Should I upgrade to a new iMac 27 from my 2010?

[flat6pilot]

I'm currently running a Mid-2010 iMac 27 i7 with a 1TB SSD and 16gb. Zero problems with it other than I've been getting the itch for a 5k display, to move beyond High Sierra and prefer the slim design. All I really do is web browse and Netflix these days.

Also have an i7-6700 PC with 2TB SSD and 16GB which was my main computer until I discovered I also like the Apple experience.

Have been loosely watching for deals on used 5k iMac's but just found an open box special for $1149 for a base 2020 iMac 27 current model. Seems like a serious deal but I don't really need it other than a fun new toy. I prefer this design so not worried about a pending update.

Thoughts?!

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

Base model may well only have a slow as molasses 1TB platter drive. If you are going to spend money make sure you buy a machine with an SSD installed. And consider even the 2020 iMac will not be able go run OS X.12 Monterey expected in a month or two. The future is silicon.

 

[flat6pilot]

The base has a 256gb SSD. Wouldn't consider it if it wasn't. Also has the 10th Gen i5 6-core processor and 8GB which I would upgrade to 32GB or 64GB.

 

[coso]

Base model may well only have a slow as molasses 1TB platter drive. If you are going to spend money make sure you buy a machine with an SSD installed. And consider even the 2020 iMac will not be able go run OS X.12 Monterey expected in a month or two. The future is silicon.

Monterey runs just fine on intel macs. It just lacks some features only available on M1

Personally the old design looks very old to me now that there’s the new design language, I would wait for the 28” M1X iMac in early 2022, but it will cost considerably more

 

[wilberforce]

If you like the design and are OK with 256GB SSD, that looks like a great price for a great computer for your needs. I have a mid-spec 2020 iMac, and I think the base model is likely more than enough for your usage. The 5K display is excellent. 4k video playback should be fine, but 8k video playback will likely be challenging.
I doubt you will need more than 32 GB RAM.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

I'm currently running a Mid-2010 iMac 27 i7 with a 1TB SSD and 16gb. Zero problems with it other than I've been getting the itch for a 5k display, to move beyond High Sierra and prefer the slim design. All I really do is web browse and Netflix these days.

Also have an i7-6700 PC with 2TB SSD and 16GB which was my main computer until I discovered I also like the Apple experience.

Have been loosely watching for deals on used 5k iMac's but just found an open box special for $1149 for a base 2020 iMac 27 current model. Seems like a serious deal but I don't really need it other than a fun new toy. I prefer this design so not worried about a pending update.

Thoughts?!

You won't notice the difference between 2k and 5k on a 27" monitor anyway.
High Sierra is enough for web browsing and NetFlix.
I would just stay with iMac 2010 and spend the money on a OLED or mini-LED TV. You can do both web browsing and Netflix on the TV alone, no need an extra PC or Mac.

Still itching for the new OS? Get the next gen of Mac Mini with ARM chip next year. It's expected to be mature then.

 

[flat6pilot]

You won't notice the difference between 2k and 5k on a 27" monitor anyway.
High Sierra is enough for web browsing and NetFlix.

Yeah exactly. I'm afraid it would feel like a waste of $1300 once it's all said and done with memory upgrade, just to have a similar experience. Plus I have a few older MacBook Pro's running Catalina & Big Sur for iMovie or whatnot.

Problem is, the itch might not go away. I'm relatively new to Apple but discovering they are very good at planting the seed to upgrade with model years, new yearly OS, etc, when the older stuff works nearly as well..

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Yeah exactly. I'm afraid it would feel like a waste of $1300 once it's all said and done with memory upgrade, just to have a similar experience. Plus I have a few older MacBook Pro's running Catalina & Big Sur for iMovie or whatnot.

Problem is, the itch might not go away. I'm relatively new to Apple but discovering they are very good at planting the seed to upgrade with model years, new yearly OS, etc, when the older stuff works nearly as well..

If you want to experience newer OS on a 27" display, just use your iMac 2010 in Target Display Mode.
iMac 2010 use miniDisplayPort, so a cable to connect it to the video output on MacBook Pro or PC is not very hard to find.
I'm using my iMac 2010 in Target Display Mode, with a DisplayPort to miniDisplayPort to connect from my PC to it.

 

[funwithstuff]

You won't notice the difference between 2k and 5k on a 27" monitor anyway.
High Sierra is enough for web browsing and NetFlix.
I would just stay with iMac 2010 and spend the money on a OLED or mini-LED TV. You can do both web browsing and Netflix on the TV alone, no need an extra PC or Mac.

Still itching for the new OS? Get the next gen of Mac Mini with ARM chip next year. It's expected to be mature then.

If you have normal eyesight you can absolutely notice the difference between 2K and 5K on a 27" monitor! That's the difference between Retina resolutions and a larger-than-normal 1080p screen. You're sitting pretty close to it and the difference is night and day.

That said, I wouldn't buy an Intel Mac of any kind if you don't need one right now. The current M1 iMac is great, but the next one will be even better.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

If you have normal eyesight you can absolutely notice the difference between 2K and 5K on a 27" monitor! That's the difference between Retina resolutions and a larger-than-normal 1080p screen. You're sitting pretty close to it and the difference is night and day.

