Mac upgrades etc to keep things running smoothly

Pythagorous

Hi All,

I bought an imac nearly 4 years ago and haven't upgraded anything since then. I'm conscious that it may be running slower and need a proper clean-up, software upgrade and general tidy to try and keep things running efficiently.

With this in mind, i'd be grateful if anyone could advise

- Is a software upgrade a good idea. I'm currently running Mac OS X 10.5.8. My understanding is that I would have to pay for a couple of different upgrades in order to get to the latest OS X Mountain Lion?

- Someone suggested I should completely reinstall everything. I am wary of doing this due to the hassle of having to reinstall all the various programs I have installed over the last few years. Is this a good idea!?

- What else should I do to keep things running smoothly. I have heard MacKeeper is very good?

Appreciate any help guys!

Thanks,
P

macman

Is this an Intel iMac? If not, you can't run Mountain Lion.
Also bear in mind that installing Mountain Lion will make any of your legacy software currently running under Rosetta unusable (Rosetta is not built into ML).
Before worrying about the OS, I'd max out the RAM first, if it's not already at capacity. And first use CCleaner for Mac to clean out 4 years of temp files etc.
A clean install is always a good idea, but does involve some work.

Pythagorous

Hi Macman,

Thanks for the reply. The processor is 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo. Does this mean I am stuck with the current OS. Doesn't really bother me as long as it doesn't lead to sluggish performance.

Gonna look into the ram and ccleaner as suggested.

Cheers!!

viv0147

Can I suggest a brilliant website for everything to do with a Mac and one you can get advice from, and loads of video's on (how to) it's free to use, https://www.macmost.com I have Mountain Lion 10.8.2 and it's a brilliant system so I think you do need to catch up

macman

Pythagorous wrote: »

Hi Macman,

Thanks for the reply. The processor is 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo. Does this mean I am stuck with the current OS. Doesn't really bother me as long as it doesn't lead to sluggish performance.

Gonna look into the ram and ccleaner as suggested.

Cheers!!

http://www.apple.com/osx/specs/
So if yours is an Intel 2008 model then you should be OK.

Mr_Toad

I've got a year old iMac running Mountain Lion, my girlfriend has a an older 21" iMac running 10.5 and it's just fine. I thought about upgrading but in the end decided against upgrading for the sake of it.

It does everything she wants or needs to do and it still does it very well so we left it alone.

If you have a genuine reason then go for it. Doing it because you can is a valid reason :0)

Pythagorous

macman wrote: »

Before worrying about the OS, I'd max out the RAM first, if it's not already at capacity.

I just checked my activity monitor and I'm currently using 2gb out of the 4gb I have available. Does it seem worth upgrading to 8gb (the max possible for my imac)?

Pythagorous

wow, just ran ccleaner analysis. 8000 files to be removed. 2000 in chrome!

macman

4GB RAM is enough for most purposes unless you are doing lots of intensive graphics work such as video editing, photo rendering etc.

knightstyle

My 2009 Macbook has 2.13 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and a couple of months ago my son upgraded it to 10.8.2 He didn't do a clean install, left everything on it. It now runs great and I like the new features, well not all the iTunes ones, but my old version of Photoshop will not now run!
So check first that the things you use will run after you update.