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2006 24" White iMacs Reliable?

Tucom

Tucom

Cancelled
Original poster
Jul 29, 2006
1,252
312
Wondering if the 24" old school white Intel iMacs were reliable at all, the ones with the 7600GT in them?


I've read about the G5 machines that look identical having super faulty motherboard issues, but what about the white Intel machines, specifically the 24" model?


There's someone selling a 24" one for $450 so if they're reliable, I'm thinking about maybe picking it up.


Any and all helpful, relevant, positive input appreciated!
 
I've never had any problems with the few where I work. Never heard of any either. But remember, they only run up to Lion.
 
That's good to hear, but are they the 24" versions specifically?


I know Lion is as far as they go, but that'd be adequate for now.


Anyone else know that if I were to buy a 2006 white polycarbonate iMac, if it would last me many more years to come or is there a great chance of failure because it's so old?
 
Nicer and better to upgrade in fact! They can have their internal hard drive replaced much easier than this year's model. I use a late 2006 iMac 17" with a 4 TB drive in it and I'm totally happy with it.
 
Tucom said:
Anyone else know that if I were to buy a 2006 white polycarbonate iMac, if it would last me many more years to come or is there a great chance of failure because it's so old?
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I have one of these floating around my office.. never had an issue with it.

But, you would essentially be buying a computer that is already considered EOL'd, so do not expect a long life from it—i think you can expect a year or two out of it...
 
I have a white Intel 24" iMac that I bought in 2007. This is "revision b" of the original white iMacs that were introduced in 2006.

It's not my "main" computer, but it gets a fair amount of usage.

It's run fine for the past five years, never a problem....
 
I have a late-2006 model 24" iMac with the 7600GT that I bought brand new. I use it for app development, so it has been put to good use, and is still going strong, but it did need a couple of bits replacing under Applecare.

The hard drive needed replacement. According to the Apple Genius, a hard drive mount can come lose allowing the hard drive to wobble and eventually fail. My mount was completely out of place.

The screen was also replaced. It had a buzz even from brand new when the brightness was set to less than half.

The good bit was they replaced the 250GB drive with a 320 as that was what was available. The bad bit was they scratched the plastic casing on what would otherwise be an immaculate computer (I didn't see it until I got home, making it a bit hard to prove it had happened at the Apple Store).
 
It was a good machine back in the day, but mine lasted just under four years (Nov 2006-Oct 2010), when the 7600GT died. I don't think they can handle Mountain Lion.
 
Thanks for all the helpful replies!


Is it possible to get AppleCare for an old machine like this 2006 24" iMac? And anyone know what it would cost without AppleCare to get the 7600GT video card replaced if it were to fail on my Craigslist bought machine? (If I buy it)
 
Have a couple 24" white in my office. Still going strong. They were selling them off at the start of the year and I did think about it. Decided I would rather put £300 towards a soon to be released 2012 model. If I had known it was going to be so long I might have got one. One runs SL and the other windows 7 (due to software conflicts with OS).
 
Tucom said:
Thanks for all the helpful replies!


Is it possible to get AppleCare for an old machine like this 2006 24" iMac? And anyone know what it would cost without AppleCare to get the 7600GT video card replaced if it were to fail on my Craigslist bought machine? (If I buy it)
Click to expand...

An authorised Apple Reseller asked about € 250 ($325) to replace it, which I found rather overpriced. Couldn't find it cheaper on eBay back then but you may have more luck now, since many of those otherwise reliable (albeit a little slow) machines will have reached the end of their useful lifespan by now.
 
Tucom said:
Thanks for all the helpful replies!


Is it possible to get AppleCare for an old machine like this 2006 24" iMac? And anyone know what it would cost without AppleCare to get the 7600GT video card replaced if it were to fail on my Craigslist bought machine? (If I buy it)
Click to expand...

It's unlikely that Apple even offers official repair service for them at this point. My other concern would be that this is a 6 year old display. Displays are not static. They shift over time, and their expected usable life is around 15k hours for a display of that era, even though backlight failure can take much longer. It just means that they may not look pretty anymore. Overall I see that as a high price for hardware that is that old. It's not the same as buying a brand new machine that is simply made from parts from that era.
 
Do yourself a favor: Either buy a NEW Windows Desktop, or save your money for a better Apple one. Looking at those iMacs specs, the price is simply not worth the year or two it will have left in it.
 
i wouldn't pay $450 for it....i would take the $450 add another $150 and buy a new mac mini (which I'm assuming you already own a monitor /keyboard/mouse)
 
Tucom said:
Thanks for all the helpful replies!


Is it possible to get AppleCare for an old machine like this 2006 24" iMac? And anyone know what it would cost without AppleCare to get the 7600GT video card replaced if it were to fail on my Craigslist bought machine? (If I buy it)
Click to expand...

Since no one answered your question directly - no - you can only get Applecare within the warranty period of the product (usually the first year after purchase)
 
A Hebrew said:
Do yourself a favor: Either buy a NEW Windows Desktop, or save your money for a better Apple one. Looking at those iMacs specs, the price is simply not worth the year or two it will have left in it.
Click to expand...

I actually built a brand new Windows machine, SSD and everything, but rather have an iMac right now, and maybe you're right, I should save up first.
 
I have one that's still going strong after six years. It's fine for basic browsing, email, and word processing, but won't run the latest OS. The only problem I had with it was a dead logic board battery, which I replaced myself.
 
The white 24" iMacs have a design flaw with their cooling which caused many video cards to overheat and go bad. There are many complaints about this across the web. I had one go bad this year, tried to fix it, and was unable to get it working again.
 
glitch44 said:
The white 24" iMacs have a design flaw with their cooling which caused many video cards to overheat and go bad. There are many complaints about this across the web. I had one go bad this year, tried to fix it, and was unable to get it working again.
Click to expand...

Yeah I'm looking to buy an Aluminum model within a budget of $800, got the cash, just looking for the right machine. A couple new Core i5 models on craigslist but no one's gotten back to me yet :(


There's a thread I made in the Marketplace section here too, looking to buy one (any aluminum model Mac really)
 
Tucom said:
Yeah I'm looking to buy an Aluminum model within a budget of $800, got the cash, just looking for the right machine. A couple new Core i5 models on craigslist but no one's gotten back to me yet :(


There's a thread I made in the Marketplace section here too, looking to buy one (any aluminum model Mac really)
Click to expand...

There are rumors of a new iMac in the next 1-2 months. If you wait until it comes out (IF it comes out) I'm sure you'll see an influx of used ones at lower prices.
 
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