using a Mac for the first time

Dill

artyclarty wrote: »

My partner has this exact model and it is still going strong! As has been mentioned, just need to max out the ram and upgrade to Snow Leopard and it will happily play ball for basic web browsing.

Thanks, maybe we'll have go at doing this.


At the moment it takes a really long time to respond. That little rainbow-coloured spinning disc pops up (presumably meaning the computer is 'doing something'..) and it stays there for about 3 minutes at a time!


I've never actually used a Mac before, so as yet I'm not sure of how it all works, where things are stored, etc, like I would be on a PC.

onomatopoeia99

You could probably install Windows 7 on it and it would fly along. My core 2 duo mac mini has that on and it's absolutely fine.

securityguy

wba31 wrote: »

If it were mine I'd do this (I'd pop 8GB in, did this in my MacBook despite it "only taking 4GB" and it loved it) Dropped an SSD in and it's like a new machine, so I'd be looking for a small SSD off Crucial

The iMac 5,2 supports a maximum of 3GB, up from the official 2GB (I can't remember if it works with a 1GB and a 2GB stick, or if you need two 2GB ones). It's the white plastic iMac, as was the iMac 6,1. You're thinking of the slightly more recent aluminium iMac 7,1, which indeed will take 6GB rather than the official 4GB; those are much more worth playing with, as they will run El Capitan well, particularly with an SSD or even a DIY fusion drive (I have one doing just that).

zagubov

artyclarty wrote: »

My partner has this exact model and it is still going strong! As has been mentioned, just need to max out the ram and upgrade to Snow Leopard and it will happily play ball for basic web browsing.

It probably needs two 1 GB SO-DIMM RAM modules Seems you might need to add two identical ones in each slot. eBay seems to offer them for £20-30 per pair (including postage). Get your nectar card out to get points when buying.
This site shows how to fit them.

You need a Snow Leopard install disk which is £15.

eBay has faster versions of this machine starting at £250 (you might find auctionsniper helpful) - I'd never suggest buying a mac new.

To watch iplayer you may need firefox as mentioned before.

These macs are perfectly sound, and an old one like this will be useful without spending a fortune. Especially as Apple have just quietly upped the prices of new machines.