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Older imacs
- Thread starter John Frahm
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The newest you can afford. With the Intel models being discontinued, it is only a matter of time before support on Intel devices starts to slim down.
Not concerned with it being supported, my daily use is MacBook pro9.2 (mid 2012) running Ventura through open core and love it. Been upgraded a lot, want to do same Mabey more to a iMac. I don’t believe anything made today will last as long as my unibody. Also have Mac pro I use as a NAS on my home network, modified of course.
Am going to get new iPad though, have iPhone 12 Pro Max and Apple Watch SE. can’t really upgrade those as far as I know.
Am going to get new iPad though, have iPhone 12 Pro Max and Apple Watch SE. can’t really upgrade those as far as I know.
Sort of consumable, I am disabled and live with my daughter, she has slow POS laptop and loves my MacBook, but not the best at computers, hasn't figured out to use the NAS on home network, saves everything to my HD, granted it can handle it, so I am looking to get older iMac I can soup up for her and maybe me sometimes to use. I already use open core to run Ventura and will do same on iMac, so when she does crazy stuff and messes it up (I am always fixing her laptop) I can just wipe HD and reinstall Os, could do same on mine but hate resetting all my preferences. On iMac I can make her redo settings to her liking and will be more careful in doing off the wall stuff. And she could really use a computer that works well.
If by "soup up" you mean doing hardware upgrades, iMacs are pretty rough to open up, and there's not a lot you can actually do once you're in there. (You can easily add RAM, however, through a little door in the back.) They're beautiful machines, though. If you get a later one with decent specs it should be very nice to use.
Don't get one with a Fusion Drive, and be aware that some of the display panels have some nasty image-retention (ghosting) issues. My 2014 iMac 5K definitely did, and I had to get the panel replaced -- fortunately while it was still in AppleCare.
2019 is a good vintage. That is the fastest iMac Apple ever made that supports internal drive upgrades. Also USB-C is fast enough to run from external drives with ease which might make internal drive upgrades unnecessary. 2017 has a slower quad-core CPU, but is otherwise the same.
Honorable mention to the mid/late 2015s since you are comfortable with OpenCore. They are only half as fast as a 2019, but if you don't need top performance that nets a very nice 5K display for basic web surfing.
Honorable mention to the Late 2013s. Oldest cheapest model with an AVX2 compatible CPU... which might be important with Ventura and later.
Models to avoid:
2020 iMac - The T2 chip has the internal SSD locked down.
Late 2014 - 1st-gen products have more issues. For 5K iMacs, I hear horror stories of high temps and screen retention.
Late 2012 and older - probably too old for your stated use.
Honorable mention to the mid/late 2015s since you are comfortable with OpenCore. They are only half as fast as a 2019, but if you don't need top performance that nets a very nice 5K display for basic web surfing.
Honorable mention to the Late 2013s. Oldest cheapest model with an AVX2 compatible CPU... which might be important with Ventura and later.
Models to avoid:
2020 iMac - The T2 chip has the internal SSD locked down.
Late 2014 - 1st-gen products have more issues. For 5K iMacs, I hear horror stories of high temps and screen retention.
Late 2012 and older - probably too old for your stated use.
Echoing padams35's recommendation for the 2019 models... though, honestly the general rule of thumb that Spock suggested is pretty solid advice as well.
Personally, I own a 2019 27" iMac as noted in my sig below, and I think it's a really good computer -- both for running macOS and for running Windows. I'm not quite ready to jump to an Apple Silicon Mac, (and thereby give up the IntelMac's native Windows compatibility) so I idly considered upgrading to a 2020 earlier this year. After looking into options, I concluded that it would be difficult to get much of a return on such an investment compared to my 2019. Of course, your mileage may vary and all that.
Personally, I own a 2019 27" iMac as noted in my sig below, and I think it's a really good computer -- both for running macOS and for running Windows. I'm not quite ready to jump to an Apple Silicon Mac, (and thereby give up the IntelMac's native Windows compatibility) so I idly considered upgrading to a 2020 earlier this year. After looking into options, I concluded that it would be difficult to get much of a return on such an investment compared to my 2019. Of course, your mileage may vary and all that.
Try searching for an iMac 27" 2013 which already has SSD inside if you can find a cheap one in your local market.
Catalina is good enough for your daughter.
This model year are fairly stable, much less trouble than the later model. (2014, 2015, 2017)
Newer models (2019~2020) are great but their prices are not affordable to many (incld me)
You can add External HDDs to it for storage.
iMac Pros are another option, if you can find one that isn’t overpriced. They’re a little nicer with the thunderbolt busses, and have better cooling. The upgrades are more of a challenge, but can be done.
I found one I am buying tomorrow, it’s a 27” 2013 imac, i7 quad core, with the 775 graphics , 16GB ddr3 ran and 512gb ssd.
John,
Run a hardware test on the 2013 iMac to make sure it's copacetic.
Turn off the computer then restart it and as soon as you hear the boot sound hold down the D key.
That will launch the hardware test which takes about 3-5 minutes.
When done it will inform you about the state of the computer i.e. Good to go or there's problems.
After the test clicking on the restart button will launch the OS.
Run a hardware test on the 2013 iMac to make sure it's copacetic.
Turn off the computer then restart it and as soon as you hear the boot sound hold down the D key.
That will launch the hardware test which takes about 3-5 minutes.
When done it will inform you about the state of the computer i.e. Good to go or there's problems.
After the test clicking on the restart button will launch the OS.
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Thank You, I knew there was a hardware test at dootup but couldn't remember they keys, then forgot all about it, I am kinda new to MacBooks, but been user of iPhone and iPad for a few years. Have rebuilt pc towers both hardware and software for many years, finally went to Mac for the benefits of the apple ecosystem. will run test before tearing it down for cleaning and physical inspection. Already have instructions and video of complete teardown for the model I am getting.