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Question

iMac with Panther & I need to upgrade to Mountain Lion???

Sep 3, 2012 5:14AM PDT

What do I need to have to upgrade my iMac to ML??

Discussion is locked

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Answer
A number of things
Sep 3, 2012 9:32PM PDT

1. A Mac that is capable of running OS X 10.8
2. A copy of OS X 10.8

From the information that you supplied about your current Mac, it would be difficult to give you a definitive answer.

Feel free to tell us what you have, what processor it uses and how much RAM you have.

P

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Here's what it says.
Sep 5, 2012 4:25AM PDT

Version 10.5.8
Processor: 3.06GHz Intel Core Duo
Memory: 4GB 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM

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If you were sure about what you had, then the route
Sep 5, 2012 8:49AM PDT

would be; Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard, Lion and Mountain Lion. (Expensive!)

However, apparently you are not sure of what you have so the route is even easier.

Your computer is NOT running Panther, it is running Leopard. From there it is a cheap route to Snow Leopard, Lion and Mountain Lion.

You "might" be able to get there by using the cheaper Snow Leopard then Mountain Lion update software but there is a distinct possibility that you will have a problem with that route.
There is also a possibility that you could go straight to Mountain Lion and skip the others but that might present problems too.
Before you go down that route, make sure that you have a complete backup of your system because if anything goes wrong you will almost certainly have to reformat the drive and reinstall 10.5.8 again.

Problem is that Apple no longer sells Snow Leopard or Lion so your only source will be places like eBay or Amazon.

Check out the prices and see what you think.

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Apple DIscussion on the Subject
Sep 7, 2012 12:19PM PDT
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4165083?start=0&tstart=0

Basically, you are right that they are forcing you to purchase Snow Leopard first and then you can upgrade to Mountain Lion, for a total of $20 + whatever the Snow Leopard disk costs. Ebay and craigslist are probably the best bet for finding it cheap.

From the specs given it looks like a Early 2008 iMac 24": MB325LL/A $2,199 (3.06 GHz).
It's possible to upgrade: iMac (Mid 2007 or newer) http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5444

It's quite possible that they will release a thumb drive, but the costs might be not worth it.
I would still recommend a fresh install than upgrades though, you could even take it to a shop or use iFixit and upgrade the hard drive then do a Migration after.
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Core Duo??
Sep 7, 2012 4:08PM PDT

I didn't think you could upgrade a Core Duo. I have some Minis and an iMac that are stuck on Snow Leopard.

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Fro what I am reading, the Core Duo machines
Sep 8, 2012 12:22AM PDT

should be able to run SL but without the 64bit support.

As we have not heard back from the OP since shortly after the start of this thread, this whole topic may well be moot

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but the question was Mountain Lion
Sep 9, 2012 4:16AM PDT

Why does the Apple doc say iMac post 2007 are OK for ML if they have Core Duo processors? According to MacTracker 2007 was Core 2 Duo

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Core Duo = no 64 bit for you.
Sep 9, 2012 4:23AM PDT