2012 iMac

[Dave245]

Ok so unfortunately my 2012 iMac 27" is on the way out, i get the beach ball when even turning this thing on, it often freezes with simple tasks and will also randomly restart itself. I'm not complaining, this is by far the longest time i have had a desktop computer, it has also been the best desktop computer i have ever had.
I was holding out for Apple to update the 27" iMac, however i saw that they don't even offer that version anymore. It is the whole reason i didn't buy the redesigned 24" iMac when it launched last year.

Since Apple just updated the MacBook Air with the M2 chip, is it likely that they will update the 24" iMac with the M2 and i should wait? could Apple even bring back the 27" iMac with a redesign this year? I'm not sure how long my iMac can hold out. I probably should of just brought the 24" last year when it was introduced

Should i just go ahead and by the current iMac with M1 now, or try and wait a little longer incase they update the iMac soon, or even redesign the 27" and bring it back?

 

[pmiles]

The entire Mac lineup is going to an M2 chip, these are just the first to be released. M2 iMac is most certainly coming by next year at the latest. As for 27" display? Time will tell. They seem insistent upon smaller form factors. I'd say a 27" is not likely in the next year or so.

If you need a 27" display, why not get a Mac Mini? Get the display you want and pair it with the mini. Keyboard and mouse are cheap. Display can be fairly cheap as well. Apple has sold third party displays to pair with their devices for years, doesn't need to be an Apple product.

Look on the bright side, all those M1 Macs are now a hell of a lot cheaper and a hell of a lot more available than they were when they were introduced. You also proved to yourself that waiting didn't cause the sky to fall either.

I would try to see if your Mac just needs some house cleaning before giving up on it. Sometimes wiping the hard drive and reinstalling the system a new gives new life to the machine. Cleans out all the clutter. What OS are you currently running on the 2012? Maybe you advanced the OS too many levels for optimum performance? For example, if you have mechanical hard drives, APFS is bad for them, thus High Sierra is better for it than say Mojave or later. My machine is a 2010 Mac Pro and it runs Mojave because it was the last OS that runs fairly well on it. It takes a performance hit with APFS, but not nearly as bad a hit as the later OSes.

As already being pointed out, it appears as though the M2 chip is more of a side grade upgrade than a significant jump. Could be that the M1 was the biggest jump that we will see for years.

Remember that there is no 32-bit application support nor dual boot support on the newer Macs. Consider your existing software use and legacy hardware before making the jump to the new ARM Macs. Ultimately you will have to make the jump if you wish to stay current with the Apple ecosystem, but sometimes taking your time to make the transition is the best path to take. Especially if what is being offered doesn't fit your needs (i.e. display form factor for example).

 

[Dave245]

The entire Mac lineup is going to an M2 chip, these are just the first to be released. M2 iMac is most certainly coming by next year at the latest. As for 27" display? Time will tell. They seem insistent upon smaller form factors. I'd say a 27" is not likely in the next year or so.

If you need a 27" display, why not get a Mac Mini? Get the display you want and pair it with the mini. Keyboard and mouse are cheap. Display can be fairly cheap as well. Apple has sold third party displays to pair with their devices for years, doesn't need to be an Apple product.

Look on the bright side, all those M1 Macs are now a hell of a lot cheaper and a hell of a lot more available than they were when they were introduced. You also proved to yourself that waiting didn't cause the sky to fall either.

I would try to see if your Mac just needs some house cleaning before giving up on it. Sometimes wiping the hard drive and reinstalling the system a new gives new life to the machine. Cleans out all the clutter. What OS are you currently running on the 2012? Maybe you advanced the OS too many levels for optimum performance? For example, if you have mechanical hard drives, APFS is bad for them, thus High Sierra is better for it than say Mojave or later. My machine is a 2010 Mac Pro and it runs Mojave because it was the last OS that runs fairly well on it. It takes a performance hit with APFS, but not nearly as bad a hit as the later OSes.

As already being pointed out, it appears as though the M2 chip is more of a side grade upgrade than a significant jump. Could be that the M1 was the biggest jump that we will see for years.

Remember that there is no 32-bit application support nor dual boot support on the newer Macs. Consider your existing software use and legacy hardware before making the jump to the new ARM Macs. Ultimately you will have to make the jump if you wish to stay current with the Apple ecosystem, but sometimes taking your time to make the transition is the best path to take. Especially if what is being offered doesn't fit your needs (i.e. display form factor for example).

It’s not that i need a 27” screen, it’s just that i have always opted for larger displays that i can get. For example my iPad Pro is the 12.9” As for software, i use Final Cut Pro, plus all the standard apps (Safari, Notes, Office, Photos app) and a few other apps for some old games that i have.

The last OS update i made was the very last one that could be installed on it. When i brought it back in the last few months of 2011 (not long after Apple announced it), i opted for the Fusion Drive, 3TB version. I have barely used it, most the time any footage i put into Final Cut i use from an external drive. However i have been using my 2019 MacBook Pro 13” to edit some footage, but as i mentioned i do prefer to have a larger display. I have been thinking of buying a new iMac 24” and the new M2 MacBook Air, mainly to update my hardware and increase productivity for things like rendering footage in Final Cut Pro, but also battery life on a portable is very important.

I did try a Surface Pro 8, i retuned it simply because I couldn’t get along with Windows, it was buggy and battery life was not good at all. I may hold out and see if Apple update the 24” iMac within the next few months, even if they just slap the M2 chip in it.

 

[Juicy Box]

I have a two Late 2012 iMacs, could you post your specs? Maybe it could be a temporary solution to get your Late 2012 iMac working again, so you can hold out for the AS you are interested in.

Also, post your OS and let us know what type of boot drive you are currently using in or connected to your iMac.

