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Just picked up a free iMac...now what?

D

DotCom2

macrumors 603
Original poster
Feb 22, 2009
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I just picked up a FREE iMac, 27" mid-2011, 2.7 GHz, Quad-Core i5 16 GB Ram 1TB hard drive Model MC813LL/A.
The elderly lady was gonna toss it because she took it to the Apple Store and they said it needed a new hard drive.

I'm running diagnostics on it now. When I connected it to a bootable external, everything else ran fine, so I think all it might need is a new Hard Drive.

My question is, what else can I do to this puppy that would be of benefit for this old of a computer? It has the DVD drive on the side. Can Apple put in a SDD in the DVD slot as well as an internal hard drive? Can I put in a Fusion Drive in instead of just the normal hard drive?

I have a Genius appointment on Tuesday to take a look at it.
Just wondering what others have done through Apple on this type situation. I'm not a hardware handy person so I would just have Apple do stuff to it which I know is gonna cost more, but I'm ok with that depending on cost of course. Wondering what all my options would be.

All opinions welcome.
TIA
 
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That iMac is stuck running High Sierra as it can’t run Mojave. Something to consider before spending a lot on upgrades.

If you need lots of disk space but not the SuperDrive, replacing them with one SSD and one large capacity hard drive Would be a good solution. You can either run them as separate drives or roll your own Fusion drive.

Not sure how many of those changes Apple would be willing to do. An Apple authorized service facility might be a better bet for customization.
 
DotCom2 said:
I just picked up a FREE iMac, 27" mid-2011, 2.7 GHz, Quad-Core i5 16 GB Ram 1TB hard drive Model MC813LL/A.
The elderly lady was gonna toss it because she took it to the Apple Store and they said it needed a new hard drive.

I'm running diagnostics on it now. When I connected it to a bootable external, everything else ran fine, so I think all it might need is a new Hard Drive.

My question is, what else can I do to this puppy that would be of benefit for this old of a computer? It has the DVD drive on the side. Can Apple put in a SDD in the DVD slot as well as an internal hard drive? Can I put in a Fusion Drive in instead of just the normal hard drive?

I have a Genius appointment on Tuesday to take a look at it.
Just wondering what others have done through Apple on this type situation. I'm not a hardware handy person so I would just have Apple do stuff to it which I know is gonna cost more, but I'm ok with that depending on cost of course. Wondering what all my options would be.

All opinions welcome.
TIA
Click to expand...

Nice computer for free. I have this model with SSD main drive and it works well. I doubt Apple will be of much help with upgrades but a third party shop might.

It’s too bad there will be no more OS upgrades. I’ll probably keep mine around a couple more years, hoping there will be a low end Mac Pro to replace it when the time comes.
 
glenthompson said:
That iMac is stuck running High Sierra as it can’t run Mojave. Something to consider before spending a lot on upgrades.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't even worry.

macOS is getting buggier and buggier with every release.

I wish I stayed on El Capitain

BorderingOn said:
I’ll probably keep mine around a couple more years, hoping there will be a low end Mac Pro to replace it when the time comes.
Click to expand...

Yes, there is. It's called the "iMac".
 
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If it will boot and run from an external drive, I'd just leave the internal drive "dead, in place" and boot and run from the external. Unless you really, really want to open it -- something else could get broken during the drive replacement, and then it wouldn't work at all.

I'd get the cheapest SSD I could find (I've seen 128gb SSD's as low as $25), connect it via USB2, and run that way.
No... it will not be "the fastest" possible setup.
But... cheap, easy, and you can get a few more years' usage out of it that way.

I believe this also has a firewire800 port.
You could connect an external drive via FW800, but the enclosures are getting harder to find, and cost more money.
 
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Fishrrman said:
If it will boot and run from an external drive, I'd just leave the internal drive "dead, in place" and boot and run from the external. Unless you really, really want to open it -- something else could get broken during the drive replacement, and then it wouldn't work at all.

I'd get the cheapest SSD I could find (I've seen 128gb SSD's as low as $25), connect it via USB2, and run that way.
No... it will not be "the fastest" possible setup.
But... cheap, easy, and you can get a few more years' usage out of it that way.

I believe this also has a firewire800 port.
You could connect an external drive via FW800, but the enclosures are getting harder to find, and cost more money.
Click to expand...
External SSD, all the way. It won't be blazing but it won't be too slow either.

Should be able to get a few more years out of it. Apple will release security updates for the next few years.

Probably not wise to dump more than one or two hundred dollars on it.
 
Glockworkorange said:
External SSD, all the way. It won't be blazing but it won't be too slow either.

Should be able to get a few more years out of it. Apple will release security updates for the next few years.

Probably not wise to dump more than one or two hundred dollars on it.
Click to expand...

It doesn't provide the reliability of having an internal SSD.
 
