2012 iMac 27" for $750 - is it worth it?

[SilentWishbone]

Hi LTT fam,

 

I was thinking with the new imac studio of moving my whole worksetup to iOS from Windows. I'll start of cheaper with an iMac I found - questions:

1. Is this worth it?
2. What would be the limitations of getting the latest IOS or any other limitations anyone has experienced with future proofing.
3. Is this price fair?

 

Here's the specs a Apple 27" iMac late 2012

• Intel Core i7
• 1TB HDD
• 16GB Ram
• 680M GPU

My daily use is for using web based applications, downloading creative made on Canva and uploading it into different ad platforms. I also have files for receipts and so some documentation and folder organization. I thought the IOS file system would be easier to tag and organize and sort through. 

 

Thanks!

[jaslion]

Absolutely not worth it.

 

Like not even remotely close.

 

1. NO. Not even remotely close to worth it.

2. There is no future proofing it's been abandoned for years in terms of software support

3. Not even remotely close to fair

 

It's also not ios it's OSX still for that one or macOS for the new ones.

 

What is wrong with it?

No recent software support

Nvidia gpu

Terribly slow hdd. This is like to the point of having to wait 5 minutes to boot if you are unlucky and get the garbage 5400rpm drive.

Abandoned by apple

Beaten by even the cheapest current mac

Overpriced

 

If you really want a mac get a used m1 mini with 16gb of ram it smashes this imac to bits in terms of performance and is the same price.

 

But the bottom line here is that this thing is basically useless and overpriced.

 

I had basically the windows equivalent laptop of that mac (yes the gpu is a mobile one in there and the cpu is a slower version) and using that now kinda sucks and it lacks support in a lot of software. Worst part is this 2012 imac doesn't even have metal gpu acceleration available so it's going to be flat out a worse experience just on the desktop.

[adarw]

1 minute ago, jaslion said:

 

bruh, i was writing this exact thing... xD

[jaslion]

2 minutes ago, adarw said:

bruh, i was writing this exact thing... xD

It is a terrible deal :p.

 

Like I get 2012 imacs free. Even seen a couple of these go through and well. They are slow. I slap in a ssd and boom they go again but because of the nvidia card they are even worse off than the 100% chance to fail amd based 2012's. Yes the 680mx is a lot stronger but it's useless when there is basically no support for it.

 

These imacs are far beyond their time and even in the last os they got in 2019 the nvidia imacs were just ass. Besides from what op is telling there is no reason to even go to a mac here as it's all multi platform software. If they wanna try it out then I recommend a cheap mac mini m1 or a used recent mac with a ssd that is still supported. However the mac mini m1 is often THE best deal as on ebay they can be found for 500$ and offer a mac os experience other mac devices in that price range just can't.

[OddOod]

That's *at best* an i7 3770k and you're gonna be installing a pretty out of date OS. On top of that the HDD is an absolute nightmare to deal with. If you want to dip your toes in the ecosystem, get the m1 mac mini for 700.

[jaslion]

2 minutes ago, OddOod said:

That's *at best* an i7 3770k and you're gonna be installing a pretty out of date OS. On top of that the HDD is an absolute nightmare to deal with. If you want to dip your toes in the ecosystem, get the m1 mac mini for 700.

At best a 3770 with a gpu that cannot do gpu acceleration in it's latest supported os.

[OddOod]

Just now, jaslion said:

3770

TBH I just looked at what intel had out. 
And freal, who thinks they can get 750 out of that machine used? It's overpriced at 100$

[jaslion]

7 minutes ago, OddOod said:

TBH I just looked at what intel had out. 
And freal, who thinks they can get 750 out of that machine used? It's overpriced at 100$

The apple logo is on it. It will sell to someone.

[BondiBlue]

That price is absolutely terrible. It's not a bad machine for $200 or so (which is about what they're worth), but $750 is simply absurd. You'd have to use a patcher to run newer versions of macOS as Apple hasn't supported it in over two years now. 

 

30 minutes ago, jaslion said:

At best a 3770 with a gpu that cannot do gpu acceleration in it's latest supported os.

The GTX 680MX is supported in macOS Catalina, and the patchers for running Big Sur and Monterey also support it as well. 

[jaslion]

1 hour ago, BondiBlue said:

That price is absolutely terrible. It's not a bad machine for $200 or so (which is about what they're worth), but $750 is simply absurd. You'd have to use a patcher to run newer versions of macOS as Apple hasn't supported it in over two years now. 

 

The GTX 680MX is supported in macOS Catalina, and the patchers for running Big Sur and Monterey also support it as well. 

Doesn't fully support metal. That is the problem.

[Commodus]

I know I'm joining a chorus here, but: don't even consider that iMac.

 

The Mac mini with M1 is pretty much tailor-made for someone like you. You can hook up your existing display/keyboard/mouse and get going with relatively little investment. And it's not just a lot faster than the old iMac — it'll be virtually silent and support much newer I/O.

 

I would consider custom-ordering or finding a Mac mini with 16GB of RAM and as much built-in storage as you're comfortable with. The base model will still be far faster than that 2012 iMac, but more memory and storage will definitely make you happier.

