Why dump 2011 iMacs?

[carfan]

I notice there has been a lot of people selling their 2011 27inch iMacs away at low price e.g. $600-$700.
With cheap RAM and SSD upgrade to these iMacs, in real world use (excluding video/audio processing), user experience is way better than those iMac 2012/2013/2014 without Fusion/SSD.
Even compared to the latest iMac (default with Fusion), other than retina display, there is no noticeable difference.
Are we chasing after/lured away by high specifications and numbers?

 

[renfred89]

Any reference to justify your claim for "in real world use..... no noticeable difference."?

I notice there has been a lot of people selling their 2011 27inch iMacs away at low price e.g. $600-$700.
With cheap RAM and SSD upgrade to these iMacs, in real world use (excluding video/audio processing), user experience is way better than those iMac 2012/2013/2014 without Fusion/SSD.
Even compared to the latest iMac (default with Fusion), other than retina display, there is no noticeable difference.
Are we chasing after/lured away by high specifications and numbers?

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[carfan]

No published reference.
From my personal experience.
I have used iMac 2012/2013 before. In terms of day to day use, the noticeable difference is the availability of SSD. Does not matter if the CPU is fast or slow.

Note that I exclude heavy video/audio processing. Most iMac does not have good graphics anyway and it does not support demanding gaming that well.

Any reference to justify your claim for "in real world use..... no noticeable difference."?

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[renfred89]

Well it's true that certain specification may not meet the standard of intensive applications but that should not be a reference point.

You are also right that non intensive usage might not give a noticeable difference in experience as it is not pushing the limit of the hardware, and this is also cannot be used as a reference point. Reason being one aspect of the performance cannot be magnified to judge the whole performance score. People dumping their old machine can be due to various reasons such as not meeting their expectation in terms of their increased usage..

So when I see your post, I kinda do agree with you and get disagree at the same time.. Why I disagree is because older generation of hardware will one day be obsolete and what makes people change their machine is the availability of cash and the demand for better user experience..

No published reference.
From my personal experience.
I have used iMac 2012/2013 before. In terms of day to day use, the noticeable difference is the availability of SSD. Does not matter if the CPU is fast or slow.

Note that I exclude heavy video/audio processing. Most iMac does not have good graphics anyway and it does not support demanding gaming that well.

Samsung Galaxy S8+ HardwareZone Forums app

 

[carfan]

I am not saying newer iMacs are inferior.
Technically, they are definitely more powerful. No dispute and no grounds to argue.
I am just referring to general use of iMac for general tasks by most ordinary folks.

I just replaced my FIL's iMac 2011 with SSD with an iMac 2013 with HDD.
After using a few days, he told me it is a downgrade and not an upgrade.
He wants his iMac 2011 back.

All I am saying is that iMac 2011 is still competent performer that does not deserve such a low selling price.

Well it's true that certain specification may not meet the standard of intensive applications but that should not be a reference point.

You are also right that non intensive usage might not give a noticeable difference in experience as it is not pushing the limit of the hardware, and this is also cannot be used as a reference point. Reason being one aspect of the performance cannot be magnified to judge the whole performance score. People dumping their old machine can be due to various reasons such as not meeting their expectation in terms of their increased usage..

So when I see your post, I kinda do agree with you and get disagree at the same time.. Why I disagree is because older generation of hardware will one day be obsolete and what makes people change their machine is the availability of cash and the demand for better user experience..

Samsung Galaxy S8+ HardwareZone Forums app

 

[erwinrommel]

My iMac 2011 21" with 480GB SSD and 12GB RAM is a competent machine that serves majority of my needs. It's built in dvd rom is still working, and it is still very easy to access the sd card slot.

But then I have decided to move on and get a bigger, clearer screen with a more powerful processor.

In the end, I sold it for $650.

 

[orbvius]

Core2Duo era and the current i5/i7 got significant performance difference, even though those might be using ddr3l.

 

[carfan]

Core2Duo era and the current i5/i7 got significant performance difference, even though those might be using ddr3l.

Agree.. C2D or C2Quad and i-Series has significant perf difference.
That is why i never mention 2009 C2D iMac.
iMac 2010 onwards are all newer i-Series processors.

 

[SquallLH]

I am not saying newer iMacs are inferior.
Technically, they are definitely more powerful. No dispute and no grounds to argue.
I am just referring to general use of iMac for general tasks by most ordinary folks.

I just replaced my FIL's iMac 2011 with SSD with an iMac 2013 with HDD.
After using a few days, he told me it is a downgrade and not an upgrade.
He wants his iMac 2011 back.

All I am saying is that iMac 2011 is still competent performer that does not deserve such a low selling price.

Ahem, plug in a ssd on the 2013 and tell us if your FIL still considers it a downgrade.
You under-estimate how much SSD affects perf.

