What can i do with my Old imac?

[Hachi_Roku256563]

As some of you have seen in new tech purchaes thread
I have a OLD imac 5.1 cost me almost nothing
Came with Core 2 duo 1G ram and a X1600
i upgraded it to 4 the second i got it
Can i either
Run win 7/XP on it
OR use it as a second moniter?

 

[stinger608]

Hey @Isaac` , I don't see a single reason that it wouldn't run Windows 7. Heck, I have a couple of ole Core 2 Duo's that I have Win7 pro installed and they seem to run fine.
Big question I think, is will it accept more than 4 gigs of ram? It would run 7 much smoother with 8 gigs.

It would possibly be a troublesome task though, to go from the Mac OS to windows on it.

What, is there an issue running the Mac OSX system on it?

If not, then heck, play with it and see if you get comfy running the Mac OS.

 

[Hachi_Roku256563]

Hey @Isaac` , I don't see a single reason that it wouldn't run Windows 7. Heck, I have a couple of ole Core 2 Duo's that I have Win7 pro installed and they seem to run fine.
Big question I think, is will it accept more than 4 gigs of ram? It would run 7 much smoother with 8 gigs.

It would possibly be a troublesome task though, to go from the Mac OS to windows on it.

What, is there an issue running the Mac OSX system on it?

If not, then heck, play with it and see if you get comfy running the Mac OS.

the biggest problem is i have NO idea how to us mac os
futhermore win 7 would be the best for getting it online
My main worry is drivers

 

[stinger608]

My main worry is drivers

Right, I agree bro. Drivers may be the biggest issue to overcome.

That is why I stated it could be "possibly be a troublesome task" trying to install a Windows OS on a Mac.

I'm sure that the Mac OSX will be no problem finding the drivers to getting online though.

 

[Hachi_Roku256563]

Right, I agree bro. Drivers may be the biggest issue to overcome.

That is why I stated it could be "possibly be a troublesome task" trying to install a Windows OS on a Mac.

I'm sure that the Mac OSX will be no problem finding the drivers to getting online though.

I cant find a new enough browser though
i do know that there are offcial win xp driver
dont know about 7

Do you know anything about using it as a very chonky mointer?

 

[stinger608]

Do you know anything about using it as a very chonky mointer?

Not at all bro, sorry.

Heck, I'd back up the OSX system on an external drive and try both win XP and Win 7 installs. Do some research online for drivers for both and just give em a try. Might be a fun little project/experiment.

 

[Hachi_Roku256563]

Not at all bro, sorry.

Heck, I'd back up the OSX system on an external drive and try both win XP and Win 7 installs. Do some research online for drivers for both and just give em a try. Might be a fun little project/experiment.

Will do
ill update the thread with what i can get the mac to do
and i wanna find out
*CAN IT RUN CRYISIS*

 

[timta2]

I wouldn't use old and insecure OSs like Windows XP or Windows 7 on that machine. If you aren't interested in a linux install, it might best to toss it. The hardware itself is mostly worthless today. The (Windows) "drivers" you're referring to are included in Boot Camp. You can find the old versions if you look around. https://support.apple.com/boot-camp

 

[theFOoL]

If you get windows 7 working... Try a program called 3DP or Driver Booster

 

[Toothless]

I wouldn't use old and insecure OSs like Windows XP or Windows 7 on that machine. If you aren't interested in a linux install, it might best to toss it. The hardware itself is mostly worthless today. The (Windows) "drivers" you're referring to are included in Boot Camp. You can find the old versions if you look around. https://support.apple.com/boot-camp

He doesn't need to have it hooked up to the internet after driver installs. Besides Win7 is still fine as long as you don't go full stupid with it and the sites you go to.

 

[Fangio1951]

Donate to museum

 

[Hachi_Roku256563]

I wouldn't use old and insecure OSs like Windows XP or Windows 7 on that machine. If you aren't interested in a linux install, it might best to toss it. The hardware itself is mostly worthless today. The (Windows) "drivers" you're referring to are included in Boot Camp. You can find the old versions if you look around. https://support.apple.com/boot-camp

If i use XP all my apps will be downloaded from a secure PC
I would be intrested in LINUX
but it has in the past been really unhappy running on older Video cars

 

[Lew Zealand]

That's a 15 year old Mac running the first-gen Core 2 Duo and 4GB RAM is the max you can install. In fact it can only address 3.3GB of it. Max Mac OS is 10.7.5 so is old and insecure. Also I don't think you can use those as an external monitor, that feature was added in later. Old Skool Mac computing is all it can reasonably do other than a Linux distro, or Win 7 32-bit, but I have zero experience with setting up either on that machine.

