Old iMac Upgrade Project for Fun - Which Year

[Azeroth1]

Strictly for fun purposes I have decided to do an old iMac upgrade project. Basically, buy an old iMac off eBay and just for fun see how much performance I can coax from it for the cheapest.

Basically I’m trying to figure out which year to go for. I want to keep it at least an aluminum model which leaves a few years to choose from. I was thinking 2012 but wanted to hear any other suggestions.

 

[MultiFinder17]

If you’re looking for something cheap as dirt but still useful today, try a 2008 iMac. I still use one of these daily at school, and it is wonderful for doing my lesson planning, grading, and everything else teachery. Max out the RAM at 6GB, throw in an SSD, and hackgrade it to High Sierra and watch it fly!

 

[redheeler]

The 2011 21.5" isn't a bad choice. They're fairly inexpensive compared to the 2012 and later models; you can install an SSD to run at SATA III speed, upgrade the RAM all the way to 32 GB, and even upgrade the GPU to a non-Apple one for Metal support (run MacOS Mojave).

The CPU is socketed and possible to upgrade as well (Sandy Bridge quad-cores are still decent performers).

 

[tubeexperience]

Get a 2012 or later model and you can upgrade it with an SSD.