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Worth the upgrade?
- Thread starter retta283
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Not sure what your budget is but you can get a late 2013 21.5" iMac for $500 or so. What's the point of an upgrade if you're getting similar hardware? Are you looking for a 21.5" or a 27"? What do you plan to use it for?
I use my iMac for content consumption mainly, but I also edit some video with it. I do run a lot of PPC apps so I want a Mac that can have Snow Leopard side loaded on it if possible. 21.5", the 27 is just too big for my current setup.
Main 3 upgrades I am looking at it for would be the 16:9 screen, the SD card slot, and having a properly working fan again. My 2008 iMac's fan has been messed up for a while now. The 2010 CPU and GPU are also way better.
"I'm using an early 2008 iMac right now, and part of me wants to upgrade. I was looking at a 2010 iMac as I want to keep it cheap. Would the 2010 model be worth the upgrade from a 2008?"
No.
If you want a REAL "upgrade", you're going to have to spend a little more and buy something "newer".
I'd suggest at least 2014/2015.
No.
If you want a REAL "upgrade", you're going to have to spend a little more and buy something "newer".
I'd suggest at least 2014/2015.
2014/2015 models might have better specs but they're a bit out of my price range, are missing the DVD drive, and can't run PPC apps.
If my iMac's fans weren't haywire I'd consider continuing to use it for a long time but it's starting to get annoying, and I can't run anything newer than El Cap. Mojave doesn't interest me as of now.
No.
I wouldn't recommend anything that doesn't have USB 3. So for an iMac, that means bare minimum 2012.
Well, would you have any clue as to why my fans are screwed up?
Here's the situation: I start the computer up, and the fans are blasting 100%. If I put the computer to sleep and wake it back up it stops. However sometimes after about 30 seconds it goes to 100% again. After a few times putting it to sleep and waking it up the fans will stop blasting 100%. I NEVER hear the fans during actual use, not even while playing games, so I know it's not a dust problem or something. I've tried to get the fans to run but they never do.
Not sure. Have you tried a different OS install just to see what happens?
If it's not a hardware issue (eg. sensor, dust), then it could be a software issue. You can also check the logs, although I personally wouldn't know how to properly read them.
I've installed every version of OS X that is supported on this machine at some point, they all do it. Interestingly, when I boot to the partition select with the Option key, it does not spin the fans until I select a partition. Either there is something in the boot loader of this computer or a sensor is broken.
Seems like it's time to move on but you refuse to because of PPC apps. If you must get a super old iMac, try to get one that hasn't been used much. My dad has a 2010 27" i7 iMac that's basically been a youtube machine. Something like that could work for years to come. Otherwise, I wouldn't get anything older than the late 2015 iMac. The wear and tear that electronics experience should be apparent to you considering your iMac's condition.
I recently sold my late 2013 21.5" iMac with an NVIDIA GT750M GPU for $500. Then purchased a 2017 Macbook 12" to tide me over. A few months later, my dad needed a super portable laptop. So I'm selling him the 12" Macbook and buying a top of the line late 2015 iMac 21.5" instead. It has a 3.3 GHz i7, 500GB SSD, and 16 GB's of ram. Cost me just below $1,000 with shipping from eBay. I think you could probably get a base model for $700.
I recently sold my late 2013 21.5" iMac with an NVIDIA GT750M GPU for $500. Then purchased a 2017 Macbook 12" to tide me over. A few months later, my dad needed a super portable laptop. So I'm selling him the 12" Macbook and buying a top of the line late 2015 iMac 21.5" instead. It has a 3.3 GHz i7, 500GB SSD, and 16 GB's of ram. Cost me just below $1,000 with shipping from eBay. I think you could probably get a base model for $700.
Well I can use a machine that does not support PPC apps, but it's certainly a nice thing to have. The main reason I don't want to move too modern is price, I may try and get a 2013 in the future if I can find a deal on a good condition one. My friend is still using the 2013 and it works fine for him. I'll hunt around once I have the cash to spend on another computer, because I have a ton of other things to pay for right now.
I do understand what your'e saying. I've got a ton of expenses coming in right now including repairing or replacing my car. Still, computers are fairly important. I spend a lot of time using them. So I want to get a device that won't piss me off. That's why I had to sell the late 2013 iMac 21.5". It had the 5400 RPM HD and 1080p screen. Drove me crazy even though the machine ran perfectly. I'd suggest getting an SSD and more than 8 GB's of ram but you probably don't want to spend the money. I just don't know how so many people deal with the bottom of the barrel tech that Apple has been putting into these base model iMacs. Tried it myself and decided that I'll never do it again.
I get the car thing, I'm about to break down and buy a new one because the moment I fix a problem another one comes up. I've put a ton of money into it but at some point I'll have to say enough's enough and get rid of it.
What ever machine I do get will have an SSD and more RAM installed, I try to maximize the speed on the older machine instead of spending more on a base model newer machine that will eventually need the same upgrades done. I'll see where things are once I get through the crap with my car, and I've had to give my kids birthday money too...
I don't know about these old iMacs but the newer ones have special hard drives with built-in temperature sensors by default. If you replace the hard drive with an SSD and forget to add an aftermarket temperature sensor the fans run on full blast 24x7 because of missing sensor data. If this applies to you there are basically two ways to fix this:
a) get an aftermarket temperature sensor from iFixit
b) use software like Macs Fan Control to manually control fan speeds
a) get an aftermarket temperature sensor from iFixit
b) use software like Macs Fan Control to manually control fan speeds
Mid 2011 27" it is then. Though the GPUs are starting to die, they can be upgraded with a any Kepler based Nvidia card from a Dell/Alienware laptop. But with that you lose the ability to run 10.6.