iMac early 2009 - should I upgrade?

[dupuytren]

Hi all
I have an iMac early 2009 20inch.
It was starting to become slow last year so I upgraded the memory to 8GB ram which helped. Once I upgraded to OS Mavericks it is now becoming slow again.

My primary computer is an MBA 13" Mid 2012 and I use my iMac maybe once a week or a fortnight (especially in the last 2 years), and only use the iMac if I have work stuff to do (need to draft a report etc). I notice that the display is markedly different and after about 30mins starting on the iMac display I do get a headache and need to rest for a bit.
Other issues with the iMac I guess is the USB 2.0, would prefer USB 3.0 for backup reasons/cloning hard drive etc but this isn't a major issue.

So my current question is:
I'm planning to sell my MBA to buy a 13" Retina MBP that has just been released (I renew my MacBooks every 3 years anyway); I did consider the 12" Macbook but I only take my computer out of the house when I am on a long vacation (so maybe once a year).

I am very tempted to sell the iMac and buy a newer iMac - I can get a 21 inch late 2014 iMac for £700 (second hand on Amazon); but as I stated I don't use it much so not sure if the money spent to do this is justified. Should I just plunge for this, or should I maybe just get a large display monitor instead so I can use the large screen to do work stuff through the shiny new MBP?

Any advice is appreciated!!

 

[chogue23]

Spending more money on an old iMac can either be a great thing or a money pit. If you don't think you would be using it very often, I would suggest getting a nice 23 inch monitor to compliment your Macbook Pro. If you thought you would continue to use the other computer you could consider upgrading to a refurbished model with an i series processor.

 

[dupuytren]

Thanks for your advice,
In the end I have put my iMac on the market, and bought a new MBP retina display and a Dell U2515H, glad I made this decision as the set up is just perfect!

 

[desantii]

good choice!