Is Late 2013 “too old”?

[Awmilne]

Hi all,


Looking for some expert advice here. Long term Apple convert and looking to add an iMac to my home office setup.


Currently looking at a Late 2013 27” (i5 3.2Ghz 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD) and can get it for a pretty good price.


Slightly concerned about buying a 5 year old machine though - especially as it seems to be getting quite close to the point where new OS updates wouldn’t be supported.


Am I overthinking or better off waiting on a more recent model?

 

[UbuntuFu]

I have a 2013 27" as my deskop. I upgraded it with an SSD, added 16gb RAM, added a second monitor and use it daily. Lightroom still runs well.

Only thing I'm missing is the 5K display, I might upgrade in 2019 but honestly unless the new iMac blows me away I'm just going to keep using this thing until it dies. Before the 2013 I was using a 2007 24 inch iMac for 6 years.

 

[Awmilne]

Thanks for this! Is the fact that it will be possibly not be supported after Mojave likely to be an issue?

 

[mikehalloran]

"possibly"???

Deal with that if/when it's an issue. There's nothing I've read that would indicate end of life for these on the horizon.

We knew about the Metal Graphics issue and 32 bit going away in 2012—and wondered what took Apple so long.

In the mean time, you can upgrade the RAM to 32G, the SSD blade to 2T and add another SATA III SSD up to 4T — if you want to. If there's no need, why bother?

Just because Chicken Little said that the sky was falling doesn't mean that it was.

Now, if you need a ton of reasons to justify buying a new Mac, then you've come to the right place.

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

I think that model will b e supported, with the 2012 the next one to be dropped. You can always get an external SSD up and running as the boot drive if 256GB is too small. And a decent network connection speed goes a long way in enjoying your iMac experience.

 

[mikehalloran]

Just to be clear. My 2010 is too old because I need to upgrade to Mojave and I want a faster machine for the AV work that I do.

OTOH, my wife's 2011 is perfectly good for everything she does in her teaching and book editing. For now, that is...

 

[UbuntuFu]

Thanks for this! Is the fact that it will be possibly not be supported after Mojave likely to be an issue?

Depends on what your software needs are. I'm actually still on Sierra on my iMac because I'm using the older Lightroom 5.7 software and photoshop cs6. Chrome, Spotify, VLC are my daily used apps.

I updated my 2014 MBP to Mojave though, dark mode is cool and the desktop organization stack is useful but I don't really notice that much of a difference otherwise.

I'd easily buy that 2013 iMac if the deal is right. I'd say I wouldn't spend more than 750.