How well has your old iMac held up?

[fig]

Oh dear.

Comparatively speaking, my PC which I built instead of getting an iMac (in 2008), runs better than the equivalent-priced iMac from the same time. Just because you choose to not consider a custom-built PC as not being equivalent does not make it so. We are talking about making a computer from the best bang-for-buck technology that is available at the time. You carry on in your Dell vs iMac bubble but the real equivalent of an iMac is a custom-built PC.

I've built PCs, as I mentioned earlier, so I really have no idea what this Dell vs iMac bubble reference you keep mentioning is all about.

The person who goes to the Apple Store and says "I want that one" is most likely not going to consider building their own PC. One is pushing the buy button on a website, the other is researching and selecting components and building their own machine. If you want to consider those things equivalent, to each their own I guess.

----------

Actually, my self-built PC is ten years old, and still runs fine... but it's still on Windows XP, haha. I'm amazed, given how hard I pushed it prior to my Mac Pro.

That actually brings up an interesting point, I'm able to run Lion on my iMac with no real issues where I'd imagine Windows 7 or VIsta would choke a lot of older PCs. It would be interesting to compare things using the relative OSs of their time as the more recent OSs are way more taxing on the machines.

As per your other comments it sounds like one of those YMMV kinda situations, I've had zero issues with my iMac for going on five years. The ideal situation on something like an iMac is probably to cycle a machine every three years after AppleCare expires, you'd still do well on the resale value and would get rid of most of the risk.

 

[ixodes]

Just fine

 

[bembol]

1. My first iMac, 17" (White) had it for over 6 years and the HDD failed after 3 years & replaced.

2. My sister's 20" (White). Just over 4 years, it's now with Parents it started acting up not sure if it's the HDD or Logic Board after just over two years.

3. My second iMac, 24" Mid-2008 also the HDD after two years. I ended up selling it and got the 13" Mid-2012 Base Air.

4. My sister's 27" Mid-2010. So far so good.


EDIT: I will be buying my third iMac when/if (LOL) it comes out this November. I'm disappointed but I'm a Mac user for Life and now I'm FORCED to buy Apple Care.

 

[ixodes]

It's gets lots of use as the kids computer. It's very durable. Several years old, no failures.

 

[KidHTML]

Should we really be praising iMacs just for lasting 4-5 years ? Surely we should expect that from any computer, especially a desktop? I mean, it's not as if you're throwing it down the stairs every day (I hope).

A decade and over with no problems (other than outdated software and specs) should show good longevity for a computer.

I was just thinking that...4-5 years is not really bang for your buck IMO....Hopefully my 2 year old MacBook Pro lasts longer than 4-5 years smh!

 

[GR33NIE]

I put 3gb in when I got the machine new in 07. So 4gb probably wouldn't make that big a difference.

If I decide I'm keeping the machine for awhile longer and not replacing it with a 2012 model then ill probably do 6gb of ram and an SSD

Good plan, for me it all depends what the new / upgraded iMacs are like, if it's well worth an upgrade ill be getting one. If not I'm going down the SSD route like you

 

[MetalBird]

My 2009 27" iMac seems a lot slower these days even with 16gb RAM, really only started to notice after upgrading to Mountain Lion clean install, main problem is that there are vertical lines moving down my screen, only visible on dark backgrounds, think my display might be about to go! Will just have to buy a new iMac!

 

[pommie82]

Ive got a iMac 24-inch Early 2009 model about two weeks ago my DVD Drive packed up rang the apple centre up and they said it would cost about £400 quid to get repaired.So i rang my local computer shop and they said they would do it for about £250.i thought the amount of times that i use the drive just purely converting TV series and films for my iPad. I may use the DVD Drive for a full day then not use it for a few months.I'am just glad that i have External DVD Drive here that i can hook up and use when i'am stuck at some point.The problem is all the repairs is money you could put to a new machine and get something better then you already have so its just dead money in my eyes i'am just going to try and keep this machine for a couple more years and hope that it holds out and buy a new iMac or even a Mac pro.