 

[Dave245]

I have a two Late 2012 iMacs, could you post your specs? Maybe it could be a temporary solution to get your Late 2012 iMac working again, so you can hold out for the AS you are interested in.

Also, post your OS and let us know what type of boot drive you are currently using in or connected to your iMac.

The specs are:

MacOS Catalina (version 10.15.7)
iMac (27-inch, Late 2012)
Processor 3.4GHz-Quad-Core intel Core i7
Memory 16GB 1600 Mhz DDR3
Startup Disk Macintosh HD
Graphics NIVIDIA GeForce GTX 680MX 2GB
Storage 3.12 TB Fusion Drive

 

[Juicy Box]

One of my Late 2012 iMacs is that exact set up, but with 32GB of RAM and originally the 1TB Fusion Drive.

The biggest problem I see is that your are running Catalina on your Fusion Drive. Catalina and specifically APFS doesn't run well on HDDs and Fusion Drives, even when they are new, and you are running it on an almost 10 year old Fusion Drive.

Side note: Make sure you have a back up, preferably a bootable back up of your boot drive. You never know when the HDD will start to go. Sounds like it may have started.

The Late 2012 iMacs had a recall for the 2TB and 3TB Fusion Drives, Apple offering a free replacement of the HDD portion of the drives. Did you get this done? If not, you are using a very old Fusion Drive, and I would recommend going external if you plan on keeping your iMac for a while.

Not sure if you would want to hold off a little longer, and not sure how much storage you need, but you can get a 2.5" 1TB SATA SSD and USB3 enclosure or USB3/SATA adapter cable for about $80 in the States. The other day, I saw 2TB SATA SSDs for $140. Beyond 2TBs, the SSD prices are still pretty high.

I bet if you used an external SSD, your Mac would feel totally different, and it will allow you to wait until Apple releases the Mac you really want, not just one that you will settle for.


BTW, I like this cable adapter because it is cheap and has a long cable:

SABRENT USB 3.0 to SSD / 2.5 Inch SATA I/II/III Hard Drive Adapter (EC-SSHD)

Product Description:Take advantage of the lightening speed of USB 3.0 to quickly transfer files up to 5 Gbps! Connect any 2.5'' Serial ATA (SATA) / SSD or SATA II Hard Drive to your computer through an available USB 3.0 port on your desktop or laptop. Reverse compatible with USB 2.0 and 1.1, this...

www.amazon.com

If you would rather not have a cable adapter, the 2.5" USB3 enclosures are just as cheap.

Installing the OS on the external SSD is really simple, with lots of how-tos out there, plus plenty of help on the forum. It is as simple as plugging your external SSD into your iMac, formatting the drive using Disk Utility, download and install the OS on the external SSD, and use Apple's Migration Assistant when setting up the new boot drive to copy everything over to the new drive, making it look just like it did on the Fusion Drive.

There are other ways as well, such as cloning. I like CCC for cloning and making bootable back up drives.

 

[Dave245]

One of my Late 2012 iMacs is that exact set up, but with 32GB of RAM and originally the 1TB Fusion Drive.

The biggest problem I see is that your are running Catalina on your Fusion Drive. Catalina and specifically APFS doesn't run well on HDDs and Fusion Drives, even when they are new, and you are running it on an almost 10 year old Fusion Drive.

Side note: Make sure you have a back up, preferably a bootable back up of your boot drive. You never know when the HDD will start to go. Sounds like it may have started.

The Late 2012 iMacs had a recall for the 2TB and 3TB Fusion Drives, Apple offering a free replacement of the HDD portion of the drives. Did you get this done? If not, you are using a very old Fusion Drive, and I would recommend going external if you plan on keeping your iMac for a while.

Not sure if you would want to hold off a little longer, and not sure how much storage you need, but you can get a 2.5" 1TB SATA SSD and USB3 enclosure or USB3/SATA adapter cable for about $80 in the States. The other day, I saw 2TB SATA SSDs for $140. Beyond 2TBs, the SSD prices are still pretty high.

I bet if you used an external SSD, your Mac would feel totally different, and it will allow you to wait until Apple releases the Mac you really want, not just one that you will settle for.


BTW, I like this cable adapter because it is cheap and has a long cable:

SABRENT USB 3.0 to SSD / 2.5 Inch SATA I/II/III Hard Drive Adapter (EC-SSHD)

Product Description:Take advantage of the lightening speed of USB 3.0 to quickly transfer files up to 5 Gbps! Connect any 2.5'' Serial ATA (SATA) / SSD or SATA II Hard Drive to your computer through an available USB 3.0 port on your desktop or laptop. Reverse compatible with USB 2.0 and 1.1, this...

www.amazon.com

If you would rather not have a cable adapter, the 2.5" USB3 enclosures are just as cheap.

Installing the OS on the external SSD is really simple, with lots of how-tos out there, plus plenty of help on the forum. It is as simple as plugging your external SSD into your iMac, formatting the drive using Disk Utility, download and install the OS on the external SSD, and use Apple's Migration Assistant when setting up the new boot drive to copy everything over to the new drive, making it look just like it did on the Fusion Drive.

There are other ways as well, such as cloning. I like CCC for cloning and making bootable back up drives.

Yea I did get that done when Apple offered the free fix. I posted about it in one of the forums at the time on here. I have made a backup as I have an external HD drive plugged in to save any data I may need. I’m thinking of buying the new 24” iMac at some point soon, if my current iMac packs in, I’ll order straight away, if it carries on chugging along I’ll wait until the M2 is announced or whatever update they make next, then I’ll order.

Whatever Apple do to the 24” iMac next, M1 update or an M2, it’s bound to be better than the 10 year old one I’ve got now.