That said, I wouldn't buy an Intel Mac of any kind if you don't need one right now. The current M1 iMac is great, but the next one will be even better.

I have old-eyes (same as OP, I think) and my use-case for iMac 2010 won't benefit siginificantly from a 5k 27" screen. The screen is now 80cm distance.
It would benefit me better with a 4k 48" or 55" from 1.2~1.6 meter distance.
That's the reason why I recommend TV to old-timers like me.
A 4k resolution is also less stress to the GPU than a 5k.

 

[funwithstuff]

I have old-eyes (same as OP, I think) and my use-case for iMac 2010 won't benefit siginificantly from a 5k 27" screen. The screen is now 80cm distance.
It would benefit me better with a 4k 48" or 55" from 1.2~1.6 meter distance.
That's the reason why I recommend TV to old-timers like me.
A 4k resolution is also less stress to the GPU than a 5k.

I did consider a 4K TV with a Mac mini myself, and I might still go that way if Apple release a Mac mini pro and delay (or overprice) the next larger iMac, but I don't know how I'd get far enough from the screen to make it work!

These days I really don't think there's much extra stress in a 5K vs 4K display, and the extra resolution is worthwhile. The 27" iMac I'm typing this on has a 4K monitor connected as well as the 5K internal display, both retina, and everything's fine.

 

[wilberforce]

If you have normal eyesight you can absolutely notice the difference between 2K and 5K on a 27" monitor! That's the difference between Retina resolutions and a larger-than-normal 1080p screen. You're sitting pretty close to it and the difference is night and day.

100% agree! When I saw the first (2014) retina 27" iMac next to the previous non-retina 27" iMac, I was blown away, and said: shut up and take my money!
Well, if all you watch are 1080p Netflix movies, then I admit, you will not notice a difference.
1080p videos are fine - until you see a 4k video!
And 4k videos are fine - until you see an 8k video! It truly is immersive - you feel like you can reach out and touch what is in the video. Even on a 5k screen.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

100% agree! When I saw the first (2014) retina 27" iMac next to the previous non-retina 27" iMac, I was blown away, and said: shut up and take my money!
Well, if all you watch are 1080p Netflix movies, then I admit, you will not notice a difference.
1080p videos are fine - until you see a 4k video!
And 4k videos are fine - until you see an 8k video! It truly is immersive - you feel like you can reach out and touch what is in the video. Even on a 5k screen.

I'd like to watch 8k video on a true giant 65" 8k TV, rather than a woopy 27" 5k monitor.
From a distance, the size (viewing angle) will be the same, but at close up, 27" 5k monitor is no rival to a real 8k TV.

 

[Arctic Moose]

Personally, in this particular situation, I would recommend waiting.

If you wait for the M1X/M2/M2X 27-32" iMac, I predict one of two things will happen:

1. The new model will have features/looks/whatever that you really want. You will buy this instead of regretting purchasing now.
2. There will be a bigger second-hand market for the (now) current model, and prices will drop, due to others upgrading to the latest. You will find a much better deal on a recent Intel iMac than you can now.

 

[pshufd]

I'd personally take a hard look at it. I run 4k monitors at native resolution so a 5k would be interesting. I've played with that base model in the store and it is very nice. It felt faster than my M1 mini. I really like the ability to expand RAM too. You could probably sell it at a profit too.

 

[Fishrrman]

You have to decide.

The "open box" deal IS a good one.
BUT...

You have to decide if you want to "stick with Intel" for the foreseeable future, or perhaps wait for the upcoming "large-screen" iMac (with m-series CPU) that is for now unannounced (but known to be "on its way").

BE AWARE that any 32-bit software you have WON'T RUN on either the 2020 or m-series iMacs.
You have to do "an inventory" to determine if you use and rely on any 32bit software.

If you want "Windows on the Mac", then you may want an Intel-based Mac.
Windows' future on m-series Macs looks a little shaky at this point. They'll cobble something together, but it probably won't be the same.

 

[flat6pilot]

Yeah well I pulled the trigger. Should be here in a few days.

The "itch" wasn't going away and I would have kicked myself for passing up that price. Love the timeless look of the current iMac 27 so having the last iteration is a bonus to me. The new 24 is 🤮

And it'll be fun to stay current with new tech and probably smart to have security updates. It's almost nostalgic. My last "new" Mac was a Performa 6400/180 in 1997. I remember my best friend and I buying new Mac's every other year to stay relevant, technology was evolving that fast, everything was new and exciting. Got away from the brand around Y2K. Last Spring I needed a Laptop for Zoom and thought it'd be fun to try Apple again, rest is history.

Thanks for the replies!

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Yeah well I pulled the trigger. Should be here in a few days.

The "itch" wasn't going away and I would have kicked myself for passing up that price. Love the timeless look of the current iMac 27 so having the last iteration is a bonus to me. The new 24 is 🤮

And it'll be fun to stay current with new tech and probably smart to have security updates. It's almost nostalgic. My last "new" Mac was a Performa 6400/180 in 1997. I remember my best friend and I buying new Mac's every other year to stay relevant, technology was evolving that fast, everything was new and exciting. Got away from the brand around Y2K. Last Spring I needed a Laptop for Zoom and thought it'd be fun to try Apple again, rest is history.

