Found one at yard sale in good condition for $50. No keyboard or mouse though. He may be willing to take less. In a hurry worth it or not?
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Is it worth it getting a 2011 iMac?
- Thread starter Jacoblee23
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Comparatively poorly unless you put an SSD in it. But it can support up to 32GB RAM. It's got a decent processor. It's more than capable.
Crumbs, it's $50. You might as well be getting it for free. I've seen people pay more than that for a G3 iMac.
Ok. How much does it cost to put a ssd in it and is it difficult ? I ended up paying $40 for the 2011 iMac.
You need to get the SSD optical drive bay mount from OCW and then you can keep the internal HD for storage. I recommend the MX100 512 SSD and you will have a great machine thats is only missing USB 3. But you must must must get the SSD mounted internally on the sata as your boot drive.
If it is a 2011 27" iMac, I think there is a spare 3rd SATA III port available on the motherboard. You can run the cables to the SSD and just velcro mount it inside somewhere, like behind the optical drive perhaps, without removing the optical drive itself. Make sure it is fully operational with no video issues before sinking a bunch of money in it.
http://www.btobey.com/learn/imac-ssd-install.php
Seriously ... $40 for a working iMac ... WOW!
http://www.btobey.com/learn/imac-ssd-install.php
Seriously ... $40 for a working iMac ... WOW!
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40$ for a 2011 iMac is an extremely good deal! SSD's can be gotten cheaply these days, but the installation is not fun.
You could also use an external portable SSD Thunderbolt drive (bus powered) velcro'd to the back of the iMac stand.
No disassembly required ...
No disassembly required ...
Thanks everyone. I went back to that yard sale and bought a iMac G5 with box and everything in great condition for $40. This one is a lot older but meh.
Check out iFixIt as they have a guide for adding a SSD. You'll need a SATA cable, but don't bother with a mount. Just use double sided foam tape to stick it behind the optical drive. It's not the most straight forward of jobs as to get to the spare SATA port you have to take out most of the main board, but well worth the effort. The screen is probably the trickiest part, as you have to disconnect some cables before removing it completely, and then the same when putting it back, but take it slowly and label all the screws (the iFixIt magnetic board is great for that) and you'll be fine, assuming you're fairly comfortable building and replacing PC components. If not, pay someone to do it for you!
My 2011 iMac is still working fine with a 512GB SSD and 32GB RAM, and I still have the HDD and Optical Drive too. Depending on what HDD is in there, you might want to upgrade that too whilst you have everything apart. I think they came with fairly slow 1TB drives but mine now as a 7200 2TB drive in there
My 2011 iMac is still working fine with a 512GB SSD and 32GB RAM, and I still have the HDD and Optical Drive too. Depending on what HDD is in there, you might want to upgrade that too whilst you have everything apart. I think they came with fairly slow 1TB drives but mine now as a 7200 2TB drive in there
Crap. He didn't wipe
Out the Mac and he didn't have the cd. I'm on 10.6.8 so I don't think I'm able to do a factory reset without the disc am I?
Out the Mac and he didn't have the cd. I'm on 10.6.8 so I don't think I'm able to do a factory reset without the disc am I?
It's a steal at $50.
Is this a 21" or a 27"?
Also, post some specs so you can impress us with your garage sale find.
I've had my 2011 iMac for 5 years now and its running incredibly well. I have only upgraded it to 8GB of RAM from the stock 4GB. Its well worth $40, and you could probably turn around and sell it for over $200 if you wanted to.
No offense, but unless you just hate getting a good deal, get your ass back to that yard sale and buy that 2011 iMac NOW. That isn't just a good deal. It's an "Insanely great" deal. ANY 2011 iMac will absolutely wipe the floor with an old and crusty G5 iMac, not to mention it can actually run the latest version of macOS.
I bought both lol. I bought the 2011 iMac first and went back and got the G5. I'll be selling the G5
Probably because it's way too slow and don't think the processor or anything can be uploaded.
The 2011 iMac worked good for awhile. Now it freezes everyone I start it up and I don't have the software discs. Not sure what I'm gonna do.
You shouldn't have to Google too hard to find a copy of an OSX install image which you can download, burn to disk and reinstall.
Whilst technically piracy, I don't believe downloading something you had (or in your case Apple provided with the machine) is going to get a knock on the door from FACT or similar. And since Apple have provided a free upgrade path for the last few versions of OSX I can't see how it's a problem downloading a later version to the one supplied with your 2011 iMac (probably Snow Leopard).
Others may disagree
Whilst technically piracy, I don't believe downloading something you had (or in your case Apple provided with the machine) is going to get a knock on the door from FACT or similar. And since Apple have provided a free upgrade path for the last few versions of OSX I can't see how it's a problem downloading a later version to the one supplied with your 2011 iMac (probably Snow Leopard).
Others may disagree
You shouldn't have to Google too hard to find a copy of an OSX install image which you can download, burn to disk and reinstall.
Whilst technically piracy, I don't believe downloading something you had (or in your case Apple provided with the machine) is going to get a knock on the door from FACT or similar. And since Apple have provided a free upgrade path for the last few versions of OSX I can't see how it's a problem downloading a later version to the one supplied with your 2011 iMac (probably Snow Leopard).
Others may disagree
As the OP owns multiple Macs he or she can just go to the Mac App Store and download a legit copy of whatever macOS installer they desire, rip out the dmg, burn it, and install no piracy required.
Just an update. The guy selling the mac lied to me. It's actually a 2006 iMac with a 2.1ghz processor, 3gb of ram and a 500gb hard drive. Apple support looked up the serial number for me and told me the bad news. I barely missed the boat by a year on upgrading to anything but lion. I am disappointed but not too surprised.
I already picked it up at the yard sale lol. It runs pretty good all things considering how old it is. For $40 I'll probably just keep it. If anyone knows of a work around to get el captain running let me know.
You thought a 2006 iMac was actually a 2011 model? The 2006 iMac is white, and looks the same as the iMac G5. It wasn't even available in 27", only 17", 20" and 24". The 2011 model looks completely different, being an aluminum unibody construction.
...Or are you saying that the iMac G5 was actually a 2006 Intel iMac? Well, that would be a good thing and nothing to be disappointed about.
I'm confused.
Agreed; the OP should have been able to spot the difference between a 2006 and 2011 iMac easily.
I hadn't ever had an iMac before. I didn't know the physical differences.