Potential new Imac purchase. . .which one?

J

Josh Bass

Veteran
Hi. So I have been informed that my graphics card on my 2011 27" Imac is toast. There are third party repair places that can replace it. . .but the cost may be about the same as a newer computer.

I guess the question is. . .if I don't get it replaced, what to get next? I am still on Mountain Lion on the current Imac I have and it would be nice to somehow keep that. I was thinking on a newer Mac that can have more than one SSD, install the SSD from my current Imac, with OS etc. intact, and have another drive that I use for my current OS's and programs. BE able to boot onto either one. Is that a thing you can do? Or perhaps make a partition on a single SSD for the old stuff. Trying to avoid rebuying software incompatible with newer OS's when I still use older stuff and it works fine. HOWEVER, it would be nice to have access to newer versions of Logic and some other things I use, which I can't with Mountain Lion.

If I go refurb, anywhere besides Apple store anyone would recommend? What year/model? What is the newest year that will still run Mountain Lion (or will the current models)? Any reason to look into Mac Pros instead of an Imac? I understand the trashcan is kinda old now and something new might be announced (though those will probably be way more than I want to spend, unless I know they'll last 10 years or something).

I don't do a lot of editing, but still do some occasionally. So far it's only ever been C100, EX1 and maybe a few other "lower end" camera footage. I have not dealt with 4k, Red, etc. etc. Sometimes have to mess with Apple Motion, Logic, nothing real fancy.
 
If you get a newer iMac then it will obviously come with whatever OS was current at the time of manufacture. What you could do, is remove the drive from your current iMac, place it in an external enclosure and connect to the new iMac via Thunderbolt or USB3. On starting up your computer, hold the OPTION button until you hear the chimes; you will then have the option to boot from either the internal drive or the external drive.
 
If you're geeky, you could put a Hackintosh together. I'm not really familiar with iMac's, but I know that mid 2012 MBP's can't boot Snow Leopard; so a current iMac's might not be able to boot from Mountain Lion.
 
Thanks. Does anyone know the NEWEST model year that can work with Mountain Lion? What I would likely do is have someone actually install the old ssd internally (in addition to the drive that comes with the new machine). Unless that wouldnt work/allow me to boot from it. Or again, the partition. I believe you lose some speed even with thunderbolt booting externally. I would like to keep all the speed I can.
 
doubledark said:
If you get a newer iMac then it will obviously come with whatever OS was current at the time of manufacture. What you could do, is remove the drive from your current iMac, place it in an external enclosure and connect to the new iMac via Thunderbolt or USB3. On starting up your computer, hold the OPTION button until you hear the chimes; you will then have the option to boot from either the internal drive or the external drive.
Click to expand...

A couple of days ago I had to bring in my mid 2010 27" i7 iMac to the Apple Store to resolve a boot up problem. It was fixed by reloading the Sierra OS. While there, I also brought an external hard drive with 1080p 10-bit 422 ProRes video files. As a test, Apple allowed me to connect the external hard drive to a 2017 i7 iMac with FCPX installed. I was so impressed with the performance of the 2017 iMac, that I will be ordering a 27" i7 512GB SSD iMac next week. The 2017 iMac comes with High Sierra installed as the OS. Check out the video below that compares a 2015 vs 2017 iMac using FCPX, Adobe Premiere CC, and Resolve.

http://www.4kshooters.net/2017/08/0...n-fcx-premiere-pro-cc-and-davinci-resolve-14/

Enjoy.
 
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I'm sure that's true but I've been happy with the performance I was getting with the old machine, at least enough to not want to upgrade. Plus there are the numerous instances of having to rebuy software cause an older version is rendered incompatible with the new OS.
 
I was able to reinstall most of my apps from the Apple apps store without having to pay a second fee. My old machine will become my general purpose pc and the new iMac will be dedicated to video editing. This was the first problem I had with my 2010 iMac in the 6-1/2 years I've owned It. Can't complain.
 
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I don't think you're going to be able to stay with Mountain Lion. It's just too far back. If you can't go with FCPX, which I highly recommend, then you can switch to Resolve on your new machine. From what I hear, it's enough like FCP7 that the transition won't hurt very bad. As for other software, well, this is just a fact of life. Apple computers will outlive their original software. I have a 2012 Mini server running Yosemite, and it still works great, but when I replace it, I will have to put up with Filemaker Advanced 12 crashing occasionally, or upgrade at a very mean $550. Since I don't use any other purchased software except FCPX and the Affinity products, that is my maximum financial exposure. As far as current Mac's are concerned, the best buy to me is the 21" iMac with 16GB RAM, 3 TB fusion drive and top of the line CPU and GPU. The latest generation of iMacs are way ahead of anything from years ago. It's unfortunate that we are forced into the upgrade, but the extra juice helps alleviate the pain.
 
the decision has more or less been made for me...the fine folks at Experimac were unable to replace my graphics card with the one they found locally, so its an $800 or so repair, and then I still have the issue of being about to run out of drive space on my 250 gb ssd, which I was going to buy a 2TB SSD to alleviate (another $800).

So I guess the question is, what to do now as far as new machines? I like the large screen on the 27" unless there's some cheaper way to get a large screen (of decent quality) and connect it to a 21" iMac? I would think at that point cost difference is pretty negligible. I was going to look at 2015 models to stay pretty modern but still hopefully save quite a bit. I'd like to max out processor, graphics card etc. to help future proof it as much as possible (2011 models, which I have, were notorios for graphics card issues, I'm told.). I still really only deal with HD and footage from EX1s and C100s, so I am not and dont think I will be at the cutring edge as far as what footage I deal with. Hopefully next comp lasts more than 5 years.

I would like the 2TB ssd internal still. I have been given to understand the fusions are slower (albeit cheaper) than pure ssds, so would want to stay with ssd. Why so large? Well, for example, superior drummer, a virtual drum program, in its new version is a 240 GB install. That's one program. Da Vinci (which I will attempt to love before fcp x) is a 60 GB install.

Other things I will have give up/pay to update...cs6 suite (not doing subscription model). potentially my invoicing software (they also went to a subscription model--my version is very old but serves my simple needs) a cd/dvd drive for those rare occasions when I'd need one, possible issues with firewire devices (like my Apogee duet audio interface) and drives, iweb, microsoft office, some fcp plugins i bought (maybe the update versions are free...one can hope), and Apple Motion which no one uses but who cares I quite like it. And that's just the things I've thought off the top of my head. I'll have to go through and look at all my apps to see everything I'm getting screwed on.

Another thing is that I do not edit all the time...try to avoid it when I can, truthfully. So it's not even a big money maker for me. But now I am used to and like the Mac OS. So you can see how this all sucks very much. Hell...maybe I should just pay $1600 for a new card and ssd. Still probably half the alternative.
 
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