27" iMac, late 2012, is it worth it, help please ??

[AV Happy]

Hi all, I hope someone could please help me I currently have a 2014 generic Acer desktop PC which primarily gets used for internet browsing, emails and the occasional word processing task, specs on the following link

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I have been offered a late 2012 27" iMac with i5 2.9Ghz processor, 8GB DDR3 ram, 1TB hard drive running El Capitan OS, for £185 can someone who knows more than me (which is most people!!) let me know if it is good value and would be a worthwhile upgrade please, would I notice an increase in browsing speed?

I have never owned an iMac but have wanted to try one for some time now so any advice would be much appreciated.

thank you

 

[EndlessWaves]

Do you have that particular configuration of XC-704? If you have one of the faster ones with one of Intel's Core i processors then the iMac wouldn't be an upgrade in browsing speed.

Apple PCs do tend to be very poor value second hand. Nobody would dream of paying £185 for a ten year old machine without even an SSD from any other brand - you'd get something half that age and far more capable.

An iMac does have the screen quality going for it (assuming it's still in decent condition) but it doesn't sound like that's of particular relevance to you.

 

[AV Happy]

Do you have that particular configuration of XC-704? If you have one of the faster ones with one of Intel's Core i processors then the iMac wouldn't be an upgrade in browsing speed.

Apple PCs do tend to be very poor value second hand. Nobody would dream of paying £185 for a ten year old machine without even an SSD from any other brand - you'd get something half that age and far more capable.

An iMac does have the screen quality going for it (assuming it's still in decent condition) but it doesn't sound like that's of particular relevance to you.

Thank you for your reply, I decided to take a punt and got it last night. I updated the firmware to Catalina which is the most current available for the late 2012 and it seems very capable, much quicker for browsing than my current PC, great image quality from the 27" screen. At the end of the day if I cant get to grips with the Mac OS then i havent lost a fortune but i have tried it out.

 

[JollyJamma]

Apple PCs do tend to be very poor value second hand.

If they are an all in one with the screen and system combined, yes. I'm still amazed at how the Mac Mini keeps its value years after being launched.

AV Happy​

The only concern I'd have with that is opening it up to upgrade any components - I recall that there was a guide to open the iMac up with the same tools used to pick up a car windscreen.

That being said, Macs last a lot longer than their PC counterparts and £185 is nothing for a computer at the moment.

 

[Guy of Gisbourne]

Hi all, I hope someone could please help me I currently have a 2014 generic Acer desktop PC which primarily gets used for internet browsing, emails and the occasional word processing task, specs on the following link

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I have been offered a late 2012 27" iMac with i5 2.9Ghz processor, 8GB DDR3 ram, 1TB hard drive running El Capitan OS, for £185 can someone who knows more than me (which is most people!!) let me know if it is good value and would be a worthwhile upgrade please, would I notice an increase in browsing speed?

I have never owned an iMac but have wanted to try one for some time now so any advice would be much appreciated.

thank you

Last night I visited my father and he has my old Imac which is a late 2012 model but with a higher spec than the one you bought. He always wants something doing on it when I visit! To be honest I do not notice much difference between his and my Imac 2017 model doing what you want to do. It is still a capable machine for daily 'run of the mill' operations.

For me when looking at 'value for money' I go to the 'for sale' forums on this site to see if similar models have sold and what they made. I also visit Ebay and do a search but select 'Advanced' and then 'sold' to see the prices items have made.

Considering you are getting a gorgeous 27" 4k screen you are getting quite a good 'bang for your buck' with this computer. With this being an older Imac you can also use the screen as a standalone monitor for other PC's and Macs using a feature called 'Target Display Mode' (see Youtube for videos on this). Should you find you do not like the Mac operating system you can also run Windows on the Imac using a feature called 'Bootcamp'.

 

[Jamie]

I've got both a 2012 MacBook Pro and a slightly newer 2015 5K 27" iMac and they're both still very nice usable machines IMO,

A few points worth mentioning though.

Target display mode is more complicated than the above post implies. Yes your iMac will support it but only if it's running MacOS High Sierra or earlier.

An SSD is just about the best upgrade you can make. If your Mac has USB3 ports even using an SSD in an external enclosure is a worthwhile upgrade in my experience. Not sure what spec your ports are though.

Upgrading to an internal SSD really isn't that hard, you can buy a kit that includes the mini plastic pizza cutter you need along with the new adhesive strips and suction cup you'll need. I installed a standard 2.5" SATA SSD in both of my machines and it made a massive difference.

The 2012 model isn't a 4k screen, it's still a cracking screen but it's actually QHD or 2560x1440 resolution

The everymac site is a very useful resource of spec and possible upgrades for any Mac, this I believe is the page for the one mentioned in the OP iMac 27-Inch "Core i5" 2.9 (Late 2012) Specs (Late 2012, MD095LL/A, iMac13,2, A1419, 2546): EveryMac.com and includes all the specs and links to upgrade videos.

 

[P Adams]

We still use two 2012 iMacs in our design studio (along with some latest editions) for two freelancers who come in to help us out and they work beautifully using the latest Adobe Creative Cloud suite of apps. Yes they won’t take the latest Mac OS but they are still great machines and we haven’t had any trouble with them from new. They browse on them at lunchtime and I haven’t had any complaints!

 

[AV Happy]

Thank you to everyone for their reply's. I have been running the Mac now for a week and I am really pleased with it. It had a full hard drive wipe and a fresh install of Catalina which is the most up to date OS it will accept and so far so good. It is quicker at web browsing than my old windows PC which is the main thing. Unfortunately I can't get pages for it but I have purchased LibreOffice for £7.99 from the apps store and that seems to work fine for my limited needs. The screen quality is great and 27" seems enormous compared to my old 24" monitor. It came with a track pad so I bought a magic mouse but I think I prefer the track pad, the mouse is very slow despite being on its fastest setting. I also like the operating system more the more I use it and get used to it. So in summery for £180 I am very pleased with my purchase both functionally and aesthetically ( the 27" screen does look nice on the desk ). Happy days !!!

Also, I forgot to mention I had some old 4GB RAM from a laptop which I have installed to take it to 16GB of RAM

 

[P Adams]

Excellent news! Enjoy