How many people's 24" iMac is still running strong?

[ATC]

Originally Posted by Jane333

I would like to upgrade from SL to ML but am wondering if I should increase the RAM from 4 gb to 6 gb before I do so and if this is something I could do myself. I googled it and it looks pretty easy, but I don't want to mess anything up.

I am really hoping I can get at least 5 years out of this machine before upgrading. I can't even imagine a 4 year old pc working with this well. Without major maintenance, pc's seem to slow down after 6 months and not be worth much after 3 years.

RAM is cheap so you may want to do it anyhow, but if you want to know whether the increased RAM would actually make a noticeable difference in your case then you'll need to run Activity Monitor and make a note of the value of Page Outs (near the bottom). If it always stays below 1GB then increasing RAM won't do anything, but if your Page Outs exceed 1GB then definitely get more RAM. It's best to reboot the machine and start monitoring this for a week or so under normal use to get the best picture.

[elvineet]

Im still kicking butt with my late 2006 iMac 24". Gonna swap out the hard drive with a SSD tonight and hopefully add a few more years.

By then, the iMac surely will be as thin as a sheet of paper. It'll probably just be a sheet of paper since they'll need to remove all the internals because super-thin=better desktop computing

[dgr401]

My late 2006 2.16 Core 2 Duo is still running great. I use it mostly on the internet but I do some Aperture on it. Also do some scanning. Maxed out on ram, running Lion.

[Jane333]

Originally Posted by ATC

RAM is cheap so you may want to do it anyhow, but if you want to know whether the increased RAM would actually make a noticeable difference in your case then you'll need to run Activity Monitor and make a note of the value of Page Outs (near the bottom). If it always stays below 1GB then increasing RAM won't do anything, but if your Page Outs exceed 1GB then definitely get more RAM. It's best to reboot the machine and start monitoring this for a week or so under normal use to get the best picture.

Thanks! It is showing 1.36 right now. I will reboot and keep monitoring it.

[guicord]

I got my 2008 imac in 2010, and it was working like a charm... until yesterday when it just stopped booting up.... black screen nothing happens, except the superdrive is making some noise in a loop... any idea anyone? should I try and open it? Thx!

Guillaume

[elvineet]

Originally Posted by guicord

...except the superdrive is making some noise in a loop... any idea anyone? should I try and open it? Thx!

Guillaume

Do you have bootable CD in the superdrive? If so, it's possibly trying to boot from it.

[CyAnMan]

Hi,

Long time lurker, first time poster.

I have an original 24" white iMac(2.16GHz), from September 2006, bought in Feb. 2007.

I upgraded the RAM a few years back to 4GB, only 3GB is addressable. Last year I ripped my iMac apart and installed a 2TB Carvier Black HD following various examples around the web - Yup it was a real pain, but. it. worked!

Only problem was not too soon after installing the HD, I started having glitches onscreen. I determined that the heat given off by the new HD was beyond the thermal limits of the iMac.

Loading up fan control via iStats menu, I set my fans to medium and have had no problems since.

Though my iMac is showing its age; working with aperture on it is annoyingly slow. I am thinking of buying the new iMac but will probably wait till the new year.

Otherwise my 2006 iMac is still running great with the best OS ever: Snow Leopard! So stable and fast!
:-)

[cocky jeremy]

My 2009 24" is sort of ok. Had to replace the video card in June and i still occasionally see flickering on the screen. Not sure how ok it is, but it's still going. lol.

[Lucianrider]

My wife has a late 2007 24" iMac which apart from upgrading the hard drive to a 1 TB and the memory to 4 gigs is going strong. It does crash at least once a week which might be the cheap used ebay memory I put in it about four months ago...

I am actually amazed that her computer will be five years just around the corner!! I bought it as a Christmas present in 2007.

I bought myself the 21.5 for Christmas last year so hopefully I will get the same kind of usage out of it!

[mchoffa]

I have a 2008 24" myself. I bought the cheapest base model of the 24" I could at the time and regretted it, because I ran out of hard drive space a 2 years later. Had the drive replaced at the closest Apple retailer. That hard drive just died on me in September, so I once again had to have it replaced.

Other than that, it's been a good machine that's been way overworked and still kicking, but can't handle any more, so it's getting replaced with a new 27 as soon as they're available. This time I'm not going for base model.

