iMac longevity

[mj_]

If taken well care of and not affected by one of the many design f***ups that Apple is so notoriously infamous for an iMac can last quite a while. My neighbor is still rocking a 2010 iMac while her teenage daughter has just inherited her slightly oder 2007 iMac. Both are in great working condition and have been upgraded over the years, the 2010 with extra RAM and a 128GB SSD and the 2007 with extra RAM.

 

[Matz]

Speaking of older stuff, my first major issue with my 2010 iMac isn't really with the machine, but with the document scanner attached to it. A Fujitsu ScanSnap S510M, which set me back a few bucks new (they're very proud of their scanners), but is still in great mechanical shape. Unfortunately, it won't run under High Sierra at all, and technically hasn't been supported since Yosemite. I was considering a new one and eBaying the old one, but thought about the VM approach.
So I'm going to install Yosemite in a Parallels VM, and attempt to do my scanning there. We'll see.

 

[Dave245]

My 2012 iMac is still working although if you see the 5K iMac in person it will spoil you. I’ve been tempted to buy one for my home office. I think compared to the 2012 none Retina it is miles better, although I’m not sure how it will look just doing normal stuff on the web or browsing normal photo’s. Editing in 4K on it would look great tho.

 

[mabaker]

mechanical drives in general tend to become slower as they age, and

Actually we have data on file that mechanical drives so far lasts much longer than any SSDs. And SSDs are indeed getting slower with time, too.

https://www.ontrack.com/blog/2016/05/19/hdds-vs-ssds/

 

[Magnus41]

still rocking my 2011 like it's day one. Mostly use it for editing in PS and ilustrator, streaming services and web surfing. I want to upgrade but honestly I don't find a compelling reason to do it as my current imac still suits my needs.

 

[Dave245]

Wouldn’t it be great if Apple announced an iMac redesign this year? Especially considering it’s 20 years since the iMac was unveiled by Steve Jobs.

I wouldn’t worry about how long a Mac can last, I have both an iMac 2012 and the 2011 MacBook Pro and the MacBook Pro has only just broken the other day, and that’s after heavy use for years. I used my MacBook Pro at university for video editing and so on and it kept up really well (until recently when it was really slowing down) but my iMac is still going strong and the only reason I would upgrade is for the 5K display since the 2012 doesn’t even have retina, and more higher end specs for some video editing. Overall I do think Mac’s tend to last a long time even with heavy use, at least that’s my experience with 7 years for the MacBook Pro 2011 and 6 for my 2012 iMac.
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Actually we have data on file that mechanical drives so far lasts much longer than any SSDs. And SSDs are indeed getting slower with time, too.

https://www.ontrack.com/blog/2016/05/19/hdds-vs-ssds/

Would you say that buying the SSD when getting a new iMac is worth it or are the Fusion drives just as good?

 

[Fishrrman]

Dave asks:
"Would you say that buying the SSD when getting a new iMac is worth it or are the Fusion drives just as good?"

Easiest answer there is.
Get the SSD.
It will run faster than the fusion drive.
May last longer, too.

 

[dogslobber]

.
I think thats the difference between Mac's and PC's - try using a 7 year old Windows PC and running the latest programs without any issues other than slow boot ups etc, many won't even load up new programs, the systems become laggy and crashy and an all round horrible experience. Any Mac will serve you well for 10+ years if looked after, and the older iMac's are great as they give you the option to upgrade the memory yourself (the reason I opted for the new 27" over the 21" as you can't upgrade anything on that easily).

Most cheap Windows PCs are junk. I can run Windows 10 on my 7 year old iMac 2011 and it runs better than the same machine running High Sierra, using less resources and bloat than macOS can. In fact, given Apple has cast this model adrift it has greater longevity with Windows than any Mac OS.
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Im still rocking the 27" Late 2009 iMac :-D still going strong with the HDD that came with it and 16gb RAM :-D

A nine years old hard disk is much more likely to fail than not. I hope you have everything thoroughly backed up.

 

[meddow]

Most cheap Windows PCs are junk. I can run Windows 10 on my 7 year old iMac 2011 and it runs better than the same machine running High Sierra, using less resources and bloat than macOS can. In fact, given Apple has cast this model adrift it has greater longevity with Windows than any Mac OS.
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A nine years old hard disk is much more likely to fail than not. I hope you have everything thoroughly backed up.

