Refurb imac

imustbedreamin

imustbedreamin

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Good afternoon boys and girls.

First let me point out im clueless.....no i mean clueless about what i need.

Ive been using old laptops for photo editing and just dealing with the slow progess etc.
However the time has come to upgrade. I obviously want to get the most bang for my buck (£800 max) and i have found a mid 2011 27" i7 3.4ghz imac on ebay.

The ram has been increased to 32gb and it will be fully "refurbished".

It is from a business seller with impeccable feedback. My only concern is it being an older model......i beleive it will have no ssd?

Would you guys spend 800 hard earned pounds on such an item? As you can tell i have no real clue about what i need.......what i dont want to be doing is forking out another £800 in a couple of years time because what i buy will be redundant.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
It’s a decent spec, and would last you a good few years. But it will not have an SSD. You need to find out what the storage provided is. And what warranty comes with it. Bear in mind that spares for 2011 models and earlier may be harder to obtain. From a reputable dealer with a warranty, £800 is about right.
 
This is the info......well the important bit.

I gather it is/was a top spec at the time.

Thanks for the reply btw.
 

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Ssd is easy, external via usb3 as a boot disk for osx and apps.... Internal as storage.
 
twist said:
Ssd is easy, external via usb3 as a boot disk for osx and apps.... Internal as storage.
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I would have thought USB 3.0 a bit slow for booting from. But yes, keep the boot/apps drive separate from the data. 1Tb isn't that big for a decent size photo library. I personally would use the internal drive just for OSX and applications with the external(s) for data and backups. And you'll want to update it to High Sierra asap. But that's free. PS would a 2011 have USB3 or 2?
 
GTG said:
As a Windows user I think Mac users are actually insane. 2011, your having a laugh. Its 2018
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I just gotten rid of a 2009 iMac which was still going strong. I guess a Windows PC users just don't expect their PC to last that long ;).

My current iMacs are a 2012 and a 2015 5k and both are perfectly good enough for my needs including photo and video editing.
 
Stephen L said:
I would have thought USB 3.0 a bit slow for booting from. But yes, keep the boot/apps drive separate from the data. 1Tb isn't that big for a decent size photo library. I personally would use the internal drive just for OSX and applications with the external(s) for data and backups. And you'll want to update it to High Sierra asap. But that's free. PS would a 2011 have USB3 or 2?
Click to expand...

No way, usb3 is way fast enough for boot OS, speeds similar to an internal ssd. Capable of up to 640mbps.
 
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twist said:
No way, usb3 is way fast enough for boot OS, speeds similar to an internal ssd. Capable of 640mbps.
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Fair enough. Never tried it as my current Mac has a 3Tb Fusion. But my new one is going to have an internal SSD come hell or high water! And Thunderbolt 3 for data.
 
Im happy to be steered towards a more "sensible" idea.

Im not fixed on a mac......im open to all suggestions. I just want something good, that will run my software for a good few years to come that im not going to waste money on.

Im not clued up on it all (the comments so far have already confused me) but macs seem to handle lightroom etc well.
 
The vendor also has 21" units with a ssd drive but only 250gb and 8gb of ram........this would be restrictive in the future no?
 
imustbedreamin said:
Im happy to be steered towards a more "sensible" idea.

Im not fixed on a mac......im open to all suggestions. I just want something good, that will run my software for a good few years to come that im not going to waste money on.

Im not clued up on it all (the comments so far have already confused me) but macs seem to handle lightroom etc well.
Click to expand...
They do. And so does a decent Widows machine. The choice is yours (but if you're not technically savvy avoid Widows ;) )
 
imustbedreamin said:
The vendor also has 21" units with a ssd drive but only 250gb and 8gb of ram........this would be restrictive in the future no?
Click to expand...
No, go for the 27". Once you've used that screen nothing smaller will do.
 
I bought a late 2012 21.5" iMac last year for £315 and it's the best thing I've ever bought computerwise.

And that's coming from a Windows / pc engineer.

Ignore fan boys who think it's too old, it's not.

I'd knock them down a bit on price though.
 
GreenNinja67 said:
I bought a late 2012 21.5" iMac last year for £315 and it's the best thing I've ever bought computerwise.

And that's coming from a Windows / pc engineer.

