Q: How long should an imac last?

Limnos wrote: Personally, my next Mac will be a 2010 Intel running Snow Leopard which will run my old PPC software, and I'll keep it at that until somebody pries it from my dead hands.  I'll then have to rethink the situation in 2020.

Ditto, except for mine being late 2009.

One more thing to add to the nice mix is that, at least according to Apple tech, including one senior tech a few days ago, no more grey machine specific replacement discs since ML was released. If you press them really hard, which I did, they may go look at the inventory -- if there is any -- and still  get them for you, but they aren't making it easy, and it may just be impossible. Used to be able to give the serial # and get them for almost any Mac. No more. Allegedly, at some point in the future, will be downloadable, but I'm not holding my breath for that.

Don't lose or scratch up those original discs.

P.S. my G3/400 is still working OK. But I never use it when it's too hot and always run a fan over the top to help cool the PAV board. Can still get on the Internet with it, albeit slowly, with TenFourFox.

Limnos,

This is exactly what I did!

After being with PowerPC for almost 10 years, I, recently, purchased a used 2009, 27 inch iMac.

Running Snow Leopard because I have a lot of PowerPC apps and can't afford to update, upgrade or buy new.

With 16 GBs of RAM with a 1 TB drive, this is a Great Machine so far!

Hopefully, I can hang in there was this iMac untl 2020, too!

WZZZ,

I just got an OEM install disc from Apple, for my 2009 iMac this week!

I gave them my serial# and address and they charged me $17 USD for the disc.

I ordered this last Thurs.

Got it from FEDEX on Monday.

I'm just going to say that your iMac will probably run for....... I don't even know a very long time, the hardware will get outdated but as long as your careful not to upgrade the software to we're the hardware can't take it, then you will have a very old iMac

MichelPM wrote:

 

WZZZ,

I just got an OEM install disc from Apple, for my 2009 iMac this week!

I gave them my serial# and address and they charged me $17 USD for the disc.

I ordered this last Thurs.

Got it from FEDEX on Monday.

I was finally able to get them for my late 2009, free with AppleCare -- just arrived today -- but they really weren't encouraging. I ordered last Friday, just after ML was released, so maybe they were in a bit of a dither and snowed under with all that. Quite a feeding frenzy! Perhaps the policy won't change after all. I'd like to think so.

Did they try to give you the runaround? Or did you place the order before ML was released, which would have been last Wednesay?

Bigjmart,

I would look at used iMacs, but maybe check out the refurbished area of Apple's website and, if you do not mind paying quite a bit extra, purchase used iMacs from an authorized Apple reseller instead of from someone local or off eBay.

With Apple, you'll get AppleCare and the option to get get extended AppleCare.

With a reseller, if it's a reputable one, you'll get a decent warranty. Perhaps better than 30 days.

I paid more for my 2009 iMac, through an Apple reseller, but they had a purchased 6 month warranty that I can pay/extend out to one year.

If I ever have a problem with this iMac, I can send it back to the reseller for warranty repair.

I would look at used 2008-2010 model iMacs.

Try a find one that has the best specs for that model and year.

Good Luck on whatever you do!

No runaround.

Everything went smoothly.

They Apple staff was pretty professional and polite.

No issues.

MichelPM wrote:

 

No runaround.

Everything went smoothly.

They Apple staff was pretty professional and polite.

No issues.

So, then no idea what happened when I called. They distinctly told me they were discontinuing this.

I don't know if it will make mine last twenty years, but I use smcFan, run a fan at the back and I am always keeping an eye on the temps and CPU usage from the Menubar with iStat Menus. If things are threatening to get too hot, as they often do during the summer, I will just sleep the computer. Of course, someone using a Mac in a strictly professional environment may not have this luxury. A lot will also just depend on luck.

