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I have a 27" iMac (2013) that's getting long in the tooth, what are my replacement choices
- Thread starter YMark
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There are zero rumours of this. Certainly not soon. You have to ask where it would fit in the Mac range now that Apple has its own top quality 27" 5K screen (with LG 5K as second best) and two ranges of standalone Macs (Mini and the Studio) which cover all but the most demanding professionals. If you want a 27" iMac, purchase a Studio display and mount a Mini on the back of the stand.
Check out the Apple refurb store for 2020 iMacs. As good as new, 14-day return period (or now until Jan 8?), 1 year warranty from Apple. You can get a base machine for $1300. Might be a good stopgap for ~3 years. I wouldn't recommend sinking much money into a high-spec config, though.
Do not vacillate too long, the good deals go quick.
Refurbished Mac Deals - Apple
Save up to 15% on a refurbished Mac. Tested and certified by Apple including a 1-year warranty. Free delivery and returns.
www.apple.com
Do not vacillate too long, the good deals go quick.
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Agreed we probably won't see a large iMac anytime soon. But Apple doesn't have an equivalent-value replacement for the large iMac for regular consumers. The 2020 27" iMac started at $1800 and could drive a total of three displays, while a ASD + Mini (w/ the same RAM and storage) starts at $2300 and can drive a total of two. That's because the ASD, at $1600 by itself, is a prosumer-priced display.
So I disagree with your mildly snarky suggestion to "purchase a Studio display and mount a Mini on the back of the stand", since that only works if you don't care about $500 and multi-monitor support.
An ASD + Studio are a great replacement for the iMac Pro. But an ASD + Mini aren't a great replacement for the large iMac.
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Sorry, I wasn't intending to be snarky. Blunt yes.
If my 2019 27" were to die today, I would replace it with a high spec Mini and have terrible internal debate whether ASD or LG. Either would be pretty good replacement.
I've got the same machine, but I'm running 128 GB RAM (for scientific calculations) and driving two external displays in addition to the iMac's, and unfortunately the Mini can't give me either of those.
I have 96GB, but don't really need that much. 64GB would be fine (a few nearly always on VMs). Oh, what did I say? Whoops, I am going to need a MacStudio not a Mini (even an M2 Mini will presumably be 24GB). Hope my 2019 keeps going for a while!
I feel for those doing bigger calculations on the current Mac Pro who are hanging out for a new Mac Pro. Or, more likely, moving to big linux boxes.
The mate does have a lower overall resolution than the Studio Display.
I prefer the extra vertical for my use case.
| Resolution | Price |
|---|---|
| 3840 x 2560 | $569 |
| 5120 x 2880 | $1599 |
If cost is no object, then the XDR is the best choice
| 6016 x 3384 | $4999 |
Wow, a lot of suggestions here. Here is my scenario when WFH.
- I use Citrix on my iMac to VPN into my work laptop (Dell 5521) because I want to use the 27" iMac screen. Works OK, but the audio ports from my laptop doesn't always work with Citrix. It takes some setting changes and becomes a PITA. Audio quality is bad and almost unusable. People from work call my on my Skype phone all the time, but I have to tell them to call my cell.
- After work, I disconnect Citrix and use my iMac for Financial stuff, Word, Excel, Web Browsing, and email. No gaming or any real heavy lifting.
- iMac has 8GM memory, 500GB SSD
- Also have a MacBook that is a 2015 13" that I use for couch surfing and travel
- iMac can no longer be updated, currently running Catalina
- purchase a MacBook Air, probably an M2 with 16GB memory, 512 GB storage (this would replace both the iMac and the MacBook)
- purchase a 34" Widescreen thunderbolt monitor (maybe a Samsung J791). This will allow me to display both sources and the same time, and use the software KVM
- whenever I go into the office, remove a single cable from my Dell laptop
- whenever I travel, remove a single cable from my MacBook Air
LOL. By the time I replace my iMac, I'm hoping the max RAM option for the Max will be >64 GB, thus obviating the need for an Ultra. Or maybe my general RAM needs will decrease by then. Of course that's risky, because I could be fine with less RAM when I replace my iMac, but then have my needs go up again...
If you would like to install Ventura, check out this YouTube video. Hopefully your iMac is on the list:
Once Apple has excess supply of M2 chips it is a given they will refresh what needs to be refreshed.
Supply chains tend to follow a FIFO method.
My guess would be a 2023 iMac 24" M2 would be out between now and June 2023 for WWDC.
I broke the screen (just the glass, not the display) on my 2017 27" iMac. I lived with it for about 9 months. Then recently I started getting nasty messages about the health of the 1 TB SSD which is too small for all of the stuff I have on it. So I have a 1 TB Samsung X5 hanging off it containing the photos and music. I'm retired and use the machine for photos, music, email, web browsing, taxes, Quicken, finances, etc. And occasionally I run Parallels virtual machine so I can use Windows apps like MS Project.
So I hemmed and hawed a lot and finally decided to stick with Apple. (I've used Macs since the original one came out. But always used Windows at work). One of my considerations was future proofing and system integration. I didn't want to get a Mini, I thought it would be too constrained in connecting ports and power and speed. I know there are upgraded ones since I made my choice. I also didn't want to downsize to a 24" display iMac. I was tired of waiting for an Apple Silicon 27" machine.
So I broke down and got the M1 Mac Studio with the 27" Studio Display, increased SSD to 2 TB and memory to 32GB. It has lots of newer ports but only a couple of USB A/B ports. I hang two WD Element drives off the machine for Time Machine. The choice is more than I wanted to spend, but I'm really pleased with the result.
I don't know if my choice addresses your needs, but maybe it will have some use to you.
So I hemmed and hawed a lot and finally decided to stick with Apple. (I've used Macs since the original one came out. But always used Windows at work). One of my considerations was future proofing and system integration. I didn't want to get a Mini, I thought it would be too constrained in connecting ports and power and speed. I know there are upgraded ones since I made my choice. I also didn't want to downsize to a 24" display iMac. I was tired of waiting for an Apple Silicon 27" machine.
So I broke down and got the M1 Mac Studio with the 27" Studio Display, increased SSD to 2 TB and memory to 32GB. It has lots of newer ports but only a couple of USB A/B ports. I hang two WD Element drives off the machine for Time Machine. The choice is more than I wanted to spend, but I'm really pleased with the result.
I don't know if my choice addresses your needs, but maybe it will have some use to you.
Any chance you would sell the imac 2014 & ship, to Chicago
Any guess on a date for the 27" M2 imac?
Similar time frame.
3nm M3 MBA & MBP 13" is out by Oct/Nov 2023 or Jan 2024
This is based on conjencture on past M1 to M2 series refresh cycle