Was just gifted a few old iMacs, worth trying to upgrade?

[PeterB]

One 27" iMac, mid-2010 (iMac11,3), 3.2 Ghz core i3

Two 21.5" iMacs, late 2013 (iMac14,1), 2.7 Ghz core i5

Both in very good condition cosmetically and their screens are nice, especially the 27".

I presume the 2.7 Ghz will outperform the 3.2 Ghz?

Also, I assume not worth trying to upgrade the hard drives in these things, even though the SSD upgrade would most likely be the best thing to do?

The takeapart on these guys looks fairly horrendous... it's really a shame that Apple has made it so hard to upgrade anything.

TiA

[anonymouse1]

External SSDs?

All would make good media servers.

[PeterB]

anonymouse1 wrote:
External SSDs?

All would make good media servers.

I thought of the possibility of external SSDs too, but... wouldn't USB2/Firewire/USB3 speeds be a problem?

[Tiangou]

Might rehab the 2013s.

Take-apart is not what you think it is. Start with a table covered with a soft blanket. Use the iFixit kit and follow a video guide. Clean the tape-gunk off before you put the new tape on. Take care not to yank on the power and video cables for the display. Tape the display down firmly with masking tape after setting it onto the fresh tape and leave the display taped down overnight while the adhesive sets.

...Problem is that SSD prices are up by 50% and more in the last few months due to production cuts and price gouging.

[sekker]

That 27" iMac has a LOT of honestly easy internal solutions. Some here:

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ssd/owc/...-inch/2010

What I did for a similar 21.5" was to replace the optical drive with an SSD and use that for boot, and use the internal spinny drive as a time machine backup. All-in-one.

Then use OpenCore for a more modern Mac OS.

https://appleinsider.com/inside/macos/ti...g-opencore

[PeterB]

Hmmm, interesting. I'm wondering though if the cheapest/easiest solution might be to use an external SSD or even a flash drive?

How about something like one of these?:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CM8XN28G/
https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-512GB-Ult...083ZS4HYD/

[mrbigstuff]

I have a 2010 with those specs and 14gb (?) Ram and an ssd upgrade. Runs decently and I use it for Zoom. Internal superdrive is great to have around.

[Article Accelerator]

PeterB wrote: I assume not worth trying to upgrade the hard drives in these things, even though the SSD upgrade would most likely be the best thing to do?

I replaced the Fusion drive on a 2012 27" iMac with an SSD and it made a huge difference in speed and responsiveness.

[Bill in NC]

PeterB wrote:
Hmmm, interesting. I'm wondering though if the cheapest/easiest solution might be to use an external SSD or even a flash drive?

How about something like one of these?:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CM8XN28G/
https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-512GB-Ult...083ZS4HYD/

I have no issues running a 2011 iMac (USB 2.0 ports) from a SSD via an external USB case.

Thanks for the links...I've ordered a low profile 128GB USB drive to try with it.

[Tiangou]

PeterB wrote:
Hmmm, interesting. I'm wondering though if the cheapest/easiest solution might be to use an external SSD or even a flash drive?

How about something like one of these?:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CM8XN28G/
https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-512GB-Ult...083ZS4HYD/

NOPE.

Flash-profile SSDs are better/faster than regular flash drives for the most part, but they get super hot super quickly during data transfers and they slow down when they get hot. As an example, I just transferred a GB of files to a flash-sized SSD in a matter of a few seconds, but a 13GB macOS installer took 35 minutes. Read-operations are less of a problem, but you don't want to boot off of one of these drives on a daily basis.

And regular flash drives are just landfill.