To make it even better than new, I’m now running 10.5.6 in the most painless installation to date. I went with “XxX 10.5.6,” having used their releases for Tiger back in the day — I knew it was quality. I selected few add-ons, leaving most of the stuff to my own packages (including broadcom, audio, etc.). Though I did select Chamelion this time, and the patcher and everything else, which means this baby is running super smooth. I didn’t bother editing About This Mac to reflect my actual CPU type as a Pentium Dual Core — I’m getting lazy these days.

I had issues running all of the available updates at once. iTunes, Java, QuickTime, etc. would freeze during installation unless I installed them and rebooted one at a time. I started with all the updates (one at a time) that didn’t require a reboot, then hit up the monster Java update, followed by iTunes, QuickTime, and some iLife Browser update.

Here’s a nice tip for first installs or recovering from bad updates — always install Clamshell Display. I had issues getting XxX 10.5.6 to go to sleep for the first time after installing until I re-installed and made sure I had Clamshell Display checked. I simply closed the kid after the CPU and HDD was done loading the “Welcome” post-installer screen, and boom. I woke it up by opening the lid and I was ready to set up my new Mac.