Early 2008 iMac ... Mavericks, Yosemite or El Capitan? Which will run the best?

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I just installed a Sandisk 240GB SSD in my early 2008 2.4GHz iMac and wondering which version of OS X will run the absolute best on the iMac in my signature below. I want it to feel super snappy and no frustrate me when using Office 2011, browsing the web, watching TV shows and movies on my Plex server and playing some World of Warcraft WOTLK (play on private server just up to this expansion). Which version will run the absolute best on my hardware? Thanks in advance!
 
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Well unless you have copies of Mavericks or Yosemite then El Capitan is it. Mavericks and Yosemite are no longer available in the Apple store unless you downloaded them previously or have them already.

The SSD should give it a nice boost. That model can only be upgraded to 6GB so while that could help I don't think you would see a huge benefit.

I do know Office 2011 will work just fine on El Capitan. From what I have read WOW should work on El Capitan although I am not a gamer and have no idea what the system requirements are.

Lisa
 
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I do have the images of Mavericks and Yosemite so I can put any of them on my system. Short of putting them all on and testing them does anyone happen to know off hand which one will run best?
 
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If you have Mavericks, It might be the fastest on that machine. I am typing this to you on that very iMac in fact. I would also recommend maxing out the RAM to 6GB.
 
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I have 4gb. I liked Mavericks, does it work well with SSDs?
 

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Mavericks should be fine on an SSD. I have one in my 2008 MacBook Pro. The difference between a standard spinning hard drive and SSD is is quite noticeable. It is most reduction of boot time and other tasks requiring a lot of reading/writing to the drive. My boot time was was cut almost in half IIRC.
 
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You might want to do some checking and see if that SSD supports TRIM, and the same for your Mac, but I'm not sure if Mavericks has "native" support for third party drives and I believe El Capitan has more support for, but I'm only using Mavericks and earlier.

Maybe do some searching on something like this:
https://www.google.com/search?clien...ricks+for+SSD+TRIM+leveling&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

Without proper TRIM support, that Mac may end up being slower than any old HDD…




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Most SSDs today come with some sort of a TRIM system built into the firmware. OWC and Crucial drives have such a system. I am not sure who else does so you might do a bit of research on what ever you select.

Prior to Yosemite 10.10.4, you could use a utility called TRIM Enabler that would disable the feature that checked to see if you were using an OEM Apple SSD and then turn on trim. While it worked, you had to remember to turn it off for major updates or your system would hang, requiring a lot of steps and hassle to get it back to running right.

This article explains it well and tells you how to enable TRIM if your SSD does not have a built in system, but you will only be able to do so with Yosemite and El Capitan. For some reason only known to Apple, the prevented that in Mavericks.

http://www.howtogeek.com/222077/how-to-enable-trim-for-third-party-ssds-on-mac-os-x/

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National magnolia

Well unless you have copies of Mavericks or Yosemite then El Capitan is it. Mavericks and Yosemite are no longer available in the Apple store unless you downloaded them previously or have them already.

The SSD should give it a nice boost. That model can only be upgraded to 6 GB...

Lisa

I do not have an SSD, but I also have an iMac from 2008 (2.4 GHZ Core 2 Duo processor, and 4 GB RAM). I need to upgrade to some other operating system from Snow Leopard. I downloaded El Capitan but have to installed it yet because I am worried that I need need something lessor like Yosemite or Lion instead...

I would not hesitate to buy more RAM if that is needed. The hard drive was replaced in 2011, and I only use the computer for web browsing.

Thank you!
 
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I need to upgrade to some other operating system from Snow Leopard. I downloaded El Capitan but have to installed it yet


You may not have much or even any choice as to your OS X Update, defending on what you've done in the past and what you have available.

