iMac at home - Need some advice

[Tasurinchi]

My wife got her "old" 21.5" Intel iMac from work for cheap. Now it's standing in one of the rooms and I have to think what kind of use can I give it. We won't migrate to the iMac as main machine (wife is very happy with her Z61m).

Never used a Mac in my life, so I have noob questions:
-It has 3GB of RAM and I'd probably need to upgrade to the latest OSX, will 3GB and the Core 2 Duo be powerful enough? Or should I stay away from it?
-Any special Linux distribution that can be installed?
-Any special/funny/inventive use I can give it?

Thanks a lot in advance!

[DaKKS]

Which gfx card does it have? Lion is probably a go if you have a Core 2 Duo (Core Duo is SnowLeo), but Mountain Lion is a bit picky about its gfx cards.

EDIT: Post the model number. That would give complete specs.

[ZaZ]

will 3GB and the Core 2 Duo be powerful enough?

For what? If you're just doing Office and Internet type stuff, you should be fine.

[Tasurinchi]

EDIT: Post the model number

I will post it soon. It should be easy to find I guess...

For what? If you're just doing Office and Internet type stuff, you should be fine.

I mean powerful enough for Mountain Lion, I know my question is vague, but since I still don't really know what I will do with it... Probably not more than browsing or as small movie platform for the kids. I assume OSX comes also in 32 and 64 bits, right?

Edit says:

Model: iMac8,1
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.4 Ghz
Graphic Card: ATI HD 2400

[DaKKS]

I will post it soon. It should be easy to find I guess...

I mean powerful enough for Mountain Lion, I know my question is vague, but since I still don't really know what I will do with it... Probably not more than browsing or as small movie platform for the kids. I assume OSX comes also in 32 and 64 bits, right?

Edit says:

Model: iMac8,1
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.4 Ghz
Graphic Card: ATI HD 2400

Mountain Lion should work. It might need some work and it does require 4GB ram. But you should be good for basic stuff.

EDIT: FYI: The 8.1 takes up to 6GB DDR2 ram. Also note that while stock the kexts are "Apple-approved" they work remarkably poorly. You best bet is trying to fine alternate kexts. Or just stick with Lion. 10.7.5 isn't all that horrible.

[ajkula66]

-Any special/funny/inventive use I can give it?

Target practice comes to mind...

[lead_org]

iMac as a AIO is great, better than most AIO on the market, i have 2 iMac at home and i use it a lot.

I am not a big fan of the OSX, as such i install Win 7 using boot camp.

If you don't like it, you can still sell it. Apple computer products hold their value better than their Wintel PC counterparts. You could use the money from the sale to get another ThinkPad

[Tasurinchi]

The 8.1 takes up to 6GB DDR2 ram

6 GB sounds a weird limit...

Or just stick with Lion. 10.7.5 isn't all that horrible

Yeah, it works fine but some software I tried to install were requiring 10.8.xxx at least. So I can think that at any point of time Apple will drop support for the old OSX and I will have to upgrade anyway. Fortunately OSX is not expensive...

Target practice comes to mind...

Ha ha ha!! LMFAO , that's a good one. I need now a bulleye wallpaper

If you don't like it, you can still sell it. Apple computer products hold their value better than their Wintel PC counterparts. You could use the money from the sale to get another ThinkPad

That would be a good plan "B". But I think it's also good to have an insight how the "competition" works

[DaKKS]

6 GB sounds a weird limit...

It is. Technically it can take 8GB. It will find all 8GB, but it will go bongo if you use more than 6GB.

Yeah, it works fine but some software I tried to install were requiring 10.8.xxx at least. So I can think that at any point of time Apple will drop support for the old OSX and I will have to upgrade anyway. Fortunately OSX is not expensive...

Yeah, well, 19 bucks is nothing for an operating system.