Looking to buy a mac

[Drl26]

I am in the market to buy a imac. Never owned one before let me put that out there up front. The computer is:
Imac i7 16gb ram 2tb hard drive
The person selling it said it is two generations old on the i7. Any thoughts or pointers when I go and look at it. Thanks in advance.

 

[HiFiGuy528]

If your budget permits, the current iMac is best bang for the money and should last you 4–5+ yrs and may still have some resale value left.

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

From your description it should be a late 2013 27" iMac i7 with 3.5GHz CPU and is it a 2TB Fusion drive, or a 2TB platter hard drive? This is very important, together with graphic card details.

 

[Drl26]

From your description it should be a late 2013 27" iMac i7 with 3.5GHz CPU and is it a 2TB Fusion drive, or a 2TB platter hard drive? This is very important, together with graphic card details.

I am not sure I will have to call the person again. Is the fusion better? The price they are asking is 699$ and it also comes with Microsoft office.

 

[jlseattle]

It sounds ok. It is a 4 year old computer. Macs have legs up to 8 years most times so might be worth it. Just don't expect performance. Just expect web browsing, basic apps and such.

 

[paulryp]

If you stick a SSD in it then you'll have a very nice machine, if not you will probably have system hangs and lag and a horrible experience

 

[Drl26]

It sounds ok. It is a 4 year old computer. Macs have legs up to 8 years most times so might be worth it. Just don't expect performance. Just expect web browsing, basic apps and such.

Yea that is what I was going to use it for and minor photo editing.

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

Yes. As it has a 2TB drive, it is either going to be a platter or Fusion drive. The flash storage section of a 2TB Fusion is 128GB and is fast. Of course say a 512GB SSD drive would be better, but don't try and install it yourself. The screen is glued in and a difficult operation requiring new adhesive strips.

If you find it slow you could always use an external Thunderbolt or USB3 SSD as your boot drive.

 

[Drl26]

Yes. As it has a 2TB drive, it is either going to be a platter or Fusion drive. The flash storage section of a 2TB Fusion is 128GB and is fast. Of course say a 512GB SSD drive would be better, but don't try and install it yourself. The screen is glued in and a difficult operation requiring new adhesive strips.

If you find it slow you could always use an external Thunderbolt or USB3 SSD as your boot drive.

Thanks for the explanation

 

[klky]

If it is indeed a late 2013 iMac, it won't have a retina screen. Not sure if this is important to you?

It will also be from the generation of iMacs that suffered from the hinge quality problem. So that's also something to consider.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/loose-hinge-on-late-2013-imac-27.1709835/