[SilentWishbone]

On 3/10/2022 at 1:02 PM, Commodus said:

I know I'm joining a chorus here, but: don't even consider that iMac.

 

The Mac mini with M1 is pretty much tailor-made for someone like you. You can hook up your existing display/keyboard/mouse and get going with relatively little investment. And it's not just a lot faster than the old iMac — it'll be virtually silent and support much newer I/O.

 

I would consider custom-ordering or finding a Mac mini with 16GB of RAM and as much built-in storage as you're comfortable with. The base model will still be far faster than that 2012 iMac, but more memory and storage will definitely make you happier.

 

On 3/10/2022 at 11:40 AM, jaslion said:

Doesn't fully support metal. That is the problem.

 

On 3/10/2022 at 10:25 AM, BondiBlue said:

That price is absolutely terrible. It's not a bad machine for $200 or so (which is about what they're worth), but $750 is simply absurd. You'd have to use a patcher to run newer versions of macOS as Apple hasn't supported it in over two years now. 

 

The GTX 680MX is supported in macOS Catalina, and the patchers for running Big Sur and Monterey also support it as well. 

 

On 3/10/2022 at 10:00 AM, jaslion said:

The apple logo is on it. It will sell to someone.

 

On 3/10/2022 at 9:52 AM, OddOod said:

TBH I just looked at what intel had out. 
And freal, who thinks they can get 750 out of that machine used? It's overpriced at 100$

 

On 3/10/2022 at 9:51 AM, jaslion said:

At best a 3770 with a gpu that cannot do gpu acceleration in it's latest supported os.

 

On 3/10/2022 at 9:48 AM, OddOod said:

That's *at best* an i7 3770k and you're gonna be installing a pretty out of date OS. On top of that the HDD is an absolute nightmare to deal with. If you want to dip your toes in the ecosystem, get the m1 mac mini for 700.

 

On 3/10/2022 at 9:45 AM, jaslion said:

It is a terrible deal :p.

 

Like I get 2012 imacs free. Even seen a couple of these go through and well. They are slow. I slap in a ssd and boom they go again but because of the nvidia card they are even worse off than the 100% chance to fail amd based 2012's. Yes the 680mx is a lot stronger but it's useless when there is basically no support for it.

 

These imacs are far beyond their time and even in the last os they got in 2019 the nvidia imacs were just ass. Besides from what op is telling there is no reason to even go to a mac here as it's all multi platform software. If they wanna try it out then I recommend a cheap mac mini m1 or a used recent mac with a ssd that is still supported. However the mac mini m1 is often THE best deal as on ebay they can be found for 500$ and offer a mac os experience other mac devices in that price range just can't.

 

On 3/10/2022 at 9:39 AM, adarw said:

bruh, i was writing this exact thing... xD

 

On 3/10/2022 at 9:36 AM, jaslion said:

Absolutely not worth it.

 

Like not even remotely close.

 

1. NO. Not even remotely close to worth it.

2. There is no future proofing it's been abandoned for years in terms of software support

3. Not even remotely close to fair

 

It's also not ios it's OSX still for that one or macOS for the new ones.

 

What is wrong with it?

No recent software support

Nvidia gpu

Terribly slow hdd. This is like to the point of having to wait 5 minutes to boot if you are unlucky and get the garbage 5400rpm drive.

Abandoned by apple

Beaten by even the cheapest current mac

Overpriced

 

If you really want a mac get a used m1 mini with 16gb of ram it smashes this imac to bits in terms of performance and is the same price.

 

But the bottom line here is that this thing is basically useless and overpriced.

 

I had basically the windows equivalent laptop of that mac (yes the gpu is a mobile one in there and the cpu is a slower version) and using that now kinda sucks and it lacks support in a lot of software. Worst part is this 2012 imac doesn't even have metal gpu acceleration available so it's going to be flat out a worse experience just on the desktop.

 

On 3/10/2022 at 9:29 AM, SilentWishbone said:

Hi LTT fam,

 

I was thinking with the new imac studio of moving my whole worksetup to iOS from Windows. I'll start of cheaper with an iMac I found - questions:

1. Is this worth it?
2. What would be the limitations of getting the latest IOS or any other limitations anyone has experienced with future proofing.
3. Is this price fair?

 

Here's the specs a Apple 27" iMac late 2012

• Intel Core i7
• 1TB HDD
• 16GB Ram
• 680M GPU

My daily use is for using web based applications, downloading creative made on Canva and uploading it into different ad platforms. I also have files for receipts and so some documentation and folder organization. I thought the IOS file system would be easier to tag and organize and sort through. 

 

Thanks!

Thanks everyone! This is my first post to the community here on LTT and I thought that no one would respond. Answersing my question PLUS providing an alternative is super appreciated. Thank all, especially @jaslion for the detail and first to respond! #respect

[Spindel]

Late to the thread.

 

As someone that moved from a 2013 iMac with a GTX780M I say no and the money is better spent on a M1 Mini, if it supports the software you need.

 

While the iMac is a great computer the one discussed is old.