 

[wwenze]

Same answer as "Why dump 2011 iPhones?"

You don't use logic with Apple owners.

 

[trento]

Same answer as "Why dump 2011 iPhones?"

You don't use logic with Apple owners.

New imac better screen, slimmer n 90% of owners don't open up their computers to diy.

It's not about logic. It's about making money n tats wat makes Apple the most expensive company in the world.

 

[trento]

Agree.. C2D or C2Quad and i-Series has significant perf difference.
That is why i never mention 2009 C2D iMac.
iMac 2010 onwards are all newer i-Series processors.

Yea Mine is a 2012 mbp with dvd drive. It runs well when i change ssd n ram. But u can't deny it's heavy n screen is aging.

Tats y we go for new stuff, not always just speed.

The biggest downside of new stuff is almost cannot upgrade. So usually when com dies, it's total loss n buy brand new again

 

[carfan]

Ahem, plug in a ssd on the 2013 and tell us if your FIL still considers it a downgrade.
You under-estimate how much SSD affects perf.

Read my text one more time.

An upgraded iMac 2011 with SSD still can even impress people using a newer iMac 2013 without SSD more.
Is that under-estimating SSD?

 

[carfan]

Same answer as "Why dump 2011 iPhones?"

You don't use logic with Apple owners.

Just trying to raise awareness that iMac 2011 are still competent.
Agree that there will always be people who just want newer stuffs.... Apple or not.

 

[trento]

Read my text one more time.

An upgraded iMac 2011 with SSD still can even impress people using a newer iMac 2013 without SSD more.
Is that under-estimating SSD?

I guess the best solution would be take the ssd out of 2011 n put in 2013.

 

[erwinrommel]

Same answer as "Why dump 2011 iPhones?"

You don't use logic with Apple owners.

What kind of trolling answer is that?

 

[erwinrommel]

I am not saying newer iMacs are inferior.
Technically, they are definitely more powerful. No dispute and no grounds to argue.
I am just referring to general use of iMac for general tasks by most ordinary folks.

I just replaced my FIL's iMac 2011 with SSD with an iMac 2013 with HDD.
After using a few days, he told me it is a downgrade and not an upgrade.
He wants his iMac 2011 back.

All I am saying is that iMac 2011 is still competent performer that does not deserve such a low selling price.

I do agree with you, coming from an ex-2011 iMac with 480 GB SSD. Before I sold it a few weeks ago, it was still running very fine even with the latest OS. It has built inn dvd slot and SD card slot at the edge, which is very convenient. The downside is it only comes with USB 2 ports. I had to use as thunderbolt-to-usb port and connect to a hub to have USB 3v ports, which made it messier. No noticeable slowdown except when I used iMovie to do processor intensive video editing and exporting.

But in the end, I went for a bigger, brighter, sharper screen + faster processor + faster ssd (sata 3 vs PCI-E) and sold my 2011 iMac for $650.

 

[SquallLH]

Read my text one more time.

An upgraded iMac 2011 with SSD still can even impress people using a newer iMac 2013 without SSD more.
Is that under-estimating SSD?

You are the one who doesn't understand. The HDD is the main limiting factor/bottleneck in modern PCs. Anything better than intel core2duo would fly with SSD while things will crawl even if you have the latest 8th gen i7 chip and a 5400rpm HDD

 

[carfan]

You are the one who doesn't understand. The HDD is the main limiting factor/bottleneck in modern PCs. Anything better than intel core2duo would fly with SSD while things will crawl even if you have the latest 8th gen i7 chip and a 5400rpm HDD

Isn't that what I am saying?
Who is the one that does not understand?

I wrote:
I just replaced my FIL's iMac 2011 (with SSD) with an iMac 2013 (with HDD).
After using a few days, he told me it is a downgrade and not an upgrade.
He wants his iMac 2011 back.

Isn't this very clear that the HDD in iMac 2013 is the limiting factor such that it is slower than the iMac 2011 (with SSD)?
My original point, right from the start, has been that SSD will help fly the iMac.
Clearly, you don't read properly and just barge in to comment with your superior knowledge.

LMAO... now pls go and read one more time ... before you embarrass yourself again.

 

[SquallLH]

I wrote:
I just replaced my FIL's iMac 2011 (with SSD) with an iMac 2013 (with HDD).
After using a few days, he told me it is a downgrade and not an upgrade.
He wants his iMac 2011 back.

Nope, your initial point was why dump the iMac 2011. You obviously don't think that using a HDD will degrade user experience even with your talk about how ram upgrade and SSD helps. That's why you gave your FIL an iMac running a HDD.

You assumed that your FIL would be happy with an iMac 2013 upgrade but if you had any sense, you would have put in a SSD like your 2011 and we wouldn't even be hearing your FIL's complain LOL...