2019 Intel iMac - What to do?

[Buadhai]

I stopped sitting down at my old Intel iMac about a year ago because of back problems exacerbated by sitting in an office chair. I do all my keyboard stuff with a 15" M2 MBA while sitting in a rocking chair. (Yes, I'm old.) Although I don't sit down at the iMac often, it still does lots of stuff including Plex, encoding and uploading videos to YouTube, storing all my media and photo files on an external drive, and backing all that up with both BackBlaze and CCC. I handle most stuff by logging in remotely via SSH.

But, apparently the end is nigh and I'm wondering if I should think about replacing it sooner rather than later. I'd thought of a MacMini with a decent but not-huge display. Whatever it is it won't get a lot of hands-on use.

I'd also thought of an Apple Silicon iMac, but that seems excessive given the amount of hands-on use it would get.

Any thoughts?

 

[throAU]

Mac mini plus monitor of your choice, however your iMac will still run Sequoia for another 2-3 years before going end of support, which in itself is basically most of the expected life cycle of a computer.

 

[russell_314]

I stopped sitting down at my old Intel iMac about a year ago because of back problems exacerbated by sitting in an office chair. I do all my keyboard stuff with a 15" M2 MBA while sitting in a rocking chair. (Yes, I'm old.) Although I don't sit down at the iMac often, it still does lots of stuff including Plex, encoding and uploading videos to YouTube, storing all my media and photo files on an external drive, and backing all that up with both BackBlaze and CCC. I handle most stuff by logging in remotely via SSH.

But, apparently the end is nigh and I'm wondering if I should think about replacing it sooner rather than later. I'd thought of a MacMini with a decent but not-huge display. Whatever it is it won't get a lot of hands-on use.

I'd also thought of an Apple Silicon iMac, but that seems excessive given the amount of hands-on use it would get.

Any thoughts?

Why are you thinking about replacing it?

Is it struggling to do something you need?

You said you don’t use it very much so I wouldn’t worry about it right now unless it’s giving you problems. You can get an M4 Mac mini cheap but unless you just have an inch for a new Mac then I would wait.

 

[Basic75]

But, apparently the end is nigh and I'm wondering if I should think about replacing it sooner rather than later.

Why? There will be two more years of security updates.

 

[ADGrant]

You don't need to replace it until support for Sequoia ends which is still over two years away. Even then, you may be able to just switch to Linux if you are just using it as a NAS.

Or you could replace it with a NAS.

 

[Fishrrman]

Get a better office chair for the iMac.
Perhaps a "stressless-style" chair/recliner?
(I'm old, also...)

 

[Buadhai]

OK. Thanks to all.

• Keep the iMac for a few more years
• Buy a better chair

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Other unorthodox option to consider, if you love the big screen.

1. Attach your iMac to an adjustable mechanical arm. (Don't need to go through the complicated conversion process, just drill 4 holes on its base and bolt them to the base)
Control your iMac from your rocking chair....

2. Connect your iMac to a big OLED TV
Control it from your RockChair.
It will take some time to adjust the TV to appropriate sightline and viewing angle from your rocking chair.

 

[frankied71]

I have an iMac 27 2019, with macOS Sonoma, and the end of life is 2026. No worries about upgrading till the new Mac mini M5. I do Fusion 360, Excel, and CAD, all work fine. With new heavy software going browser-based, the need for a powerful PC/Mac unless you are a gamer .

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

I have an iMac 27 2019, with macOS Sonoma, and the end of life is 2026. No worries about upgrading till the new Mac mini M5. I do Fusion 360, Excel, and CAD, all work fine. With new heavy software going browser-based, the need for a powerful PC/Mac unless you are a gamer .

The concern here is mainly about elder people's back when using a big desktop computer, rather than the specs and usability of a certain iMac model.

 

[mreg376]

The concern here is mainly about elder people's back when using a big desktop computer, rather than the specs and usability of a certain iMac model.

Not really what this thread is about. The OP was considering whether to upgrade one desktop setup for a new one. Either way he'd still be sitting in a chair at a desk.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Not really what this thread is about. The OP was considering whether to upgrade one desktop setup for a new one. Either way he'd still be sitting in a chair at a desk.

He clearly said: "I handle most stuff by logging in remotely via SSH."

 

[mreg376]

But he was talking about replacing his iMac with a Mac Mini and monitor.

 

[Buadhai]

OK. Here's how it went down. I'm 75 years old and beat the heck out of my body doing marathons, triathlons and other endurance events for over 30 years. I first started getting back pain while sitting in an office chair about a year ago. At that time I bought a cheap M1 13" MBA to see if working on the floor would alleviate the back pain. (I live in Asia where I spend most of my time, including meal time, sitting on the floor.) It worked. So I got a 15" MBA and have used it for most of my computer work since. Now and then I need the bigger screen of the iMac. Sometimes I use an AppleTV connected TV or my iPad as a second screen for the MBA.

The saga of the iMac is a bit odd. I originally bought a 2017 4K Intel iMac. It was fine until the Spring of 2022 when it started experiencing numerous kernel panics. I put up with it for a long time and finally took it to a local shop. They couldn't fix it, but they had, on hand, a 2019 iMac with a cracked screen. They offered to put our SSD, RAM and our display in the 2019 machine for 10,000 baht (about US$300). We agreed and left it there. Turns out the original SSD wasn't compatible with the 2019 machine so I bought one for them to install. When we picked it up, we found that they had used sello tape to secure the screen. (Hence the name of the machine is "Sellotape".)

So, what I call a 2019 iMac is actually a sort of kludge built from two rather broken machines; the life of which is unpredictable.

So. I sort of looked at the obsolescence of Intel Macs as a way of justifying buying what might be a more reliable replacement for the kludge machine.

After all this went down I discovered a post that might explain why those 2017 iMacs were so prone to kernel panics. I got to it too late to ask the shop if they could do the repair that is described in the following:

iMac 2017 4K Kernel Panics

In Dutch but easy to translate.

That's all folks.

 

[gian8989]

First thing I would search for a better chair. After that, since you are also working on the Macbook Air, why don't you just sell both and buy a macbook pro + monitor? Of course this is only valid if you are not using windows/bootcamp. I personally still have a 2017 iMac and the only thing I regret is not changing it with the 2020 that was the last intel model since I dual boot alot.