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Please help to choose a new iMac!

Love my 16" M1 MacBook Pro but didn't mention it as an option as I thought it might be overkill for OP's use.
Go big!
 
M1 will never be as serviceable as your 2009 iMac. I would recommend you just get a screen repair on the 2009 and a refurb on it. Or keep using it, plugged into another display through the built-in display port.
 
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mectojic said:
M1 will never be as serviceable as your 2009 iMac. I would recommend you just get a screen repair on the 2009 and a refurb on it. Or keep using it, plugged into another display through the built-in display port.
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Is old technology more desirable than new technology just because you can add more storage or RAM?

I had a 2015 27" iMac w/4.0GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 with AMD M395, and a M1 24" iMac eats it for lunch.

useful video on this topic
 
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Realityck said:
Is old technology more desirable than new technology just because you can add more storage or RAM?

I had a 2015 27" iMac w/4.0GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 with AMD M395, and a M1 24" iMac eats it for lunch.

useful video on this topic
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As others have said before, the work that the OP was doing was already handled fine by the 2009 iMac. Most work doesn't need much more than a Core 2 Duo. This is obviously not true for pro users, Photoshop, extensive cloud-web-app-bloatware we see today.
Besides, a 2009 iMac can get much, much faster with a ram upgrade and an SSD.

I have an M1 iPad Pro for video editing. But web use and other tasks can be handled on 2010-era machines.
 
MagicMolecule said:
So if I bought this new M1 iMac I wouldn’t go wrong in terms of durability?
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Macs tend to be reliable. You can always purchase AppleCare.

MagicMolecule said:
How many years you would say the M1 iMac will last if I buy it now?
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As per above software support for the latest OS stops about 5 years after it is discontinued. In the unfortunate event you need repair parts may not be available after this time but usually it is cheaper to replace than repair if it happens. If your needs change and you want the latest versions of software or new software that can become problematic as they may require OS or hardware features not available on an older machine.

 
stradify said:
Know what you mean about Photoshop. I've been running CS4 for 7 years on my 27" late 2015 iMac. Since upgrading it to Monterey I've been using Parallels 17 to run Mojave as a guest virtual machine. That allows me to run CS4 and other 32 bit apps.
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I am sure this works well on your Intel iMac. But, if the OP buys a new iMac it won't run an Intel macOS as a virtual machine under Parallels.
 
Yep! No Mojave as a guest VM for M1/2 Macs. That'll be the one thing I miss most when I retire my 2015 iMac.
 
mectojic said:
M1 will never be as serviceable as your 2009 iMac. I would recommend you just get a screen repair on the 2009 and a refurb on it. Or keep using it, plugged into another display through the built-in display port.
Click to expand...
Thank you for your opinion and for the tip. I’m still reluctant of buying a brand new one because it’s not compatible with Adobe CSS. And I am frankly not sure about the ways around it. I know there are way but for someone like me it’s too complicated.
So I might do as you say. I really don’t know yet.
Thank you though!
 
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MagicMolecule said:
Thank you for your opinion and for the tip. I’m still reluctant of buying a brand new one because it’s not compatible with Adobe CSS. And I am frankly not sure about the ways around it. I know there are way but for someone like me it’s too complicated.
So I might do as you say. I really don’t know yet.
Thank you though!
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I hate risking compatibility too. Your iMac is still very capable.
 
Realityck said:
It not that loud, but it sounds a lot better then the 27” Intel iMacs.
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I love my 24" iMac M1, but I have to take issue with this. When I went from my old 5K iMac to this one, I found the sound was quite a bit diminished. It's not terrible, but it's just not as full or as loud.
 
leifp said:
So your sole concern is hardware lifetime not necessarily software support? This is luck of the draw of course but I doubt it would last much less than 10 years. Every failure I’ve had has been within the first months of having a computer (always HDD up until now), excepting the time I decided to dump a pint of beer into my laptop… otherwise I, and everyone I know who keeps their tech until it stops working and nobody will/can repair it, still have computers dating to last millennium. (This is anecdotal and could just be good luck for myself and those I know)

Most failure points are due to moving parts (such as hinges or ports) and not component failure, although if those elements fail your hardware can fail as well (such as fans failing on CPUs). Thus the M1 iMacs should last a very long time (screen tilt hinge and USB/Thunderbolt ports are the sole exterior moving parts; single/double fan [7 core, 8 core models] for a low wattage part inside)
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Hi! Thanks so much for your input! All your opinions are very important. I am listening to everyone here.
 
Your current iMac, assuming that it's a 27 inch, are typically under $100 used. Here's an example: https://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/sys/d/dorchester-imac-27-mid-2009/7560178579.html for $80 though I think that a more realistic price would be $25-$50. You could get a 2013 which would be far faster than what you have now but it would also run High Sierra which is probably what you are running on your 2009. I have seen 2013 models for $200 on Craigslist. This would solve your software compatibility issue. You could also attach an external SSD to improve performance over the hard disk drive. Some used models do have SSDs too.

