Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

I am very happy with my 2012 iMac

Fried Chicken

Fried Chicken

Suspended
Original poster
Jun 11, 2011
582
610
At Sub $1k, this would be an excellent computer to recommend for relatives, or anyone who doesn't want to spend 2-3x as much on a new mac.

Core i5 3.2 GHz, GTX680mx, 16GB RAM.

Genuinely, I don't see any reason to upgrade except gaming performance.

I have a 2TB HDD and a 1TB SSD that's been split so I have a 2.5TB Fusion Drive, and a 500GB Boot Camp partition.

A 5K display would be nice, but it just isn't necessary.
The wireless keyboard and trackpad are better than the flimsy new ones.

I've never once used either of the thunderbolt ports.
Ivy Bridge brought USB 3.0 to the mac, so that concern is gone.


Since notebooks have taken over from desktops, it seems all the web **** is being catered to lesser notebooks, so I don't see a need to upgrade for at least another 3 years and/or whenever notebooks not only surpass my 2012 desktop, but software starts requiring this higher speed hardware.

The biggest reason I see to upgrade is for a PCIe SSD, which unfortunately only came with the 2013 iMac, but I think I'll RAID some SSDs and stick those in there before that becomes an issue.

I've never seen a USB-C accessory on anything.
 
  • Like
Reactions: B.A.T
Fried Chicken said:
At Sub $1k, this would be an excellent computer to recommend for relatives, or anyone who doesn't want to spend 2-3x as much on a new mac.

Core i5 3.2 GHz, GTX680mx, 16GB RAM.

Genuinely, I don't see any reason to upgrade except gaming performance.

I have a 2TB HDD and a 1TB SSD that's been split so I have a 2.5TB Fusion Drive, and a 500GB Boot Camp partition.

A 5K display would be nice, but it just isn't necessary.
The wireless keyboard and trackpad are better than the flimsy new ones.

I've never once used either of the thunderbolt ports.
Ivy Bridge brought USB 3.0 to the mac, so that concern is gone.


Since notebooks have taken over from desktops, it seems all the web **** is being catered to lesser notebooks, so I don't see a need to upgrade for at least another 3 years and/or whenever notebooks not only surpass my 2012 desktop, but software starts requiring this higher speed hardware.

The biggest reason I see to upgrade is for a PCIe SSD, which unfortunately only came with the 2013 iMac, but I think I'll RAID some SSDs and stick those in there before that becomes an issue.

I've never seen a USB-C accessory on anything.
Click to expand...
Sometimes, if you do critical thing you need a warranty at least. But if under 0.5k yest but if under 1k no. 1k can get a new thing but not so powerfull like yours. For me, a large ram and ssd is the main important. No matter from era EDO til DDR4. RAM size the most important computer to function. SSD is nice for boot up and searching. The most reason SSD is nice these day Modern Operating System like OSX and Windows keep catch to gain fast search which they aren't suppose if lower then 8GB ram. Proc still the same to me for past 10 years, nothing changed much except most program now doing zip/unzip which more resources then suppose to just to keep file size low.
 
I still use a mid 2011 21.5" iMac as my daily machine. It has USB 2.0 which is slow by todays standards but I have not found this to be a particular issue as I only use the USB ports for the Apple keyboard and external drive for Time Machine backups.
There is however one specific advantage it has Firewire 800 which is useful to me along with Thunderbolt 2
https://everymac.com/systems/apple/...inch-aluminum-mid-2011-thunderbolt-specs.html

Thus far I have no compelling reason to upgrade.
 
Last edited:
orbital~debris said:
That’s a criticism I’ve not read before - I’m now concerned as I’ll be upgrading to these peripherals when the new iMac becomes available. How flimsy are the new ones?
Click to expand...
I love my new black keyboard, doesn’t seem flimsy to me.
Doesn’t need recharging often at all either, and much easier charging with the lightning cable that came with it.
Probably change recharging batteries 4-5 times on my old trackpad during 1 cycle on the keyboard.
Considering buying the new black trackpad too, as I’m more pleased with the keyboards then what I've thought.
Even if I would’ve wanted the smaller keyboard without the numeric part, if it had existed in black.
But I’m getting used to the larger one. And it’s beautiful.

My 2013 iMac will at least last through Mojave and hopefully next system after that. How long that is, we'll see.
 
  • Like
Reactions: orbital~debris
orbital~debris said:
That’s a criticism I’ve not read before - I’m now concerned as I’ll be upgrading to these peripherals when the new iMac becomes available. How flimsy are the new ones?
Click to expand...
I haven't noticed that the Magic Keyboard feels flimsy compared to the older Apple Wireless Keyboard. It is a bit louder when typing, so that is something to consider. But it doesn't need charging very often and I would say I prefer it to the older one.

I do have more complaints about the Magic Mouse 2. The placement of the charging port is an issue, and so is the fact that MacOS only alerts you to low battery when it is close to dying. So if you sometimes forget to charge it overnight at least once every week or two, you'll need another mouse handy just in case.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back