# iMac 266 MHz



## Ferdinand (Jan 15, 2007)

I have 9.2.2 loaded on it, like it says in my signature, but I want OS X. I have 94 MB of RAM inside it now which is _just_ enough for running the Finder, Internet and iTunes in OS 9. I could get 10.1 for 19 $, or 10.2.8 for 60 something dollars. I dont know what to do now. Since it's only a 6 GB HD, the OS cant take too much space, and since its 94 MB of RAM we're taking about, the OS cant take up much space. I hear somewhere 10.2 needs at least 128 MB of RAM. Is this true? If yes, does 10.1 also need that much?


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## eric2006 (Jan 15, 2007)

If you want to do low end OS X computing, i'd recommend picking up an old G3 or G4 tower. The parts are easier to get at (have you tried changing the hard drive on that iMac?), and cheaper. You don't want to go below 10.2 - which requires 128 MB of RAM. RAM for the old iMacs is very expensive, and it would be much cheaper to get a tower, but if you must, you can find what kind of RAM you can get at Crucial, then look for generic RAM that's cheaper than them, but the same type.


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## Cheryl (Jan 15, 2007)

You are not going to be able to install OS X due to the RAM requirements - 128 MB (Mac OS X 10.3 or earlier)
Space: At least 1.5 GB free hard disk space
Note: For Mac OS X 10.2 or later, 3.0 GB is the recommended minimum. 

You could try moving your files (OS 9 documents, pictures, music) to an external drive to make room for OS X. But you still need to get more memory.  

You also need to install a firmware update before installing OS X. 

That iMac can run 10.3.9 (max) and you can run 512 MB ram in it.


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## Ferdinand (Jan 15, 2007)

Thanks - So summed up I'll definately need more RAM (which I suspected, but I hoped to be wrong). The files are not a problem, since I use only about a GB, but at least I dont have to do partioning and all of that work before I can install it. That partioning thing is only for HDs above 10, 13 or 15 GBs?


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## andychrist (Jan 15, 2007)

On that iMac you would need to install OS X within the first 8 GB of the HD.  So with an HD of only 6 GB, no partition needed.  But you probably will not have enough room left after installing Panther to do much with it.  (Although I did manage to get Tiger up and running on my original 4 GB HD, must say it wasn't pretty.)


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## eric2006 (Jan 15, 2007)

You'd have enough space to do web browsing and email. If you start installing apps, adding music or photos, etc - you'll run out of space, fast. You should have a few gigs free for the RAM to swap out.


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## Ferdinand (Jan 16, 2007)

andychrist said:


> On that iMac you would need to install OS X within the first 8 GB of the HD.  So with an HD of only 6 GB, no partition needed.  But you probably will not have enough room left after installing Panther to do much with it.  (Although I did manage to get Tiger up and running on my original 4 GB HD, must say it wasn't pretty.)



Thats what I thought, that I'll run out of space with panther on a 6GB HD.


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## Ferdinand (Jan 16, 2007)

andychrist said:


> On that iMac you would need to install OS X within the first 8 GB of the HD.  So with an HD of only 6 GB, no partition needed.  But you probably will not have enough room left after installing Panther to do much with it.  (Although I did manage to get Tiger up and running on my original 4 GB HD, must say it wasn't pretty.)



I thought that I'll run out of space with panther on a 6 GB HD.




eric2006 said:


> You'd have enough space to do web browsing and email. If you start installing apps, adding music or photos, etc - you'll run out of space, fast. You should have a few gigs free for the RAM to swap out.



I know, I mean I have trouble on a 20 GB HD computer, so 6 GB? But I won't load any photos or videos on it, only music, where I already have quite a bit on it now.


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## andychrist (Jan 16, 2007)

By unchecking all the extra languages and such, leaving only Basic System and BSD Subsystem when you install OS X, you can get away with a boot volume that uses up only about 3 GB.  So you will have another 3 GB remaining of free space, but as Eric pointed out, you will need some of that for virtual memory.  Also OS X keeps adding to various caches, which can use up a goodly amount of MB.  So you're not going to have a lot of room left over for iTunes, maybe a gig or so.  Still, better than nothing.


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## Ferdinand (Jan 16, 2007)

andychrist said:


> By unchecking all the extra languages and such, leaving only Basic System and BSD Subsystem when you install OS X, you can get away with a boot volume that uses up only about 3 GB.  So you will have another 3 GB remaining of free space, but as Eric pointed out, you will need some of that for virtual memory.  Also OS X keeps adding to various caches, which can use up a goodly amount of MB.  So you're not going to have a lot of room left over for iTunes, maybe a gig or so.  Still, better than nothing.



Thanks for the info. Now I'm just checking what my local Apple store has in terms of RAM etc...


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## bobw (Jan 16, 2007)

Look HERE for memory.

Also check http://www.ramseeker.com for prices.

Apple's prices will probably be higher.


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## andychrist (Jan 16, 2007)

Uhm, actually this is what you would want for your iMac, though I don't know if OWC ships to where you live.  The important thing to know is that your machine has two slots for RAM, one on each side of the CPU card.  One of them, I think the bottom slot, can only take the shorter, "low profile" chip, though I guess the short chip could fit into either slot.  So if you could pick up a couple of those 256 MB jobies you'd be able to max out that iMac.


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## Ferdinand (Jan 17, 2007)

Thanks for the info - I'll compare whats cheaper:
US RAM plus shipping or RAM from the Apple Store... but shipping alone is more than double than what the RAM costs at OWC, so we'll see, but thanks anyway!


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## sinclair_tm (Jan 17, 2007)

turth be told, it can be done, but it will not be fun to fun os x on that imac.  i had a buddy that at one time was the it guy for a company that had a bunch of imacs, and when the boss decided to have os x on all of them, my buddies nightmares began.  with the ram maxed out, and the limitation on the hard drive size, os x 10.2 ran so slow that it was unuable most of the time, and there wasn't the room needed for the apps they needed to run.  i personally would never run os x on anything slower than 350mhz, as then thats almost to slow for work.  but if you want to do it, have fun.


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## Ferdinand (Feb 12, 2007)

Follow up: I have 320 MB of RAM now, still on OS 9, but Internet & everything hooked up. I just clean installed OS X on some Macs and all apps (iLife etc...) is 7 GB, so no way of OS X on that iMac.


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