Should I upgrade to El Capitan on this model?

[Art_X]

After I went rummaging around trying to clean out areas of the house I found an old iMac I had forgotten about, so I decided to fire it up and at which point it told me El Capitan was available as an update, I have seen some of the reviews on the store and from around the web and they seem mixed, some are saying to stay away from it, others are saying its the greatest thing since the wheel.

The mac is an iMac 24" core duo 2 - 3ghz - 4gb ram - its an early 2009 model from what the about this mac box tells me, and it is indeed supported for the update, Think atm it has Yosimite on it, although I do have the Snow Lepoard disc if people think I should use that

Only issue I have had so far which reminds me of why I stopped using it, is that it got rather hot and froze when installing updates for the current OS X.

Would have thought it should be enough to handle doing light photo work and tagging jpgs

[Snakehn]

After I went rummaging around trying to clean out areas of the house I found an old iMac I had forgotten about, so I decided to fire it up and at which point it told me El Capitan was available as an update, I have seen some of the reviews on the store and from around the web and they seem mixed, some are saying to stay away from it, others are saying its the greatest thing since the wheel.

The mac is an iMac 24" core duo 2 - 3ghz - 4gb ram - its an early 2009 model from what the about this mac box tells me, and it is indeed supported for the update, Think atm it has Yosimite on it, although I do have the Snow Lepoard disc if people think I should use that

Only issue I have had so far which reminds me of why I stopped using it, is that it got rather hot and froze when installing updates for the current OS X.

Would have thought it should be enough to handle doing light photo work and tagging jpgs

Im running El capitan in a Late 2008 iMac 24 Core 2 Duo 2.8Ghz and is working like a dream, no problems whatsoever. Hope that helps.

[barnacles]

On 10/28/2015, 6:49:36, ArtistX said:

After I went rummaging around trying to clean out areas of the house I found an old iMac I had forgotten about, so I decided to fire it up and at which point it told me El Capitan was available as an update, I have seen some of the reviews on the store and from around the web and they seem mixed, some are saying to stay away from it, others are saying its the greatest thing since the wheel.

The mac is an iMac 24" core duo 2 - 3ghz - 4gb ram - its an early 2009 model from what the about this mac box tells me, and it is indeed supported for the update, Think atm it has Yosimite on it, although I do have the Snow Lepoard disc if people think I should use that

Only issue I have had so far which reminds me of why I stopped using it, is that it got rather hot and froze when installing updates for the current OS X.

Would have thought it should be enough to handle doing light photo work and tagging jpgs

I have the exact same model and running El Capitan on it. No problems so far

[Art_X]

Thanks, I gave it a try but it would freeze at random times doing the simplest of things, I tried all the reset tricks for that board, SMC and such but nothing worked, it would get hot as hell even when using fan software to higher the fans up, it helped to keep it cool but didn't stop the random lock ups

[Noir Angel]

Have you tried taking it apart to clean the fans out? If it's overheating when you're even doing simple tasks, it must merit a look.

[TAZMINATOR]

I have it on my 2009 27" iMac.   No problems so far.

 

But I wish I could have BT 4.0 in it....  I want the apps but they require BT 4.0 ... oh well.

 

Maybe next year, I will trade in for a new one.

[+Eternal Tempest MVC]

23 hours ago, ArtistX said:

Thanks, I gave it a try but it would freeze at random times doing the simplest of things, I tried all the reset tricks for that board, SMC and such but nothing worked, it would get hot as hell even when using fan software to higher the fans up, it helped to keep it cool but didn't stop the random lock ups

Have you tested the hard drive / memory to see if there starting to go bad?

[Art_X]

After looking at a guide to strip down the iMac it seems more trouble than its worth, I could get some compressed air and blow it into the fan, not the best solution I know

 

both showed everything as being fine, to be honest for what i need it to do now (3D work) the model is seriously under powered, I am thinking of replacing it, but not for a while yet

 

I tend to update systems every 5 years or so, so it is about time