4GB of RAM is pretty minimal and the El Capt'n is the last OS X version that Mac can run:
Apple iMac "Core 2 Duo" 2.4 20-Inch (Early 2008) Specs
Maximum MacOS: X 10.11.x*
http://www.everymac.com/systems/app...20-inch-aluminum-early-2008-penryn-specs.html

You can wait until after you upgrade to see if more RAM is required, but 8GB would be my minimum recommendation. But El Cap'n does tend to handle memory better than Snow Leopard does.

PS: Welcome to the mac-forums.

PPS: I'd suggest you keep your Snow Leopard on it's own partition if and when you do upgrade. Probably a lot of apps like AppleWorks you might use or need won't run with later OS X versions.


EDIT:
Oppps… I forgot, your iMac can only use Maximum 6GB RAM. Keeping the 4GB PAIR just might be almost as fast or faster, (it's to do with interleaving), especially if you're adding/replacing the HDD with a SSD.

And that 2011 hard drive is getting towards the end of its normal life and may be slowing down as well.





- Patrick
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El Capitan, Yosemite, or Mavericks? (2008 iMac)

You may not have much or even any choice as to your OS X Update, defending on what you've done in the past and what you have available.

4GB of RAM is pretty minimal and the El Capt'n is the last OS X version that Mac can run:
Apple iMac "Core 2 Duo" 2.4 20-Inch (Early 2008) Specs
Maximum MacOS: X 10.11.x*
http://www.everymac.com/systems/app...20-inch-aluminum-early-2008-penryn-specs.html

You can wait until after you upgrade to see if more RAM is required, but 8GB would be my minimum recommendation. But El Cap'n does tend to handle memory better than Snow Leopard does.

PS: Welcome to the mac-forums.

PPS: I'd suggest you keep your Snow Leopard on it's own partition if and when you do upgrade. Probably a lot of apps like AppleWorks you might use or need won't run with later OS X versions.

EDIT:
Oppps… I forgot, your iMac can only use Maximum 6GB RAM. Keeping the 4GB PAIR just might be almost as fast or faster, (it's to do with interleaving), especially if you're adding/replacing the HDD with a SSD.

And that 2011 hard drive is getting towards the end of its normal life and may be slowing down as well.

- Patrick
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Thank you, Patrick! However, would I be better off with Yosemite, Mavericks, or a lower version? Someone else said: "Get something below 10.10 (Yosemite). The newer versions have so much disk I/O it could fry the older hard drive." Do you think this is accurate? (https://apple.stackexchange.com/que...86509?newreg=0950497e9ea24d1e92a6066da4af642a)

FYI, I am NOT planning on getting an SSD.

Thank you! :)
 
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Thank you, Patrick! However, would I be better off with Yosemite, Mavericks, or a lower version? Someone else said: "Get something below 10.10 (Yosemite). The newer versions have so much disk I/O it could fry the older hard drive." Do you think this is accurate? (https://apple.stackexchange.com/que...86509?newreg=0950497e9ea24d1e92a6066da4af642a)

FYI, I am NOT planning on getting an SSD.

Hi MSue - responded to your cross-post and welcomed you to the forum. Patrick has already provided the link to EveryMac describing your early 2008 iMac computer - below are just a couple of screen shots from the details there; first, appears the RAM has been upgraded to 4 GB from that offered in the original machine - can go to 6 GB w/ stipulations but will that help much? Also, macOS 10.11.x (El Capitan), as you already know, is the maximum OS for your computer - others who have gone through this process will need to 'chime in', but 8 GB RAM would be a lot better for those newer operating systems.

Finally, as seen in the last image below, Mactracker estimates that your computer is worth about $130 - you might be able to get more if sold by yourself on eBay or Craig's list (if you'll willing?) - but instead of investing in RAM and/or a SSD, you might be thinking about a newer machine, depending on your budget. Again, others who have long dealings in the used Mac market (if you want to go that route) will hopefully post. Good luck. Dave :)

.
iMac2.png

iMac3.png

iMac4.png
 
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Thank you for pointing out the earlier link that I missed, and for cutting and pasting that information!

