I’m thinking about upgrading my OS to El Capitan. I presently have an early 2009 24-inch iMac running 10.9.5. Can I install El Capitan directly, skipping Yosemite?
_________________________ Old farts, the hidden caulk of civilization. Jim Atkinson
Apple won't let you download Yosemite anyway, they always make you do the latest. Even if you're on 10.6.8, it's straight to El Capitan. They know best, huh.
How much RAM in it. Without an SSD El Capitan slows up older machines.
Unless 10.9.5 isn't doing something you need stay with it. I'd look into replacing the HD with an SSD before going any farther. An SSD breathes new life into old machines. It speeds up those Core 2 Duo machines by a factor of 3 or so. It's a lot cheaper than a new machine.
Mavericks would take you up to the latest Safari, but unless you've already downloaded that or Yosemite on some machine, you'll have to go to El Capitan. I wouldn't recommend Yosemite anyway.
That i7 should handle everything fine BTW. You might want to put 8 gigs of RAM in it, you can get it for about $40 shipped from Crucial.