 

[sam_86314]

I had an old polycarbonate iMac with a 2.16GHz C2D (T7400 I think), 3GB RAM, and Radeon X1600 graphics. I think it was my main PC from 2013 to late 2014. It ran Windows 7 fine (I could even play Skyrim on it), however, the graphics drivers included in Bootcamp were complete and utter garbage. I'd recommend searching for better drivers from a reputable source, probably somewhere like guru3D.

Nowadays, I'd probably recommend Linux for older Macs. Probably something with the LXQt or XFCE desktop environments.

 

[Hachi_Roku256563]

That's a 15 year old Mac running the first-gen Core 2 Duo and 4GB RAM is the max you can install. In fact it can only address 3.3GB of it. Max Mac OS is 10.7.5 so is old and insecure. Also I don't think you can use those as an external monitor, that feature was added in later. Old Skool Mac computing is all it can reasonably do other than a Linux distro, or Win 7 32-bit, but I have zero experience with setting up either on that machine.

That is only under mac os
as its actually a 64 bit system
its just the mac os bootloader is 32 bit

How did you go about installing win 7 on it?

I had an old polycarbonate iMac with a 2.16GHz C2D (T7400 I think), 3GB RAM, and Radeon X1600 graphics. I think it was my main PC from 2013 to late 2014. It ran Windows 7 fine (I could even play Skyrim on it), however, the graphics drivers included in Bootcamp were complete and utter garbage. I'd recommend searching for better drivers from a reputable source, probably somewhere like guru3D.

Nowadays, I'd probably recommend Linux for older Macs. Probably something with the LXQt or XFCE desktop environments.

 

[sam_86314]

That is only under mac os
as its actually a 64 bit system
its just the mac os bootloader is 32 bit

How did you go about installing win 7 on it?

I don't remember exactly; it was eight years ago. I also primarily used OS X because of the aforementioned graphics driver issues. My guess is I just went through Bootcamp setup in OS X.

 

[Hachi_Roku256563]

I don't remember exactly; it was eight years ago. I also primarily used OS X because of the aforementioned graphics driver issues. My guess is I just went through Bootcamp setup in OS X.

also do you know Which linux flavour to install
How to use it
And what games i can run on it

 

[sam_86314]

also do you know Which linux flavour to install
How to use it
And what games i can run on it

Lighter-weight flavors like Lubuntu, Xubuntu, or Linux Lite are what I'd recommend. If you don't like Ubuntu variants, then I can't help as I have no experience with anything else.

XFCE and LXQt's interfaces are similar to old-school Windows in their layouts.

I'd probably stick to games made before 2013. I have no clue how they'll run using compatibility layers. I remember Skyrim being playable on Windows at 800x600, though I think my definition of "playable" back then was 25-40 FPS.

Here are some screenshots of Lubuntu and Xubuntu respectively that I grabbed from Wikipedia.

 

[Hachi_Roku256563]

Don't the drivers come with bootcamp?

Yes
Also it is 4g
But i dont know if bootcamp ever support win 7

I'd probably stick to games made before 2013. I have no clue how they'll run using compatibility layers. I remember Skyrim being playable on Windows at 800x600, though I think my definition of "playable" back then was 25-40 FPS.

Can i run games from like 2000-2005?

 

[sam_86314]

Yes
Also it is 4g
But i dont know if bootcamp ever support win 7

Ah, I usually have to manually install the drivers anyway; be it by manually opening the executables or doing it through devmgmt.

Can i run games from like 2000-2005?

I don't see why not. That iMac was mid-range back in 2006.

It probably won't run Crysis, though.

 

[Lew Zealand]

Drivers come with Bootcamp but you may have a lot of difficulty in getting the right version nowadays. I remember trying to get the Bootcamp installer a few years ago (which includes the drivers) for I think a 2009 Macbook Pro and I had to do a lot of searching before I found it. FYI, you may need an ISO for Win7 as your DVD drive is probably dead. Those optical drive grab-insert mechanisms were great at the time, not so much now.

And get real ATI/AMD drivers for video, Apple's were always out of date.

 

[Hachi_Roku256563]

Drivers come with Bootcamp but you may have a lot of difficulty in getting the right version nowadays. I remember trying to get the Bootcamp installer a few years ago (which includes the drivers) for I think a 2009 Macbook Pro and I had to do a lot of searching before I found it. FYI, you may need an ISO for Win7 as your DVD drive is probably dead. Those optical drive grab-insert mechanisms were great at the time, not so much now.

DVD is fine
thats how i installed mac os

 

[eidairaman1]

I cant find a new enough browser though
i do know that there are offcial win xp driver
dont know about 7

Do you know anything about using it as a very chonky mointer?

Use linux

 

[Ruru]

Can i run games from like 2000-2005?

Without a doubt. Radeon X1600 came in 2005 and it was a mid-end chip, Core 2 Duos came in 2006 and they were blazingly fast back then.

 

[Hachi_Roku256563]

Seems driver's don't exist does anyone else have these or a link