Old iMac's old technology already?

[gamerz]

Hey guys,

I am currently looking at getting an old imac. The only problem with buying one is that many people have sadi that it is old technology, and will be outdated within a year. Is this true? Would adding more RAM give it some extra life?

The model that I am looking at is the 20 inch. 2.16, or the 17 inch, 2.0... The only things I would be doing would be photoshop, gaming (WoW and AoE 3), homework, music, web browsing, etc.

So, would the old imac's become outdated within a year with what I will be using it for?

 

[gazelleintense]

I think you would get more than a years use out of it... but all computers get old fast these days, technology moves quickly...

in 2-3 yrs i'll be saying my new imac bought two weeks ago feels slow. that is how it works.

 

[AlexisV]

It always comes down to gaming.

You could all the other tasks quite happily on a 2001 G4, but obviously faster on a new machine.

Whatever computer you buy, it'll be 5 or 6 years before things just get too advanced for it. If you're into gaming. much less than that.

One upside of Macs though is that they are still quite valuable second hand. A PC is worthless after 4 years.

 

[gazelleintense]

my G4 sawtooth I just sold to get the imac was 7 years old... and while I installed many upgrades, it still had room to grow...

but it had limitations.... I could not play the new games on it like doom 3, quake 4... the hardware would not support them. the 100mhz system bus was holding it back... and the 32 megs vram.

but it played return to castle wolfenstein just fine... even in multiplayer

 

[gamerz]

Like I said, The only games I would be playing are WoW, and Age of Empires 3, most likely none of the newer ones, mabye some like advance WC3, but none at the moment... So, it should be fine for the nest few years. Next year I will be needing a laptop so, and old one should last me that long. Your guy's thoughts?

 

[dan7592]

I have the old 20 inch 2.16 ghz model and it runs windows perfectly, runs itunes perfectly, runs firefox perfectly, etc. I am making an idvd, listening to music on itunes, and typing this post all at the same time and there is no slowdown at all. No lag.

 

[AlexisV]

You'll get 5 or 6 years tops out of any computer.

It's just the way it is

 

[zap2]

No, you'll be fine.

Those games specs should stay the same, and PS shouldn'y change in a year....but even if it does, nothing stops you from running the app out now.


Eveything your doing on that iMac now, it will be able to do in 10 years...if you keep the current software, upgrading might be a problem in 10 years.


However an iMac will last a year for most any app(the newest model of said app)(save a few gams that need tons of power)