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Thanks for the ideas guys.
I ran the AHT and it came back with what I believe is a memory error (4MEM/62/40000000:0x88c4b98) but said nothing about a bad hard drive. Soooo, I took out all four sticks and running the test on each module at a time. Gonna take a while but I might be able to find a bad module and this could be the problem. Or could be a bad HD AND a bad module.
Well at least it was FREE!
 
DotCom2 said:
I just picked up a FREE iMac, 27" mid-2011, 2.7 GHz, Quad-Core i5 16 GB Ram 1TB hard drive Model MC813LL/A.
The elderly lady was gonna toss it because she took it to the Apple Store and they said it needed a new hard drive.

I'm running diagnostics on it now. When I connected it to a bootable external, everything else ran fine, so I think all it might need is a new Hard Drive.

My question is, what else can I do to this puppy that would be of benefit for this old of a computer? It has the DVD drive on the side. Can Apple put in a SDD in the DVD slot as well as an internal hard drive? Can I put in a Fusion Drive in instead of just the normal hard drive?

I have a Genius appointment on Tuesday to take a look at it.
Just wondering what others have done through Apple on this type situation. I'm not a hardware handy person so I would just have Apple do stuff to it which I know is gonna cost more, but I'm ok with that depending on cost of course. Wondering what all my options would be.

All opinions welcome.
TIA
Click to expand...
Generally Apple will not do upgrades such as switching to SSD, especially if you provide the SSD.
 
old-wiz said:
Generally Apple will not do upgrades such as switching to SSD, especially if you provide the SSD.
Click to expand...
oh, okay. Good to know. So they will just replace whatever is currently in there I guess.
 
Just an alternative, I also have a 2011 27" iMac, but am booting off a Transcend Thunderbolt SSD. Much better speeds than using an SSD via USB 2.0. It's been solid for me.
 
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bassjunky said:
Just an alternative, I also have a 2011 27" iMac, but am booting off a Transcend Thunderbolt SSD. Much better speeds than using an SSD via USB 2.0. It's been solid for me.
Click to expand...

$369 for Transcend 512GB StoreJet 500. Really?

He should get a 500 GB SanDisk Ultra 3D for $109.99 (+ $39.99 for digital thermal sensor) and spend an hour installing.
 
With that machine. I would open it and replace the HD, and optical drive with a pair of matching SSDs. Then Raid0 them. Won't run Mojave, but should give you a good 4-5 more years of productive life.
 
tubeexperience said:
$369 for Transcend 512GB StoreJet 500. Really?

He should get a 500 GB SanDisk Ultra 3D for $109.99 (+ $39.99 for digital thermal sensor) and spend an hour installing.
Click to expand...

I bought the 256GB several years ago and didn't pay that much for it. I wasn't willing to open up my iMac just yet, so it worked for me.
 
I took it down to Apple and sure enough it just needed a new hard drive so I went ahead and had them do it. It will be done early next week if not sooner. $200 plus tax. What a deal! I was also getting that 4MEM/40000000:xxxx error so I was a bit concerned there was a bad memory stick or worse, a bad slot as well as a bad HD. But when I ran the Diagnostics on each module alone, they all reported fine. Apple Genius guy told me that error was most likely because all the modules were from Crucial and not Apple branded because they found no prob with the memory, just the hard drive. So let that be some info for those who receive the 4MEM error that it doesn't necessarily mean bad memory.

The poster above who said they would only replace like for like on the HD is correct with one caveat. They would be willing to replace with a different type hard drive ONLY if they no long make/have that particular same hard drive.

I already have a 27" iMac 5K late 2014 so this is just a spare for when the kids come over and want to play Sims or Roblox and stay off mine. So this works out just GREAT!

I am not confident at opening it up myself, and for $200 it's a no brainer for my use case.

THANKS to all who responded.
 
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DotCom2 said:
I took it down to Apple and sure enough it just needed a new hard drive so I went ahead and had them do it. It will be done early next week if not sooner. $200 plus tax. What a deal! I was also getting that 4MEM/40000000:xxxx error so I was a bit concerned there was a bad memory stick or worse, a bad slot as well as a bad HD. But when I ran the Diagnostics on each module alone, they all reported fine. Apple Genius guy told me that error was most likely because all the modules were from Crucial and not Apple branded because they found no prob with the memory, just the hard drive. So let that be some info for those who receive the 4MEM error that it doesn't necessarily mean bad memory.

The poster above who said they would only replace like for like on the HD is correct with one caveat. They would be willing to replace with a different type hard drive ONLY if they no long make/have that particular same hard drive.

I already have a 27" iMac 5K late 2014 so this is just a spare for when the kids come over and want to play Sims or Roblox and stay off mine. So this works out just GREAT!

I am not confident at opening it up myself, and for $200 it's a no brainer for my use case.

THANKS to all who responded.
Click to expand...

What a steal! /s

A 1TB hard drive costs $40.

You can get a 1TB SSD for less than $200.
 
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