Mid 2010 for general purpose??

[Eric2707]

Hello all –
Thank you very much in advance for taking the time to help me out.
Background, I don't like being a first adoptor -I'd rather use something simple that works well..
I've been using an old Lenovo laptop T 61 Core2dou @2 GHz with 3G RAM accessible..
Been telling myself for ever I want to switch over to Mac –
I have iPad and iPhone.
Thinking about getting a 2010 27 inch iMac..
Here are the specs:
27" iMac (mid 2010) - $650
CPU: Intel Core i3 @ 3.2ghz
RAM: 12GB
HDD: 2TB
Display: ATI Radeon HD 5670 512 MB
Size: 27"
Release: Mid-2010
Or ;
27" iMac (late 2009) - $500

CPU: Intel Core i5 @ 2.66ghz
RAM: 8GB
HDD: 1TB
Display: ATI Radeon HD 4850 512 MB
Size: 27"
Release: Mid-2010


Here is what the computer would be used for:

1. Netflix watching device
2. general-purpose computer for putting together a simple spreadsheets, email, editing blog posts on self hosted wordPress blogs
3. doing some scanning/OCR with a scansnap S1300i scanner..The scanner software creates "text searchable PDF's" (not resource intense as an actual Twain OCR)

Obviously I'm trying to avoid spending a lot of money because I'm looking at an older iMac but I don't want to shoot myself in the foot…
I don't like wasting money for "bling"..nor do I want to be "penny wise and pound (dollar)foolish"
Thanks again in advance for any input or feedback!
Very much appreciated

 

[Dragoro]

For what you're trying to do the 2nd should be fine and thats a decent price for it.

 

[MadDane]

I agree with Dragoro. The late 2009 should be more than adequate for that usage. If everything is working well it also seems like a good price.

 

[Amazing Ox Space Monkey]

I am not replying to your question, nor am I trying to steal your thread but - good God, the price of my 2010 21.5" 3.06GHz 512GB/12GB has plummeted. It will hardly fetch even €400.

Now, turning back to your question, I have to say my iMac, which is slower than either of your options, can handle anything with ease. The only task I am reluctant to feed it up is video encoding - it is tediously slow. My opinion is that either will suffice for your uses. I 'd get the one that will fit your space needs.

 

[maflynn]

I think the 2010 model is still a capable machine and it should handle those tasks quite well.

 

[redheeler]

I agree with the other posters, the 2010 27" iMac is still plenty capable and either config would work. The biggest slowdown you're likely to experience is from running El Capitan on a 5-year-old 7200 RPM HDD, which is why I plan to install an SSD in mine soon (it has the noisy Seagate that Apple was replacing for free some years back due to high failure rate).

 

[Samuelsan2001]

The i5 is a much better chip than the i3 I'd go with that one.