Purchasing an older imac.

bloodhunter

bloodhunter

bloodhunter

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I have been looking at some of the older aluminium 20inch imacs for use with Lightroom 4 mainly and don't want to use it for anything too demanding but wondered if they are ok for that.

Some are under £400 with ram upgrades and OS upgrades included.

I don't fancy spending the going rate for the later models and i am not interested in the finance options that the Apple store offers.

In general would i be ok purchasing an older model?

Thanks.
 
I've got a four year old imac 24" aluminium which has been used a lot for work; all day, five days a week. It hasn't missed a step except the optical drive stopped working after the first year. Make sure it has 4gb of ram though.

One other thing, the case gets hot but don't worry about it. Where I live it gets pretty hot sometimes and heat has never been a issue.
 
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I say go for it, but the usual risks with buying second hand apply. iMacs are more like laptops than desktops in that they're not that user serviceable. Also, if it has a mighty mouse you're likely to need to replace it due to the scroll ball failing.
 
This may sound really stupid, but i'd try and buy from someone you know (or someone a friend knows) tbh. That way you'll have a better idea if its been well looked after, and if it comes from a smoke (!) and pet free home.

We've had some iMacs in at work before,and although they look all clean and pretty out the outside, some have looked positively grim on the inside.
 
PardonTheWait said:
My 2007 iMac has just died :( Powers on but no screen. I may try and find a display on eBay. Beh! I had hoped it would last forever.
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Good luck if its a model with the ips screen, I had mine 21.5 replaced under warranty for dist colorization in the corner, and when the itemized parts came it was over 700 pounds plus a 4 week wait for an authorized apple repairer.
 
I'd only repair it if I could find a screen for it sub £200. Don't suppose I will, haven't actually looked yet.

I'm going to have it to bits when I can be bothered to get it to work in the vain hope that it's magically unplugged itself but I've never seen one do that before!

Also a 4 week wait at an AASP is shocking. I'd probably get fired if I kept someone waiting a month. I'd fire myself tbh.
 
I'm not yet, no. I haven't done any diagnosis proper on it because it's bolted to the wall. I haven't even plugged it into an external monitor yet which will be the quickest way to be pretty certain.

When I get the time I'll get it off the wall and back on its stand and diagnose it properly at work. If it turned out to be the graphics card I would do the repair - I ordered in the same card for a customer last week and our cost price for an exchange part is pretty good, sub £100.

I've dug out my old white MacBook which is what I'm using at the moment.
 
Only recommendation I would say for older models is to make sure that it's a Core 2 machine or newer, as anything before that isn't 64-bit and wont run 10.8.
 
I picked up a G4 for £15 off eBay. Put a 9800 PRO and 1.5GB RAM and upped the CPU to 600MHz in it and it's still woefully slow. PowerPC Macs are all but dead now.
 
richb93 said:
I picked up a G4 for £15 off eBay. Put a 9800 PRO and 1.5GB RAM and upped the CPU to 600MHz in it and it's still woefully slow. PowerPC Macs are all but dead now.
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Surely that's a given...?

But for a 13 year old computer, the fact it can still (admittedly running old school software) still perform a useful function makes it pretty ace in my mind!
 
richb93 said:
I picked up a G4 for £15 off eBay. Put a 9800 PRO and 1.5GB RAM and upped the CPU to 600MHz in it and it's still woefully slow. PowerPC Macs are all but dead now.
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Not unexpected, it's well over ten years old!

They are very capable machines for running software from around the time they were shipping, but don't expect to run what passes for a modern web browser in PPC land and enjoy the experience.

The determination of the PPC enthusiasts is embedded very deep. If you want a good laugh check out the subforum on MacRumors. Apparently Intel Macs just don't "feel" right. These Intel chips are horribly unstable and unsuitable for complex tasks etc.
 
MagicBoy said:
The determination of the PPC enthusiasts is embedded very deep. If you want a good laugh check out the subforum on MacRumors. Apparently Intel Macs just don't "feel" right. These Intel chips are horribly unstable and unsuitable for complex tasks etc.
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Ha! Just having a nosey round there, that is a very good laugh to see them trying to get bluray on PPC :confused:

Very worrying level of ambition...
 
pingwing said:
Very worrying level of ambition...
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Maybe a few of them are a bit nutty, but I bet most just like the hardware from the era where Apple was a computer company and not the monstrous consumer electronics machine it is today. I kinda see the appeal.
 
theheyes said:
Maybe a few of them are a bit nutty, but I bet most just like the hardware from the era where Apple was a computer company and not the monstrous consumer electronics machine it is today. I kinda see the appeal.
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That seems to be the thinking! Personally, I've built up quite a nice little collection of old school mac hardware, couple of older iMacs, some VERY old portables (think the film "You've Got Mail") and even a newton. Despite their age, they still work and can be used quite well. You'd never expect to be able to run anything modern on them - but I quite like having a tinker with Mac OS 8, or 9 and even Kodiak or Cheetah and seeing how Office for OS X REALLY hasn't improved since the first incarnation!
 
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