Just bought a broken iMac

[AlexxRyzhkov]

So I saw a iMac for sale at a pretty low price at the local pawn shop, and it was marked for $250
It only had one problem, the hard drive was broken. I checked up the serial and turns out it was the 3.06 ghz 24" iMac from Early 2008 with the Nvidia 8800 GS gpu. So i managed to drop the price a bit, and after tax I ended up paying $206 for it. So I ordered a new hard drive for it, but I'm wondering, if there are other problems with it, such as logic board or gpu failure, would it be worth fixing? Or should I just sell it for parts? The LCD and power supply both seem to work fine

 

[maflynn]

I guess you need to first figure out whether its only the hard drive or not. If you cannot fix it yourself either cost effectively or getting the parts then selling it piece meal is your only option.

 

[macthefork]

Boot it from an external. If it boots, then just replace the broken HDD.

 

[AlexxRyzhkov]

Right now I'm waiting for a hard drive that I ordered to arrive, as I don't have one on me, as I'm on vacation right now.
Also just wondering, if I replaced the hard drive and was to try and sell it, how much would it be worth.
I might upgrade the Ram to a 4Gb.

 

[blanka]

Easiest is to boot it from the DVD set. You can order a Snow Leopard set at Apple for 19.99. If you ask for the server version (same price) you can use it as well virtualized. You will need either of the two anyway since the HD failed and you have no copy of an OS.

 

[AlexxRyzhkov]

Hmm, I just remembered a friend of mine had an old Harddrive he pulled from an 24" 2007 iMac. He replaced it with an SSD a while ago, and he says it still has OS X 1.7.5 on it, will it work with my iMac?

 

[SandboxGeneral]

It may or may not work. It depends on the hardware differences between them.

If the hard drive was all that was wrong with it, when you put the new one in and load OS X, you'll pretty quickly if it's working or not.

Otherwise, when you open it up, check for physical damage and blown capacitors.

 

[macuser453787]

Also just wondering, if I replaced the hard drive and was to try and sell it, how much would it be worth.

You can check ebay for comparable models and see how they are priced and with what specs. You can also check everymac.com which has an estimated "current" price range for the various Mac models. Just find your model and scroll to bottom of the spec page (but be careful because the last price update they did was from 2013 last time I checked).

Also try macofalltrades.com. They usually have older model Macs and their pricing is competitive, so that might give you a good baseline.

 

[Saint.Icon]

Right now I'm waiting for a hard drive that I ordered to arrive, as I don't have one on me, as I'm on vacation right now.
Also just wondering, if I replaced the hard drive and was to try and sell it, how much would it be worth.
I might upgrade the Ram to a 4Gb.

Going by Ebay, *maybe* $300. And that's if everything else is working fine, and you replace the hard drive.

It would have been better to pass on it, because you'll likely just break even if it's in good working condition post-harddrive swap.