Older iMac's

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Are older iMac's advertised at very low prices on sites like Amazon worth buying. I'm someone who uses the internet quite lightly. I stream both HDR video and music but I would be the only user in the household and the only devices on my current home network are my mobile phone, my hdr TV and a couple of Google nest speakers. Should I walk away and look at other manufacturers all in one desktops with modern hardware and software?
 

Raz0rEdge

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2022 Mac Studio M1 Max, 2023 M2 MBA
How old? What is your budget? There are many things in play with Macs here so you don't want to spend any money on something that will not serve your needs. Your use case helps in knowing that you don't need the beefiest Mac out there.

However, generally I do not recommend purchasing any Mac that is more than a couple of years old and ideally you should be looking at the Apple refurbished store for Macs within your budget and only going back as far as they go back. This will give you the 1st year of warranty for free, and you can purchase an additional 2 years.

If you buy a Mac that is 5+ years old, and if the logicboard fails, you're looking at upwards of $750+ to get it fixed.
 

pigoo3

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Aswin gave a bunch of really awesome/perfect advice!:)

If looking for additional help/advice...please post some specific details in regards to what you're thinking of purchasing...then we can chime in much more specifically.

Nick
 
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I got a 2007 iMac off eBay cheaply. Replaced the failed PSU and before use, modded the rear plastic case for better heat output as I know this is a problem with many iMacs. Total cost under £20!
Runs El Capitan very well and I am getting used to my first Mac - it does all I need and runs cool.
This video gave me the idea
 

Raz0rEdge

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Running a machine that is unable to run any recent version of macOS means that you won't be able to run the latest version of many applications.

If you are happy using applications that worked well with El Cap and never upgrade, then that work flow works.

But if you need to upgrade for some other reason, the machine won't work as well.
 

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