I was concerned that El Capitan might slow down this computer too much, and that it might be better to use Yosemite or Mavericks instead. The computer belongs to a 77-year-old with the beginnings of dementia, and she only uses it to surf the internet. We aren't really concerned with any other apps except maybe Photos, I think. :)

Thank you! :)
 
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Thank you for pointing out the earlier link that I missed, and for cutting and pasting that information!

I was concerned that El Capitan might slow down this computer too much, and that it might be better to use Yosemite or Mavericks instead. The computer belongs to a 77-year-old with the beginnings of dementia, and she only uses it to surf the internet. We aren't really concerned with any other apps except maybe Photos, I think. :)

Hello again - well, you can go to 6 GB RAM and upgrade to a macOS version less than El Capitan - others w/ experience in this area on older Macs will need to offer comments. Also, a 'slow' Mac, especially an older one, may be due to a lot of different issues - might want to tell us why you feel the macOS upgrade is needed, e.g. browser slowness, internet connection (how good?), HD capacity and free space, rebooting try, clearing of browser and computer caches, etc. - check this Macworld Article for a bunch of items that can be checked. Dave :)
 
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With snow leopard, both the Chrome browser and the Safari browser don't work well and won't allow me to go to many pages. I need to be able to get better browsers. :(

Will mountain lion allow me to get better browser experience with a better version of a browser? Thank you!

The HD seems to have tons of room, and the internet connection is fast.

Apple support says that my only choices are Mountain Lion or El Capitan because the intervening OS are not available to purchase or get for free.
 
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The computer belongs to a 77-year-old with the beginnings of dementia, and she only uses it to surf the internet.


Why even bother upgrading if that's the situation, unless they are having some problems with some Internet sites etc.

And if so, then create a partition and use CCC (Carbon Copy Cloner) to clone the SL volume to it, (free to use for that) and then install whatever later OS X you want on it so that the SL and later versions will both be available to boot into.

BTE: I'm an old mid-70's curmudgeon that often uses El Cap'n on a 2007 MBPro without any problems, but it does have 6GB memory and a SSD.

Personally, I'd doubt very much that anyone with the beginnings of dementia is really going to notice any difference either way don't you think!! O:)




- Patrick
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Why even bother upgrading if that's the situation, unless they are having some problems with some Internet sites etc.

And if so, then create a partition and use CCC (Carbon Copy Cloner) to clone the SL volume to it, (free to use for that) and then install whatever later OS X you want on it so that the SL and later versions will both be available to boot into.

BTE: I'm an old mid-70's curmudgeon that often uses El Cap'n on a 2007 MBPro without any problems, but it does have 6GB memory and a SSD.

Personally, I'd doubt very much that anyone with the beginnings of dementia is really going to notice any difference either way don't you think!! O:)




- Patrick
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Hi Patrick, I'm an old mid-70's curmudgeon too...please tell me witch SSD You have? Thanks Lara
 
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@Lara C
Hi Patrick, I'm an old mid-70's curmudgeon too...please tell me witch SSD You have? Thanks Lara


Hi Laura, And my apologies if I implied that I was using an SSD drive, I am not.

I am using the original 1TB HDD Internal drive that came with my 2011 27" iMac, (partitioned), as well as several different external drives, also, most are partitioned, all with various connection methods.

As for any hard drive recommendations, I am partial to Western Digital Black HDDs that are used in my Firewire Drive Dock, or various USB, or Thunderbolt corrected HDDs In In their own External drive cases.

A lot will depend on what is available and on sale and is a fairly reputable brand. You could do the same.

If you are concerned about data loss, then purchased at least two drives and clone each of them.
You can use partitions if you want to be using several different Bootable Mac OS versions.



- Patrick
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Laura, check with OWC (macsales.com) to find a compatible drive for your system. They have a pretty straightforward way of determining what will run in your system. You can even chat on line or phone them for advice.
 

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