Bought an old imac and need to know what mac os i am able to install on it!! Help plz

[s1m0n22492]

Hello People, I Have just bought an old imac (2004 i believe), and it is currently running on 10.3 Panther i think. I was wondering if i can just go ahead and update it to the new ox lion?? and what are the maximum upgrades i can get for it to maximize performance!

Please and Thank you!!!

Simon.

 

[Kaveman]

Re: Bought an old imac and need to know what mac os i am able to install on it!! Help

Does it have a built in iSight camera? if so most likely.

Also check under the Apple Menu > About this Mac...
For the Processor, must be Core 2 Duo minimum.

You may also need more RAM, I'd recommend at least 3Gig.

 

[Kaveman]

Re: Bought an old imac and need to know what mac os i am able to install on it!! Help

Oh, and you can't just go ahead and update to Lion, you have to get it from the App Store and that requires Snow Leopard 6.8, so you have to upgrade to that first.

 

[s1m0n22492]

Re: Bought an old imac and need to know what mac os i am able to install on it!! Help

I did want one with a built in Isight but i have just found out that this one doesnt unfortunatly Is this a problem? And i have been told i can only store upto 2GB Ram on this version? is that correct?

Okay thank you, so i need to upgrade from 10.3 panther, to 10.6 snow leapord and then to lion? or do i have to go 10.3 to 10.4 to 10.5 to 10.6?


thank you for your help.
Simon

 

[Kaveman]

Re: Bought an old imac and need to know what mac os i am able to install on it!! Help

this one doesnt unfortunatly

then its too old for Lion. You might get to Snow.

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

Re: Bought an old imac and need to know what mac os i am able to install on it!! Help

You can miss out 10.5 and go from 10.4 - 10.6 but I can't verify that you can jump from 10.3 - 10.6

If the iMac is a 2004 model then AFAIK, you can only upgrade to 10.5.8. If you source a Full Retail (Universal) Version of Leopard you should be able to go straight to Leopard from Panther BUT you must download and install the appropriate Firmware Update:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TA23419?viewlocale=en_US

I would advise googling around just to be sure that you can jump straight to Leopard although Kaveman would know this. Make sure you purchase the correct Leopard discs too. Not an upgrade but a Full Install. The upgrade would likely demand Mac OS X 10.4.9 before it would continue.