[Isengardtom]

I have the 24" iMac BTO with the 4850HD graphics card ( early 2009 I think)

still going fine, allthough a little slower, mostly because the hard drive is getting full ( too much video on the HD )

I am planning to get this version end of December or January ( 27") and will hopefully still get an ok price for the current one to reduce the cost somewhat

[nissan.gtp]

my 24-inch Mid 2007 is running really well. May upgrade to a new 27, but no big rush.

[carriesn]

Mid-2007 24 inch imac... put in a SSD a few weeks ago and it's maxed out with 6 gb ram. Runs beautifully... but seriously tempted to get the new one. Sooooo droolworthy.

[icemantx]

I have an early 2009 24" iMac with 8GB RAM, 2TB HDD and GT120 Graphics. I have been tempted to swap out the Optical drive for an SSD, but I am on the fence as to whether or not it is worth investing any more in this iMac.

However, with the new 27" coming out and the fact that one configured like I would prefer to have costing $2599, maybe installing a new SSD in the optical is a good idea...

When I bought mine 3 1/2 years ago the price was about 1899, so jumping to a price of 2599 for the latest has me choking a bit at that price.

I have not had any problems with my iMac so I am likely to keep trucking along with what I have for now.

Anyone else going to upgrade to the new iMac or would consider swapping the optical for SSD? In the early 2009 models of the iMac, the connection on the Optical is SATA as opposed to PATA on the older models so I think there would be a benefit.

Jeff

[Snoosedaddy]

My early 2008 is still kicking, after a 1TB HDD and 6GB RAM OWC upgrade. Although, applications load slower and Aperture is painful, as it locks up the computer often. Can't wait for my new 27" to arrive!!!

[Mike in Kansas]

Originally Posted by icemantx

I have an early 2009 24" iMac with 8GB RAM, 2TB HDD and GT120 Graphics. I have been tempted to swap out the Optical drive for an SSD, but I am on the fence as to whether or not it is worth investing any more in this iMac.

However, with the new 27" coming out and the fact that one configured like I would prefer to have costing $2599, maybe installing a new SSD in the optical is a good idea...

When I bought mine 3 1/2 years ago the price was about 1899, so jumping to a price of 2599 for the latest has me choking a bit at that price.

I have not had any problems with my iMac so I am likely to keep trucking along with what I have for now.

Anyone else going to upgrade to the new iMac or would consider swapping the optical for SSD? In the early 2009 models of the iMac, the connection on the Optical is SATA as opposed to PATA on the older models so I think there would be a benefit.

Jeff

I'd do it in a heartbeat. I have an '08 and swapped out my HDD with an SSD and it made a world of difference. You could even add a small-ish SSD and turn your 2-drive iMac into a Fusion drive.

[ATC]

Originally Posted by icemantx

I have an early 2009 24" iMac with 8GB RAM, 2TB HDD and GT120 Graphics. I have been tempted to swap out the Optical drive for an SSD, but I am on the fence as to whether or not it is worth investing any more in this iMac.

However, with the new 27" coming out and the fact that one configured like I would prefer to have costing $2599, maybe installing a new SSD in the optical is a good idea...

When I bought mine 3 1/2 years ago the price was about 1899, so jumping to a price of 2599 for the latest has me choking a bit at that price.

I have not had any problems with my iMac so I am likely to keep trucking along with what I have for now.

Anyone else going to upgrade to the new iMac or would consider swapping the optical for SSD? In the early 2009 models of the iMac, the connection on the Optical is SATA as opposed to PATA on the older models so I think there would be a benefit.

Jeff

I think adding an SSD is worth it especially if the machine on the whole is still doing everything you need from it.

I was all set to place an order for a fully loaded 27" (just under $3K with AppleCare and Edu discount) but I'm really not sure I want to anymore.

The thing is, my early 09' 24" iMac is doing fine for everything that I do on it. I just upgraded the RAM to 8GB because I was getting a lot of page-outs during video encodings and 8GB seems to have totally fixed that now. I'm also planning to add an SSD down the road.

Besides, I recently got my LCD panel replaced (thankfully was just inside the AppleCare period, otherwise over a $600 repair) due to heat issues that damaged the old panel and I have to say I'm a bit uneasy now about getting AIOs due to this, so I'm leaning towards a Mac mini and a 27" TB display for my next purchase. I still love my 24" iMac but the new model's thinness isn't something I care one bit about, along with poor repairability/upgradeability, I think my 24" was my last iMac.

