What is the best available OSX for an early 2009 iMac (2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo - 4GB Ram)?

[PastorBuckeye]

I have an early 2009 24" iMac with a 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and 4GB of Ram. I want to do a complete wipe and reinstall as new. I'm currently running OSX 10.10.5 (Yosemite), but I'm afraid it won't be available upon reinstall. I don't want the latest OSX as I'm sure this old machine probably can't handle it. What is the best available OSX for my iMac should I do this reinstall?

If successful, I'll probably upgrade the RAM (to 8GB, I think) and swap the HDD for a SSD. Thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[pigoo3]

What is the best available OSX for my iMac should I do this reinstall?

If by best you mean newest. Newest macOS this iMac can run is 10.11 (El Capitan)...one version newer than it was running.

If successful, I'll probably upgrade the RAM (to 8GB, I think) and swap the HDD for a SSD. Thoughts?

Yes to both!

- Nick

 

[chscag]

Welcome to our forums.

Doing a wipe and reinstall might not be a good idea for a machine that old. Your iMac came preinstalled with Leopard (10.5.X) and can go as high as El Capitan (10.11.X). It might be better to stick with Yosemite and just upgrade your memory to 8GB which is the max it can take. The old saying still holds true: "If it's not broke....."

As far as swapping out the hard drive for a SSD, you can check the procedure to do that at iFixit: The Free Repair Manual.

 

[pm-r]

Doing a wipe and reinstall might not be a good idea for a machine that old.

+1!! Agree. Doing a "complete wipe and reinstall as new" is super overkill and may actually backfire from what you were expecting.

El Capitan (10.11.X) is a nice, fairly feature complete and up to date Mac OS X compromise.

Don't forget a recent current Clone backup if you don't have one already:
Using Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper. Your choice.





- Patrick
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[PastorBuckeye]

+1!! Agree. Doing a "complete wipe and reinstall as new" is super overkill and may actually backfire from what you were expecting.

El Capitan (10.11.X) is a nice, fairly feature complete and up to date Mac OS X compromise.

Don't forget a recent current Clone backup if you don't have one already:
Using Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper. Your choice.





- Patrick
======

Thank you, everyone!

Sounds like the consensus is to max out the RAM and move up to El Capitan. Sounds like a plan. I'll be doing this very soon. The RAM is less than $40, so this is an easy upgrade. I'll do the SSD later (with the wife's permission) and get my iMac on more solid footing. I've already done this type of thing with my MacBook Pro (early 2011). I've watched videos on the SSD in this iMac and it looks more complicated than the laptop, but doable. Thanks for the additional link! I'll check it out soon. Thanks again to everyone for responding to this thread.

PastorBuckeye

 

[pm-r]

Sounds like the consensus is to max out the RAM and move up to El Capitan. Sounds like a plan. I'll be doing this very soon... I'll do the SSD later...

You might want to have a read through here:
Five Things You Need to Know Before Upgrading Your 2009 or Later iMac
5 Things to Know Before Upgrading Your 2009 or Later iMac

And a very well respected Knowledgeable Mac dealer I might add.





- Patrick
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