The main reasons for failure on these old iMacs is heat or hard disk drive wear. But the 2013 CPUs are more efficient than those from 2009. I have 2009 and 2010 iMac 27s and they both work fine. I plan to sell the 2009 for $25 and the 2010 for $100. The Apple Silicon models are far more efficient and generate far less heat at the same workloads. So the newer models should last for a long time as there isn't the heat issue.

One other thing about getting an M1 iMac is that it would probably save about $50/year in electricity costs with daily usage.
 
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pshufd said:
Your current iMac, assuming that it's a 27 inch, are typically under $100 used. Here's an example: https://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/sys/d/dorchester-imac-27-mid-2009/7560178579.html for $80 though I think that a more realistic price would be $25-$50. You could get a 2013 which would be far faster than what you have now but it would also run High Sierra which is probably what you are running on your 2009. I have seen 2013 models for $200 on Craigslist. This would solve your software compatibility issue. You could also attach an external SSD to improve performance over the hard disk drive. Some used models do have SSDs too.

The main reasons for failure on these old iMacs is heat or hard disk drive wear. But the 2013 CPUs are more efficient than those from 2009. I have 2009 and 2010 iMac 27s and they both work fine. I plan to sell the 2009 for $25 and the 2010 for $100. The Apple Silicon models are far more efficient and generate far less heat at the same workloads. So the newer models should last for a long time as there isn't the heat issue.

One other thing about getting an M1 iMac is that it would probably save about $50/year in electricity costs with daily usage.
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Thank you very much for your input 👍🏻👍🏻
 
leifp said:
in short: if you need the iMac now, buy it. However…

Two concerns: 1. the M1 iMac is already over one and a half years old (1 year, 7 months) and 2. the new systems do not allow you to upgrade RAM (if you choose 8GB now, that’s all you’ll ever have) nor storage (ditto your 256GB - external storage is your sole mode to increase storage)

Why are they concerns? Although the upgrade to the M2 processor (in the new MBAirs since June of this year) is not immense it exists and has CPU, GPU, RAM limit and bandwidth, video codec, and ML (machine learning - its importance will only increase in the coming years) improvements. If your Adobe CS work ever incorporates PhotoShop or video editing more generally you’ll notice the improvements the M2 bring. But they’re not in the iMac right now.

So, how does that address your concerns? The base/core functionality of the ”entry” chips into Apple Silicon already have changed what’s included. This will impact macOS support going forward. How much? No idea. But the M1 iMac has already cut a large chunk off of its own lifespan in support by being around for so long.

May I ask what your previous/present iMac is? (size/specs)
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Agreed. OP, I’d recommend getting 16 GB and 512GB since you can’t upgrade either RAM or storage after you buy.
 
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pshufd said:
One other thing about getting an M1 iMac is that it would probably save about $50/year in electricity costs with daily usage.
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This, alone, should be a major selling point. With energy costs spiralling, and the planet being raped for its resources, we should all be looking to use less energy.

I have an M1 iMac and I love it. It's fast, silent, cool, and uses very little energy. The display is beautiful. The built-in speakers are amazing considering the super thin profile; I was planning on some add on speakers as i didn't believe the onboard ones could possibly offer decent sound, but I was very wrong. I have a 'proper' hi-fi for 'serious' music listening, but the iMac is perfect for just getting on with stuff and listening to spoken word and that. I got the trackpad as well as the mouse, but I only really use the track pad now, having previously been only a mouse user. So I'd recommend that addition.

I use Adobe CS without issue, and updates have improved many apps anyway, to work on AS machines.

Many people will talk about the next rumoured device being 'just around the corner', but you could be waiting for a long time, and in the meantime, be getting on with actually doing stuff. Given Apple's typical product cycle, I'd imagine a new updated model may well be on the cards this year possibly, so it's up to you if you can wait a bit longer to see if the rumours firm up. But there's always something newer, better, faster 'just round the corner'...
 
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I have the blue 8 core GPU modeo with 16GB ram and base 256 GB storage and very happy with it

i run windows on it via parallels and the system is really fast. (Often faster than my windows laptop)
 
Hello everybody!
After all the thinking I got myself a refurbished computer from 2017 with following parameters:

2.3 GHz Intel Core i5
8 GB 2133 MHz DDR4
Intel Iris plus Graphics 640 1536 mB

I wanted to ask your opinion about this computer because when I started doing something in Illustrator on it yesterday Clean myMac alerted about heavy memory usage even though I haven't really done anything complicated in Illustrator by then.

I know 16Gb of RAM is surely better but there weren't refurbished Macs with 16Gb of Ram on eBay. I had to buy on eBay because the applications that I want to use won't work on M1 chip so buying a refurbished Mac from apple was out of the question. On top of that I never had more than 8Gb of RAM on my old Mac and I didn't have any problems really.

Would you say that the iMac I bought is not fit for computer graphics jobs?

If yes, is it possible to upgrade a graphic card at least? I heard that RAM cannot be upgraded on Macs made in 2017.

Could you give me your advice? I still can return this Mac if I have to.
 
Your welcome.

You should consider downloading MacTracker from the App Store.
It'll give you the complete specs for your iMac.
 
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