You said you do video editing, I can tell you that even with an intel i5 quad core you need 8gb ram to cope with editing and rendering. If you run activity monitor and look at the pie graph you will see how hard ram is pushed and it will spill over to using the hd, this is when you get lag on the screen and jerky pictures, sometimes the programme will crash. If you check out other forums you will see extra ram is useful, there is definite cncensus on this techy bit of the spec. I am concerned you carry an iMac on regular travels and subject it to knocks, so consider a laptop, as other posts say here try an authorised Apple store or reseller and buy a second hand MacBook Pro there with warranty and proffesional back-up. Iam afraid in this day and age you get what you pay for and people sadly take less care of hardware these days. I am a hardware engineer and can testify to this. A desktop (iMac) is just that, it stays on the desk :)

hi there bigjmart

I frankly just stemubled on your post since i was wirting a piece of "why iMacs suck!" honestly i think you should avoid buying an IMac totally. I am being biased. i had 2 machines from 2008 and from 2010 whom wittnessed the same design issue consisitantly. both had interal Hard Drive failures 6 months apart. I am sure i will hear from the "iMac burgade" here but hoenstly they are strange machines which have a personality disorder: they are acting like Laptops while pretending to be Desktops! as much as i like to beleive that my luck from teh assembly line was to blame here, i am sorry to decalre that a close freind yesterday also alost another iMac 27'' and is furious!

We can try to find excuses for iMac but i am sorry fellows! Apple has had problems with QA lately and the only imac i ever saw running to this day was a 17'' white iMac from 2005! even the optical drive on that one, you can feel it when discis are beloaded on to it, its rock solid! the later models just did not make the cut.

I tell everyone now to eitehr get the proper Tower, MBP, or a Mac Mini. These model lines at least know where they stand and what they are!  iMac recent models are all duds in my book. 

Hey bro, I think I know what happened to your iMac... And this similar situation has happened to me before in 2007. My heart jumped when I read an "iMac" was being hulled around for gigs... But that is just not what they are designed for. iMac does not have the portability of an MacBook pro or MacBook air. If you are planning on gigging with it, consider investing on an iPad they have very powerful apps these days, I uses to run amplitube and reason on my gigs now I just use whats available on the iPad. But my point is, the iMac probably does not have the best built for portability and being on a constant rumble on the roads. The question mark with the folder means your hard disk was dying. And I'm surprised it even booted up for a few additional months! Mine went dead the second boot up. (I dropped mine really hard from 4 feet above) also from a gig. I would recommend on getting a fusion disk drive if it becomes available for MacBook pros, then as for video editing, get a monitor or an used apple cinema display if you want to save some bucks. They go as cheap as $140 on Craigslist for a decent 2006-2009 model. Cheaper if earlier.

Hope that answers your question about why your iMac went dead. Also **DOWNLOAD SMC FAN CONTROL** very important, run it so that your Mac stays cool well below 115 degrees F at ALL times, that way your Mac can run as long as ten years (mine has been 6 yrs) and I use it for 8 hrs - 12 hrs daily.

My iMac G4 has been running for 10 years now :)

Amazing if you just make sure it never over heats, put it to sleep when not using, and keep it dust free as they can't clog your vent and make it over heat. Don't ever vacuum it either, use CO2 cans and just normal duster. Goood luck!

MAN thanks so much for replyin! "shared pain" is a blissfull endeavour in my book! but as u can see this WORKHORSE (live at work) has been minimized to be working off of a simple OWC SSD FIREWIRE drive! ad the boottimes are phinominal! things are stable (knock on wood!) i really did not have the "muster" to go inside this machine one last time and replace the insides of the beast!

bless those older Macs! the build quality as u too mentioned were far superior to todays models! cheers

btw i am going to use the SMC and that 115 threshold to manage a little mac mini -- to my surprise i that little thing is toppping 118F!  coz i think the FAN sensor just got lost after the OWC DATA DOUBLER heart surgery inside it! can u share how u typically maintain or "workflow" the temp thing with that old mac?

cheers

here ya go! the fan noise is typically a few db higher than its stock fan speed.

but it's pretty quite still and doesn't bother me (a heck quieter than having an external fan blow on it anyway)