[digitalfailure]

My 2008 2.8 core duo 24" is still running perfectly on sl, 4gb of ram is holding me back now though as it slows with cs and Firefox open at the same time.

[jamin100]

Originally Posted by icemantx

I have an early 2009 24" iMac with 8GB RAM, 2TB HDD and GT120 Graphics. I have been tempted to swap out the Optical drive for an SSD, but I am on the fence as to whether or not it is worth investing any more in this iMac.

However, with the new 27" coming out and the fact that one configured like I would prefer to have costing $2599, maybe installing a new SSD in the optical is a good idea...

When I bought mine 3 1/2 years ago the price was about 1899, so jumping to a price of 2599 for the latest has me choking a bit at that price.

I have not had any problems with my iMac so I am likely to keep trucking along with what I have for now.

Anyone else going to upgrade to the new iMac or would consider swapping the optical for SSD? In the early 2009 models of the iMac, the connection on the Optical is SATA as opposed to PATA on the older models so I think there would be a benefit.

Jeff

I have done this upgrade myself in the past 6 months.
It really did breath some life back into my 2009 24" imac.

The only thing you have to be carefull of, is which SSD you buy. Some SSD's dont play nicely with the nvidia controller in the imac. Its not the SSD thats the problem its a problem with the controller in the imac and the controller in the ssd that limits them to 1.5gpbs.

I had a thread on it somewhere which ill dig out

EDIT:
Here it is
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1381444

[stringent]

My dads is. 4GB and Mountain Lion no problems. Showing its age a little though as it takes a while to boot up. Only hiccup was the 500GB Hard Drive in that it ran out of space to encode a few movies on.

[platypus63]

Mid 2007 24". It was great until a few months ago, when it started to freeze about once or twice a week. Screen freezes, all inputs unresponsive, and iTunes plays whatever song it's holding on in RAM and stops. The only way out is a hard reboot, followed by rebuilding constant iPhoto and/or iTunes database.

Once in a while it will also have a white screen freeze, with above symptoms again.

I have 6GB ram, thought maybe it was reacting funny to that, but putting the old stock 4GB ram back in didn't help the issue either, so ruled that out.

Thinking it might be the video card. Had that replaced once back in 2009 under applecare, might be on the fritz again.

Looking at 27inchers now, I hope it turns out hard drive is easily replaceable, so I can put my own 256 or 512 SSD in.

[VTI1031]

I had the iMac 7.1 since end of 2007. It's been working like a charm with no re-installations or problems until a month ago.

It was the harddrive, replaced it now with 256gb SSD and it feels like new again.

I already started planning my next setup but will probably put it on hold for now since its back up and running better than before.

[palmerc2]

I have a 24" with 2.8 C2D and 4GB that's not doing so well, it's getting bogged down. Takes a while to complete a task. If I'm playing a song in iTunes, and surfing the web I get slowed down, now when I type something into spotlight half the stuff doesn't come up.

I know it's because of the hard drive, that's why I'm trying to decide whether to get a new hard drive + new ram or just upgrade to the new 27"

[theanimala]

I finally retired my late 2007 24" iMac as it was running way too slow. I definitely had an issue in that somehow USB connected hard drives would always disconnect. I would force them to remount, and then inevitably they would always end up being corrupted. I would use Disk Utility to repair but eventually I would have to reform and start all over again. I know it was the iMac because it happened to several external HD's over the years and I would re-purpose them to a house PC and they would would perfect. This was especially painful since the iMac only as a 320GB HD (which itself was replaced under Applecare 3 years ago).

I have hated this iMac for the past 2 years because of this problem. Because of this I said I would never buy another iMac. I want a system I can easily open up and upgrade the HD with a larger / faster one in the future if I want to so last week I went for the mac Mini.

[phalcomb]

My Early 2008 24" iMac is still running strong as well. No real problems here, I just upgraded my machine with a homebrew fusion drive by ditching my SuperDrive and filling the SuperDrive spot with a Seagate Momentus XT 500Gb drive and replacing the SATA drive with a OCZ Vertex4 128Gb SSD and following this tutorial here:

http://jollyjinx.tumblr.com

This just gave me a tremendous performance boost. The system boots in about 10 seconds and runs like the wind now. I'm sure this is a super unsupported config but I have a time machine backup in case this setup proves to be unsustainable in the long term.