My old 2011 27” won’t die

[bassjunky]

I’ve been booting from a Transcend Jet Storage drive, 256GB, TB1, when I bought a used iMac 2011 27” a few years after its release. It’s been solid.

The past couple of years, I have been experiencing many graphic problems, which this model is notorious for. Recently, the Transcend SSD doesn’t want to power on through TB1, though it does through USB, only at the iMac’s USB 2.0 speeds. I have a TB1>USB3 hub which works on both TB ports, so I am guessing the drive is failing.

This computer is old as hell, but still works for my small Logic audio sessions. I’m just curious, since I have been booting on USB2 and not TB1 (the Transcend supports both), I haven’t noticed any GPU glitches. They’ll probably crop up, but it is kinda weird that it’s working fine now, if not a bit slower from disk R/W speeds.

I’m ready to to upgrade to an M4

 

[russell_314]

I’m ready to to upgrade to an M4

If you hold on a little bit longer, you might get your wish. Apple was rumored to be working on a larger iMac. Right now the only way you could upgrade would be a Mac mini and the Apple studio display.

 

[bassjunky]

If you hold on a little bit longer, you might get your wish. Apple was rumored to be working on a larger iMac. Right now the only way you could upgrade would be a Mac mini and the Apple studio display.

Yeah, I think an M4 Mac Mini and separate screen is the way I want to go in the near future. While upgrading to Apple silicon is paramount, I’ll have to buy a new audio interface. 1st world problems.

 

[bassjunky]

So, any ideas what to do with a 2011 27” iMac with a dead GFX card? If anything I’ll give it to our local electronic recycling, just seems a waste.

 

[MacPeasant123]

If you are handy with opening up your iMac and fiddling around inside, you could consider trying to turn it into an external monitor, like this topic below discusses (or pay someone to do it for you):

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/turn-2011-27-imac-with-bad-gpu-into-external-monitor.2286968/

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

An old Quadro K1100m is about 24$ (free ship) from China.

 

[bassjunky]

An old Quadro K1100m is about 24$ (free ship) from China.

The 2011 gfx card finally died, so I bought a new M4 mini and monitor. I don't know if I want to hang on to it and make it a project down the road, or just get rid of old useless ****.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

The 2011 gfx card finally died, so I bought a new M4 mini and monitor. I don't know if I want to hang on to it and make it a project down the road, or just get rid of old useless ****.

I would happily help you get rid of it if I lived near you.