2006 24' iMac still a good buy?

J

JT7

macrumors newbie
I have been offered a 2006 24 inch iMac. 2.16 Core 2 Duo 3 GB RAM with 1TB storage for £450. Everything is in mint condition.

I just wondered if this was still a good buy? I write for a living so will be using open office mainly, nothing cpu intensive. I have heard stories of fried logic boards etc with some of the polycarbonate models so wanted some advice on whether to take the plunge. Cheers :p
 
JT7 said:
I have been offered a 2006 24 inch iMac. 2.16 Core 2 Duo 3 GB RAM with 1TB storage for £450. Everything is in mint condition.

I just wondered if this was still a good buy? I write for a living so will be using open office mainly, nothing cpu intensive. I have heard stories of fried logic boards etc with some of the polycarbonate models so wanted some advice on whether to take the plunge. Cheers :p
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I'd have a look at refurbished Macs at http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/specialdeals and see what the prices are. For £869 you get an iMac that isn't five years old and comes with full warranty. 2006 is old.
 
Yeah that does worry me abit. The fact it is around the price point I want to pay and has 1TB has turned my head slightly.

I currently use a 24' monitor with a windows laptop so downsizing to the 21.5 iMac does not appeal as such. The new mac mini is also an option though an i5 would be overkill for what I would use it for (word processing, net browsing and music). I guess it would be the best long term solution though.
 
The 2006 iMac is fine for word processing. The Intel processor is limited to working with 3Gb RAM, so it's got the maximum amount of RAM installed for that model.

The earlier G5 iMacs had problems with overheating the power supply and with the logic boards. The Intel iMacs are much more reliable.

You can get an online value estimate of any Mac at http://www.mac2sell.net

Mac2sell has values for your country, in your local currency.
 
I would never spend ~$740 on a 5+ year old computer. Then again, i don't know how much newer ones sell for in the UK
 
It doesn't sound bad to me. A quick search of eBay for completed items for iMac 2.16GHz comes up with (sold) prices of £366, £410, £420, £440, £350, £495 and so on. Many of those only have 250GB hard drives.

It might be worth looking on eBay for completed item prices for the next generation of iMacs, to see what the "jump" in value is - or whether actually they sell for the same sort of price.
 
Buying a nearly 5 year old computer for that price makes no sense. It may be a mac but it's not worth more than £200 on a good day.
 
Seems like the consensus is to steer clear then :p An online estimate said it was worth £450 but I don't think I am going to sink the money into a five year old machine after thinking about it. Will look for a deal for an aluminium model or a new mac mini instead. Cheers for the help guys.
 
FWIW, my mom had that exact iMac, and it finally died this past week...just boots up to a strange white screen. 5 years is too old.

Has now been replaced with the base 2011 Mac Mini. ;)
 
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