2019 27" Good buy?

[MALmen]

Hello.
How much should i pay for a used early 2019 iMac 27" with following specs ?

27"/CTO PROCESSOR 3.6GHZ 8-CORE INTEL CORE I9
MEMORY 40GB 2666MHZ DDR4 MEMORY
STORAGE 512GB SSD
GRAPHICS RADEON PRO VEGA 48 W/ 8GB HBM2
MOUSE AND TRACKPAD APPLE MAGIC MOUSE 2

Any ideas what it could be worth ? IS 2200 USD to much ?

 

[MacManiac76]

I would say more like $1800 is a fair price.

 

[velocityg4]

The price is market. If not slightly lower. As there are two recent ebay sales of the same config without keyboard and mouse for about $2200 after shipping. So, you're getting the trackpad and Magic mouse on top of that.

If they are selling locally. I'd try for $2000. As they'd still be getting more than eBay after you factor in shipping and seller fees.

 

[MALmen]

About 1 year of apple care was also included.. but thanks for all answers

 

[mdgm]

Unlike the 2020 the storage can be replaced (though you do have to pull apart the whole machine to do so). That's an advantage for some over the 2020.

It'll likely be one of the last Intel Macs to still get major Mac OS software updates so if you need an Intel Mac for your workflow it's a good option.

 

[ADGrant]

Unlike the 2020 the storage can be replaced (though you do have to pull apart the whole machine to do so). That's an advantage for some over the 2020.

It'll likely be one of the last Intel Macs to still get major Mac OS software updates so if you need an Intel Mac for your workflow it's a good option.

I think the 2020 is likely to get major MacOS support for longer than the 2019. The 2019 was one of the last Macs not to have a T2 chip which has its advantages but I think the T2 Macs will be supported longer.

The 2020 also has the last generation of AMD GPUs though the Vega 48 in the configuration the OP is considering is a better GPU than most iMacs have.

 

[mdgm]

I think the 2020 is likely to get major MacOS support for longer than the 2019. The 2019 was one of the last Macs not to have a T2 chip which has its advantages but I think the T2 Macs will be supported longer.

The 2020 also has the last generation of AMD GPUs though the Vega 48 in the configuration the OP is considering is a better GPU than most iMacs have.

That really depends on how quick Apple is to drop major updates for Intel Macs, whether they gradually drop support or whether in a year or two they just continue to do security updates for Macs from say 2018/2019 onwards.

The 21.5" 2019 iMac was sold till just recently without the T2 (well they still sell a dual-core one from 2017(?) without the T2 though that would have somewhat limited appeal one would think) so I'm not convinced that having the T2 will be the cut-off for longer support. The 21.5" 2019 iMacs use the same CPUs used in the 2018 Mac Mini that has the T2, I think.

Having said all this you'd want to be getting the 27" 2019 for significantly less than the 2020 to consider the 2019 at this point one would think unless the T2 chip will make the machines significantly more difficult to manage for your use case.

 

[ADGrant]

That really depends on how quick Apple is to drop major updates for Intel Macs, whether they gradually drop support or whether in a year or two they just continue to do security updates for Macs from say 2018/2019 onwards.

The 21.5" 2019 iMac was sold till just recently without the T2 (well they still sell a dual-core one from 2017(?) without the T2 though that would have somewhat limited appeal one would think) so I'm not convinced that having the T2 will be the cut-off for longer support. The 21.5" 2019 iMacs use the same CPUs used in the 2018 Mac Mini that has the T2, I think.

Having said all this you'd want to be getting the 27" 2019 for significantly less than the 2020 to consider the 2019 at this point one would think unless the T2 chip will make the machines significantly more difficult to manage for your use case.

I can't see a sudden drop of support for Intel Macs happening. OTOH Apple are increasingly relying on their own silicon for new MacOS features. Many of the features announced at WWDC aren't available on Intel Macs at all but there is one feature 'Erase all contents and settings' that appears to be supported on M1 and T2 equipped Macs. It's not clear that it is supported on Intel Macs with no T2 SoC.

From the web page:

Erase all contents and settings​

System Preferences now offers an option to erase all user data and user-installed apps from the system, while maintaining the operating system currently installed. Because storage is always encrypted on Mac systems with Apple silicon or the T2 chip, the system is instantly and securely “erased” by destroying the encryption keys.

 

[MacManiac76]

Intel Macs are already getting some limited features in macOS Monterey compared to M1 Macs.

 

[svish]

Certain features of macOS Monterey are not available in intel based Macs. Looks like new features of future OS releases may not be available for intel Macs.

So it may be better to buy M1 based Mac than going for the 2019 iMac.

Go for Apple Silicon.

 

[Nicole1980]

I would say more like $1800 is a fair price.

Agreed. When they sell on the apple refurb store they're around $2399, but that's an effectively brand new machine with a full warranty and absolutely spotless. For a two year old mac with the same specs that has been 'used' and who know how much or how hard, I think $1800 is spot on.

 

[Nicole1980]

The price is market. If not slightly lower. As there are two recent ebay sales of the same config without keyboard and mouse for about $2200 after shipping. So, you're getting the trackpad and Magic mouse on top of that.

If they are selling locally. I'd try for $2000. As they'd still be getting more than eBay after you factor in shipping and seller fees.

$2200 for a used 2019 imac, even with those specs may be 'market', but you'd still be an idiot to pay that. If you're willing to pay that much for something 'used', then just watch the apple refurb store, wait until there a refurb one with the same specs avail, and pay a little extra to get a machine that you know you can absolutely trust is in great shape.