Thanks for the replies!

I would jump on such a deal. Unfortunately, around me such deal never exists long enough so a normal guy like me can buy. The shops would scoop those deals in a minute and resell them at higher price.

 

[pshufd]

I would jump on such a deal. Unfortunately, around me such deal never exists long enough so a normal guy like me can buy. The shops would scoop those deals in a minute and resell them at higher price.

There's a 2015 4.0 Ghz i7 for sale for $650 that showed up in my local Craigslist but it would be a two hour drive to get there. I would buy that if it were local. It has a 1 TB Fusion drive but the SSD part is fried. The performance of that model along with the ability to put in 64 GB of RAM would mean that it's usable for another ten years. Great deals show up in my Craigslist feed from time to time - they are usually gone really fast unless there's some oddball reason. In this case, it's the remote location.

 

[pshufd]

I found a 2019 iMac 27 5K base model for $899 locally. So these deals are out there. I have someone who has to run x86 for several years and I'll ask him if he is interested.

 

[EugW]

The base has a 256gb SSD. Wouldn't consider it if it wasn't. Also has the 10th Gen i5 6-core processor and 8GB which I would upgrade to 32GB or 64GB.

For your described usage of web browsing and Netflix, that would be completely pointless.

8 GB would be OK, 16 GB would be great, and 24 GB would be overkill.

Anyhow, the benefit of getting the 2020 and owning the 2010 is this.

 

[pshufd]

For your described usage of web browsing and Netflix, that would be completely pointless.

8 GB would be OK, 16 GB would be great, and 24 GB would be overkill.

I'd put in two 16 GB sticks and leave the original 8 in. I mainly use my M1 mini/16 for web browsing and email but I do a lot of other office stuff on it and do some video creation on it. I used to put a lot of tabs on my browser on the system but it was using up a lot of RAM (7 GB with Firefox), so I moved a bunch of tabs over to my Windows desktop with 128 GB of RAM.

The reason for adding two 16 GB sticks is resale value. If gives a lot of flexibility in case someone is looking to get it to 64 or 96 GB of RAM and they would have matched sticks. Additional RAM also has benefits for the future. I play around with virtual machines a lot and having a ton of RAM makes it easy to test with a couple of them open and running at the same time.

 

[EugW]

I'd put in two 16 GB sticks and leave the original 8 in. I mainly use my M1 mini/16 for web browsing and email but I do a lot of other office stuff on it and do some video creation on it. I used to put a lot of tabs on my browser on the system but it was using up a lot of RAM (7 GB with Firefox), so I moved a bunch of tabs over to my Windows desktop with 128 GB of RAM.

The reason for adding two 16 GB sticks is resale value. If gives a lot of flexibility in case someone is looking to get it to 64 or 96 GB of RAM and they would have matched sticks. Additional RAM also has benefits for the future. I play around with virtual machines a lot and having a ton of RAM makes it easy to test with a couple of them open and running at the same time.

You almost never get back what you put in for resale value, aside from HD --> SSD and upgrading to moderate amounts of RAM. On the used market with 27" iMacs, having 64 GB RAM is not a real selling point because people don't need it, and they can install their own RAM cheaply anyway, probably for much less money than what you paid for it years before you sold the machine. In fact, having too much RAM on the used market can actually be a negative, if it means you're asking more money for it. Given two identical machines, one with 24 GB RAM and one with 64 GB RAM, but the latter was $200 more expensive used, I'd go for the cheaper 24 GB RAM model every time.

That said, your usage seems to be much more heavy duty than the OP's, and I was responding to the OP. You do video editing, and use VMs, etc.

 

[pshufd]

You almost never get back what you put in for resale value, aside from HD --> SSD and upgrading to moderate amounts of RAM. On the used market with 27" iMacs, having 64 GB RAM is not a real selling point because people don't need it, and they can install their own RAM cheaply anyway, probably for less money than what you paid for it years before you sold the machine. In fact, having too much RAM on the used market can actually be a negative, if it means you're asking more money for it. Given two identical machines, one with 24 GB RAM and one with 64 GB RAM, but the latter was $200 more expensive used, I'd go for the cheaper 24 GB RAM model every time.

That said, your usage seems to be much more heavy duty than the OP's, and I was responding to the OP. You do video editing, and use VMs, etc.

That may have been true in the past but RAM prices have roughly doubled since 2020. I have RAM sticks purchased pre-pandemic and I'd hate to have to buy it today.

 

[EugW]

That may have been true in the past but RAM prices have roughly doubled since 2020. I have RAM sticks purchased pre-pandemic and I'd hate to have to buy it today.

Yes, I figured you'd bring that up. The pandemic threw a wrench into everything.

Still, having tons of RAM generally doesn't really help resale value that much on the used market. On the used market for iMacs, people simply don't care about having 64 GB RAM. Yes, having 16 GB is much better than having 8 GB, but after a certain point, most people don't care any more if they know they don't need it.