Basic Used Imac - Help

Consider a refurb from Apple. They come with full warranty and the option to purchase AppleCare extended warranty, which I always recommend. They are usually a few hundred dollars off retail. I always buy refurb Macs. http://www.apple.com/shop/browse/home/specialdeals/mac

eBay = caveat emptor

It means "Buyer beware" in other words You have no way of being 100% sure what you are getting if you buy from Ebay until in hand

For the work you describe, I'd say a 2012 Mac or later should work. Would not go any earlier than 2011 at this point Processor should not be too hard, as most if not all will have some generation Intel i5 or i7 processors. Either will work for what you describe, and i5s are cheaper. I'd go for no less than 8GB RAM. 16 if possible and within budget.

Other than that, you will need to decide whether you want a laptop or desktop, and if desktop whether you are willing to supply your own monitor (Mac Mini) or want an all in one solution (iMac). For a laptop, stick with the MacBook Pros.

Other than that, you will need to search for options and weigh the options against your budget.

For example: http://www.apple.com/shop/product/FGEN2LL/A/Refurbished-Mac-Mini-26GHz-Dual-core -Intel-Core-i5

Pretty powerful machine for a pretty decent price. Its only a Year old, so should still last for at least 4 or 5 more years. It also has the benefit of Apple's one year warranty and support.

Electronics are funny things - some last quite a while, and others may fail sooner. You cannot predict that - the same with hard drives: they all fail at some point, some sooner and some later. Having said that, if you want to be sure, I would only buy a refurbished unit from the Apple store: you get a regular 1 year warranty and an opportunity to extend that to 3 years by purchasing Applecare. That will cover the entire machine for 3 years. If you use ebay, then you need to know more about the machine than the seller since a great percentage there isn't legal - they sell machines with pirated software (I got caught once, but got my money back).

If you are limited to 6 or $700 us dollars, I'd go for the Mini i linked to. It's a 2014 model, and will last several years. you will need to provide it with a monitor, mouse and keyboard as they come with none, but are the cheapest entry way into the Mac world.

With that said, I own a 2011 model, and its still working perfectly fine for what I do. It should last a couple more years, before I feel the need to replace it which would put it at around 7 years old by then which is a fairly decent life span for a computer.