Yep backed up daily

Just waiting for new iMacs

 

[MacAlien]

Hi guys. I’m on the verge of buying entry level iMac 5k mid-2017. I’ve heard that refresh is expected till the end of year, but I can’t wait anymore. So I’d like to know your expirience with these machines, how do they perform after 4 or 5 years. I’m not a pro user and I’m planning to stick with this mac for 7-8 years.
I’m new to macOS , was windows user before. Thanks for any suggestion.

Have used my 2012 iMac listed in my sig continuously since...2012. I also have a perfectly working iMac luxo lamp thing and a 2010 iMac. All are in working order. The Pixar lamp cannot do much by today’s standards but can store things (can’t even connect to the 5GHz WiFi. Stuck using the 2.4 band.). The 2010 iMac same deal, it works just fine. No issues with any of them.

 

[Freida]

Hi guys. I’m on the verge of buying entry level iMac 5k mid-2017. I’ve heard that refresh is expected till the end of year, but I can’t wait anymore. So I’d like to know your expirience with these machines, how do they perform after 4 or 5 years. I’m not a pro user and I’m planning to stick with this mac for 7-8 years.
I’m new to macOS , was windows user before. Thanks for any suggestion.

I've read the first page and it amazes me that you are asking for advice and you don't tell us what you do with the computer. Are you just doing emails and documents? Or are you editing something? Creating something? What are the bottlenecks for you in your workflow?
Maybe think again and ask properly so we can advice you properly. That would be a good start for everyone

 

[vojislavsh]

I've read the first page and it amazes me that you are asking for advice and you don't tell us what you do with the computer. Are you just doing emails and documents? Or are you editing something? Creating something? What are the bottlenecks for you in your workflow?
Maybe think again and ask properly so we can advice you properly. That would be a good start for everyone

I meant in terms of software and service support and hardware quality. I've heard that the pre 2012 macs won't support Mojave, so it doesn't matter what kind of user are you in that sense. I'm not a pro user I wrote that in the first post.

 

[Freida]

I meant in terms of software and service support and hardware quality. I've heard that the pre 2012 macs won't support Mojave, so it doesn't matter what kind of user are you in that sense. I'm not a pro user I wrote that in the first post.

Well, if you are not a pro user then in that case does it matter that you don't have the latest? For some users Snow Leopard was so good and balanced that they kept rocking it for ages. That is often better choice than having the latest which is often full of bugs etc.
So, if you are not a pro user then it shouldn't matter and in terms of software support, each developer is different so it does matter to what you use.
If you use internet, emails etc. then you could easily be rocking 2010 mac pro with Snow Leopard and be totally content

Regardless, wait for the next week or October event as even if you get the 2017 model you will get better deals if new one is released.

 

[Tumbleweed666]

I bought an iMac in early 2009. It's still going strong, now with a relative. My 2013 iMac that replaced it is fine but the fan seems to be developing a slight fault I've been quoted £100 to fix, I'm hoping to replace the iMac if new iMacs are released this side of Xmas (I was hoping as early as this coming week for announcement?) otherwise I'll get the fan fixed and wait for next gen.

 

[Nismo73]

I'm still going with my late 2012 i7 680 that I got as a refurb in September 2013. My highest demand on it is LR and Ps for photo editing. Still works well, but interested in whatever the next update with new internals is...or even if the mini has a beefy update.

 

[HydeStreet]

I've had mine for 3.5 years, and it's failing. Here are some problems: Mail program disconnects and reconnects, computer gets stuck during restart, very slow to bring out of sleep mode, and online news programs are not streaming like they used to. Also, something indescribable occurs: Immediately after coming out of sleep mode I am interfaced with a password prompt to sign into computer, but on occasion the image distorts to a cauliflower shape, and I can't sign in. Then I go through the frustration of restarting. The $100 extra I paid for this fusion drive, whatever that was, didn't improve my experience with this machine, ever.

On the other hand, I owned a MacBookPro before this for 5.5 years. It lasted longer than this iMac.

 

[codernova]

I've had mine for 3.5 years, and it's failing. Here are some problems: Mail program disconnects and reconnects, computer gets stuck during restart, very slow to bring out of sleep mode, and online news programs are not streaming like they used to. Also, something indescribable occurs: Immediately after coming out of sleep mode I am interfaced with a password prompt to sign into computer, but on occasion the image distorts to a cauliflower shape, and I can't sign in. Then I go through the frustration of restarting. The $100 extra I paid for this fusion drive, whatever that was, didn't improve my experience with this machine, ever.

On the other hand, I owned a MacBookPro before this for 5.5 years. It lasted longer than this iMac.

Another involuntary vote for SSDs as your primary drive. Perhaps look at upgrading it with an external SSD and using that as your system drive.