised me immediately that it did not have enough RAM - rather than installing and then not working. It did not even let me start downloading Lion in the AppStore, so give that a try.
 
C

chas_m

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The latest ComputerFreak's Mac mini can run is 10.6.8. It cannot use Lion.

There is nothing wrong with this, however. Snow Leopard will continue to be supported for the foreseeable future, programs will still be compatible with it and so forth. A computer that's "stuck" at 10.6.8 is not really a problem and won't be for another couple of years at least.

You HAVE to upgrade that RAM, however. I mean, seriously, like yesterday. It's a cheap upgrade, just max it out (I think that would be 2GB on that machine). Getting to the RAM on it will be kinda tricky, have a tech do it.

After you upgrade the RAM, buy the $29 Snow Leopard retail DVD and upgrade. Following that, I'd strongly recommend upgrading at least iPhoto to the current version ($15 at the Mac App Store). You'll also want to/have to upgrade Safari and iTunes, but those will be free updates.
 

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