Suggestions for a home Mac?

[Farrgazer]

Hi.

I would like to replace a 2010 iMac with something else...I don’t know whether it should be another iMac or a MacBook, though. My budget limit is $2000.

This Mac wasn’t used for any particular needs - just general entertainment in the form of web surfing, gaming (within spec limits) and digital jukebox.

This Mac will act as a general entertainment hub for music, movies and retro games. My music collection has been curated over many years, and I don’t want to sign up for any streaming services. The same can be said about my games and movie collections.

Just as importantly, I don’t use iCloud backup on my iPhone. Instead, I (still) manually back up my iPhone via iTunes.

Frankly, if Apple updated the Mac mini, this could be it for me, but I doubt I could get 8 years out of the current mini lineup.

 

[Juicy Box]

You didn't say what size your 2010 iMac is, so I am assuming any size would do.

Based off of everything you mentioned, you don't need a power machine, but one that can handle a large amount of media.

I think either going with a cheaper 21" with a SSD upgrade, and an external storage for your media, or a 27" iMac with a 2TB Fusion drive would be good.

Typically, I don't recommend a Fusion drive, but in your case, I think a 2GB or higher Fusion would be good, and it keeps things simple for storing your media.

The issue with that is that Apple only offers 2TB Fusion Drives on the 27" iMac, not the 21". The 21" can get a 1TB Fusion, but Apple reduced the SSD size of the 1TB Fusion Drive from 128GB to 24GB in the Late 2015 model, and then increased it slightly to 32GB for the 2017 model.

The 2 and 3 TB Drive still has the 128GB SSD.

If you decide to do the cheaper 21" with an SSD upgrade and an external drive, I'm sure this will be fine, but you will have an external Drive to set up and maintain, which is a little more to deal with than a large internal storage option.
[doublepost=1528936255][/doublepost]Here is Apple's refurbished page for some good deals on Macs, right now I don't see anything that really fits your needs, but Apple updates this all the time. If you see something you like, and you want it, don't hesitate, because sometimes they don't last long on the page.