 

[iPhilPHX]

My mid-2007 iMac is running just fine. Never any major problems at all.

The one issue I do have is iPhoto having 29 photos ( probably that I've dragged off websites ) that it can no longer find, so I have to click "cancel" on each of the pop-up windows that result in it's asking if it should search for them before it will open. Really overall a minor annoyance I'll eventually figure out.

I'd still love to get the new one coming out, been lusting for that 27" screen, but there really is no justification for doing so.

 

[mrmarts]

My 2010 iMac with 8gb of ram runs great with mountain lion

 

[bobright]

1. My first iMac, 17" (White) had it for over 6 years and the HDD failed after 3 years & replaced.

2. My sister's 20" (White). Just over 4 years, it's now with Parents it started acting up not sure if it's the HDD or Logic Board after just over two years.

3. My second iMac, 24" Mid-2008 also the HDD after two years. I ended up selling it and got the 13" Mid-2012 Base Air.

4. My sister's 27" Mid-2010. So far so good.


EDIT: I will be buying my third iMac when/if (LOL) it comes out this November. I'm disappointed but I'm a Mac user for Life and now I'm FORCED to buy Apple Care.

This is awful and has me scared, HDD dying after 2-3 years?

That seems to be the story on iMacs.

 

[phoenixsan]

I will say....

Very nice! In the office we have a 2.0 Core 2 Duo, 17 inch, 2007....only we got the beachballs more frequently. No upgrades in this machine, only OS reinstalls....Good and resistent machine.....

 

[willmtaylor]

I will be a first time Mac owner hopefully very soon with the new iMac release around the corner. I am looking to spend a good amount of money on one and HOPE I can at least get a good 5 years or so life out of it. I have got that out of all my previous PC's hopefully can get around the same out of a Mac.

How has your guys held up over the years?

I bought a 27" iMac in 2009 and it still runs like it's new. No issues; no problems; no regrets.

 

[jonproject]

Late 2008 here. Held up very well. Had a genius replace the sound card (aux out wasn't working) in 2010. Upgraded the ram to 4GB in 2010 as well. Machine runs a bit slow in mountain lion when having multiple iLife applications open. Still quite happy with it. Planning to upgrade to the new 27" model upon release.

 

[MonkeyET]

Early 2009 20" doing well

I have an early 2009 20" iMac, 2.66 GHz. It had to have the logic board replaced after 2 years but works very well. I have 4GB of RAM, of which I need to jump into 8 GB. I sometimes get the spinning beach ball when trying to edit large HD files in iMovie and have considered upgrading the stock 320GB WD HD.

In speaking with others there have been 3 recommended drives and I wanted to throw it out there to see what the recommendation would be and why.

First is to get a WD Caviar Black 1 TB. 7200 RPM would be best for the large files but will the increased heat cause me problems?

Second is the WD Green drives in 1 or 1.5 TB. I was told it was only 5400RPM and I wonder if that is going to bottleneck the process.

Third is to take a 2.5" drive and add an adapter. The recommended drive was a Seagate Momentus XT hybrid with the 4GB solid state. Not sure how large these come but would like to get 1 TB if available.

Which would you choose?

 

[HE15MAN]

My 24" 2009 3.06 has held up great. I replaced the hard drive with a larger (2TB WD Caviar Black) drive, and upgraded the ram to 8GB, and it is running great.

 

[YanniDepp]

I have two iMacs on my desk at work:

• 27" (2011), 2.7GHz Core i5, 16GB RAM, Mountain Lion
• 20" (2006), 2GHz Core Duo (2006), 2GB RAM, Snow Leopard

The 2011 is a very nice piece of kit, but the 2006 is still a great machine. It actually feels more responsive at a few tasks, which is odd. A few of my colleagues who switched from old iMacs (2006-2008, Leopard) to 2011 iMacs with Lion have said similar things.