Ignore fan boys who think it's too old, it's not.

I'd knock them down a bit on price though.
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That was a cracking price!

Similar background to me; started in computing on IBM mainframes in 1977, retired from it in 2005. In between, worked mainly hardware and strategy including supervising maintenance (hardware and software) of 2000 Windows PCs on Novell network. In 2012 I swore never to touch a Windows machine again as its upkeep was draining me. Looking forward to replacing the Mac I bought then in a few weeks.
 
Regarding Macs and age, I can still run Lightroom on my late 2008 unibody Macbook, but I'd only choose to do so if there was nothing quicker around. The experience is not 'ideal' and much patience is required.

Lightroom responds to raw horsepower - a faster processor and a reasonable amount of RAM will allow it to run faster, whether on PC or windows. Add to that an iMac is really a laptop (i.e. slower than desktop components) built into a screen then it's hard to recommend an iMac from 2011, especially for that price, even though it includes a screen.

Have a look here: http://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/InventorySearch.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukdfb1&l=en&s=dfb&brandid=2&sign=PXhcOSHtr1T4IOw/PR7Udc8mRQmLFZCNc6Es7M+jbeDtGHaISZCAN7sYi9cw+86LtXfCe4/BEbMf0TFy94cBPEobyhp8rCzHoEWG367cFkHHms9M9ui23jh6jYeL/pFmSqB208kNMH6sdNWTg5qifISJKNTmAdYKCBKm3cKIAt9iHxq+7xnO0VQ0G6i1tL8uhI1XzF2I3+9iJRhXkCMCZ1AvGfE1nXXXrMe5cyDQuk0vHYmYU/AYVSj/yqKOczAF - there's a OptiPlex 7050 Micro Form Factor for £555 + VAT with 512GB NVME SSD, i5 quad core processor & 8GB RAM (single stick, so easy to add a second stick for 16GB and dual channel).

Or here: https://www.ebuyer.com/835409-punch-technology-i5-8th-gen-desktop-pdt-702-1011 8th generation i5 quad, 120GB SSD + 1TB HDD for £534 inc VAT, or here: https://www.ebuyer.com/835394-punch-technology-i7-8th-gen-desktop-hdt-701-1012 8th generation quad i7 quad, 16GB RAM, 240GB SSD, 2TB HDD £748 inc VAT.

You'll need to add a monitor, but at least if you buy a decent separate monitor you won't have to throw it away when the rest of the computer needs updating.
 
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Ive found out the outlet does them with a 250gb ssd installed.

Does that make it a better deal?


Thanks for those links ancient mariner.......i'll take a closer look.
 
The 2011 i5 and i7 27" iMacs perform well, but have had known problems. The video card has a high failure rate, and its replacement was previously covered by a repair extension program. Apple ceased to support it for spare parts from just over a month back. They still fail regularly.The 2011 iMac runs the current High Sierra OS, but will not be supported by newer systems.

Replacing the internal 3.5" hard drive with an SSD does significantly boost performance. They are easy to fit. Remove the display glass with rubber suckers. Ensure mains plug is removed. Remove the 8 screws holding in the display, Very carefully drop it back from the top and remove 4 cables from the logic board. The displays data cable is fairly short, and a locking bar has to be unclipped before before removing it. When you lift the LCD off you will know if it really was refurbished, the 3 fans should be clear of dust. Fit the SSD in a 2.5" to 3.5" converter, and fit in place of the existing HD. The original HD was an Apple custom part containing a temperature sensor that connected to the iMac via 2 extra pins on the SATA power connector. Without this sensor all 3 fans will over around 15 mins ramp up to a very noisy full speed. You can control this by software, but I prefer hard wiring in a replacement sensor utilising a 2N3704 transistor. Refit LCD, clean off any dust that has settled prior to refitting the glass.

Other issues are in use dust can be drawn into the LCD. Dust ingress on a white screen can look like a cloudy day.

If you buy the iMac and it's couriered to you bubble wrapped in a box, they don't travel well, Many end up with bent stands unless shipped in the original Apple box.

Personally I think £800 is too much.
 
Thanks for the comments all.

After sleeping on it im not sure im comfortable putting that amount of money into such a thing.

Back to the drawing board.
 
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