Mid 2011 vs Late 2013

[Inkeys]

So I’ve bought two second hand iMacs and need some help.

The first is a mid 2011 21.5” 2.7Ghz intel quad core i5 with 8GB 1333 MHz DDR3, 500GB HDD and running High Sierra.

The second is a late 2013 21.5” 2.9GHz quad core i5 with NVIDA GeForce GT 750M 1GB graphics card, 8GB 1600 MHz DDR3, 1TB Fusion drive and running Catalina.

Both are immaculate units. I’m convinced they’ve only ever seen Safari web browsing and email action during their respective lives. But I’m struggling to decide which one to keep.

I want use either Adobe Creative Suite through the Creative Cloud (I have a work account), something the late 2013 iMac should do with Catalina. Or I could find a disk copy of Adobe CS 5 or 6 to work on the High Sierra late 2011 iMac. I also want to run Propellerhead Reason through one of them too.

The late 2011 is infinitely easier to upgrade an SSD and DDR3 RAM, but the late 2013 has the later iOS and larger Fusion Drive.

I’m also concious that Catalina is near to or already not being supported by Apple.

Which should I sell and what should I do with the one I keep?

 

[Juicy Box]

I would keep the Late 2013, just because it has a metal GPU.

You could always keep both, and use the other as a second display using Target Display Mode.

If you keep the Mid 2011, get rid of that HDD ASAP. Some theorize that the hot running HDDs was the reason for the high GPU failure rate of the Late 2009 to Mid 2011 iMacs.

If you keep the Late 2013, I would either replace the HDD part of the Fusion Drive with a SSD, or at least run an external SSD for the boot drive.

You can also run an external SSD on the Late 2011 as well, but it is crazy easy and quick to replace the HDD in that model. Once you do it a few times, you can do it pretty quick. I think I swap the HDD for a SSD, and put everything back together in less than 10 minutes.

 

[Inkeys]

Thanks! My instinct is keep the 2011, add RAM and and SSD. As you say - so much easier to work on and the primary use wil be the occasional Reason session, iMovie edit and some light CS work (if I can find physical disks!).

I’ve also got a works 2021 MBP, plus a 2012 MBP that acts as the home office/Google Classroom. Runs Catalina and I just downloaded Creative Cloud with the Adobe apps I need onto it, so covered there I guess. Also have a mid 2009 MBP that I’m clean installing at the moment, so who knows…maybe I’ll sell both iMacs, the 2009 MBP and put towards a newer iMac