 

[talmy]

First is to get a WD Caviar Black 1 TB. 7200 RPM would be best for the large files but will the increased heat cause me problems?

Second is the WD Green drives in 1 or 1.5 TB. I was told it was only 5400RPM and I wonder if that is going to bottleneck the process.

Third is to take a 2.5" drive and add an adapter. The recommended drive was a Seagate Momentus XT hybrid with the 4GB solid state. Not sure how large these come but would like to get 1 TB if available.

Which would you choose?

In general, larger capacity drives end up being faster because for a given amount of content it will tend to be in a smaller and faster region of the drive. If you are going to be pulling it apart, consider spending the little extra for a 2GB or even 3GB drive.

Heat is a problem. I wouldn't get the Black drive, but that may be just me. You should see a good performance boost even with the green drive compared to the small drive you have now. Up the RAM and keep applications open (close windows with Cmd-W rather than the entire app with Cmd-Q) and the program stays in ram, essentially giving you better than SSD launch speeds.

I've had two different Seagate Momentus XT drives. The 500GB and the 750GB. The 750 has much less vibration (the 500 was really bad) and a larger SSD cache. It's been working great in my MBP. I wouldn't bother in my iMac because I have far fewer power cycles (I sleep it rather than boot it) and generally would not get full benefit.

It also turned out that my working set of files was too large for the 500GB file but luckily fits in the 750GB's SSD cache. If the files all don't fit then you don't get full benefit of the SSD.

 

[blanka]

Only screen problems. 24 inch had serious dust-trails inside the panel (not under the glass), and the 27 inch has similar issues, although not as bad.

 

[sanjuvarma]

My 3 Yr old iMac

I have a 2009 27" (the first 27" model) so it's 3 years old next month. I have an Intel 160GB SSD and 16GB memory, runs awesome on ML.

Contacted PowerMax for a trade in and they're offering $1250+ for it. Good enough to put in a more and get the new 27" in December 2012.

What say?

 

[Jkeeley1]

My 2008 still works, is a bit slow and has suffered from vertical lines on the screen for the past year or so.

 

[bembol]

This is awful and has me scared, HDD dying after 2-3 years?

That seems to be the story on iMacs.

Like I said I'm a Mac user for life, I have to live with it.

I was told this "normal." This is why I tried going back to Windows a 4-6 months ago but it was (still) a PITA to use. LOL

At one point, my sister blamed me for the HDD's crashing saying all the Media I store?

I'm not having luck with HDD. A few weeks ago my Western Digital 2TB External crashed.

 

[bobright]

Like I said I'm a Mac user for life, I have to live with it.

I was told this "normal." This is why I tried going back to Windows a 4-6 months ago but it was (still) a PITA to use. LOL

At one point, my sister blamed me for the HDD's crashing saying all the Media I store?

I'm not having luck with HDD. A few weeks ago my Western Digital 2TB External crashed.

That's a bummer.

I am curious were you able to successfully retrieve anything from these failing HDD's?

 

[RG129]

1) My 2002 G4 iMac got me through college and a few years afterwards. Only upgrade was maxed out RAM. No hardware failures...replaced in 2007 when I felt it was getting too slow.

2) My late 2007 aluminum iMac (Base 20") has been working strong. Only maxed out the RAM. Hard drive is just about full, and it's starting to feel sluggish, but no hardware failures either. About to replace in the next few weeks with a mid-range Mac Mini.

I was holding out for so long for the iMac re-design and all I got was a missing optical drive and an un-upgradable base model. I think the 27" is overkill for my needs. I'm looking forward to the Mac Mini and hoping it will last me another 5+ years of trouble-free use! (Knock on wood...)

 

[macinet]

I have a 24" 2007 model with Leopard OS and had no problems. Runs a bit slower now but still do all I need to do. Photoshop is the only program I have that's a bit frustrating but in saying that, I can still use it just have to have more patience and not do things so quickly.

I'll be upgrading to new iMac and will hand this one down to the kids.