Is it time to replace my iMac? (Page 7): i was in your situation w/my imac....catalina os can't be updated. i bit a bullet and got new mi imac and am delighted. so much faster in both...

nj53 Loc: Canon City, Colorado

i was in your situation w/my imac....catalina os can't be updated. i bit a bullet and got new mi imac and am delighted. so much faster in both LRC and PS. i had no problem w/trading in my old imac to apple and got a $200 credit for it. no hassles there.

i've now set it up w/one external HD for time machine; a new 4T seagate HD for my photos. the new seagate was only $100 from amazon and came w/4 months adobe creative cloud extension to my subscription. good deal. however redeeming the 4 months was a frustrating process. seagate customer service was dismal.

hope this helps...just another opinion...

norm

Pat F 4119 Loc: Branford, CT

JD750 wrote:

Unfortunately 8 years is old for a computer. Software bloat and changes over time make the older machines struggle. My 2013 MacBook Pro was slow but not in the manner you describe.
Bert is correct that low hard drive space will slow things down but you have 320 GB so I wouldn't expect that to be the issue. Is that a spinning rust hard drive?

Q: are you by chance using virus software? If so that may be slowing things down.

Hi, thanks for your response. To the best of my knowledge I don't have anything running in the background based on what I see in the activity monitor. However, I'll take a closer look, thanks.

Pat F 4119 Loc: Branford, CT

nj53 wrote:

i was in your situation w/my imac....catalina os c... (show quote)

Thanks Norm, this is very helpful. I'm beginning to think biting the bullet is going to be the way to go in the long run. One computer tech recommended that I go with a Mac mini, which is another option worth looking into. Did you look into that too before purchasing the iMac?

Pat F 4119 Loc: Branford, CT

KindaSpikey wrote:

HI Pat. Just thought I'd pass along this website for you to look at. It may, or may not interest you, but I have bought several items from them, (laptop, phone, TV), and I highly recommend them. Great prices and 12 month warranty. Definitely at least worth a look.
The site is called "Backmarket". (not black market), hope you find it useful!
Ray.

Thanks, I haven't heard of that site, so I'll definitely take a look, thank you very much!

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

bhapke wrote:

I've used Mac's for several years and have a coupl... (show quote)

Good suggestions. If you can find a fast Thunderbolt connected SSD, it’s certainly easier than installing the internal PCIe card.

Pat F 4119 Loc: Branford, CT

ZtaKED wrote:

Agree. You are doing a fine job of riding a crippled horse to the finish line. The time (and money) spent trying to get a last breath of life from this old workhorse is time not spent on your photographic skills. Decide if you want to become a better hardware mechanic or photographer. Just say’n.

I agree, between the slow response from my computer and all of the time I've spent trying to figure out how to save a few dollars by patching together my old machine, I've lost a lot of time that could have been spent shooting and creating relationships with clients.

Pat F 4119 Loc: Branford, CT

GreenReaper wrote:

Iplan on buying a Mini Mac in the fall. You can have it configured with 16gb of unified memory and a 1tb of storage. I've already got a great monitor, wireless keyboard and mouse, both bluetooth. So for an expenditure of $1300 I'm all set. I know there are those out there that will say, not enough memory, etc. Right now I'm running a MacBook Air with 6 gb of RAM and a 526gb of SSD storage. Runs like a champ.

This is exactly what I am considering now. I really like the idea of the mini, and I'm wondering why it is not available with 32 GB, so I'll need to do more research on that. Perhaps it's because the M1 processor is so good that it doesn't need all that ram?

spraguead Loc: Boston, MA

I'm suddenly having similar issues with my 7 year old Macbook Pro. I suspect it has to do with the latest Adobe updates as it was running fine before I did the updates. Have a message into Adobe help, but this has happened in the past and I had to reinstall earlier version of PS/LRC and wait for the bugs to worked out in the newer versions.

Pat F 4119 Loc: Branford, CT

burkphoto wrote:

OWC can perform the upgrade for you, for a reasona... (show quote)

nikon123 Loc: Toronto, Canada

I had a 2015 MacBook Pro and the operating system was driving me to distraction. Plus, there was a black spot, somewhere inside the machine, that drove my Zoom mates crazy. Hyperbole all over the previous sentences.
I traded it in and received $450 CDN and purchased a MacBook Air, with 16GB of memory. I have about 24,000 photographs, stored in external hard drives. So far, so good. The photos program is running fine - a far cry from my previous experience. I have Luminar A1 as my post processing software. Luminar recommends the 16GB to run its programs effectively.

Alfresco

I recently replaced a 27" iMac that was 8 years old with a new 27" iMac with Intel processor and was able to get $280 from Apple on a trade in. That helped to ease the sting a bit. If you put it on an Apple Card you also get 0% interest, also not bad. It comes with 8GB of memory but I quickly upgraded to an additional 32GB of RAM from OWC, big improvement. If you get an iMac that is not Intel powered you can not upgrade the memory. Would I do it again, in a heartbeat.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Pat F 4119 wrote:

This is exactly what I am considering now. I really like the idea of the mini, and I'm wondering why it is not available with 32 GB, so I'll need to do more research on that. Perhaps it's because the M1 processor is so good that it doesn't need all that ram?

The Mini plus a good pair of Benq monitors would make a powerful machine and likely less than a new IMac. Although I was/am still in favor of “saving” your old machine with an SSD and a SW/OS clean up, one indisputable fact is you will reach a point (if not already) where the OS can’t be upgraded/supported, so that has to be a consideration as well. I understand that the M1 device may make more effective use of memory, and that the soldered in 16GB max is enough, but applications, image sizes (and OSs) are constantly getting larger, and personally, I would be more comfortable with 32GB if it were not upgradable, so hopefully the rumored new Mac Minis will have some larger memory options. Might be worth waiting to see if the announcement is imminent.

glblanchard

Pat F 4119 wrote:

My iMac is 8 years old, manufactured in 2014, purc... (show quote)

I have the same computer with the same problems. I just ordered a new one. I can't really afford it, but I was going out of my mind with those identical delays. Here is what I ordered.

• Standard glass
• 3.8GHz 8-core 10th-generation Intel Core i7 processor, Turbo Boost up to 5.0GHz
• 32GB 2666MHz DDR4 memory
• Radeon Pro 5500 XT with 8GB of GDDR6 memory
• 512GB SSD storage
• Gigabit Ethernet
• Magic Mouse 2
• Magic Keyboard - US English

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

glblanchard wrote:

I have the same computer with the same problems. I just ordered a new one. I can't really afford it, but I was going out of my mind with those identical delays. Here is what I ordered.

• Standard glass
• 3.8GHz 8-core 10th-generation Intel Core i7 processor, Turbo Boost up to 5.0GHz
• 32GB 2666MHz DDR4 memory
• Radeon Pro 5500 XT with 8GB of GDDR6 memory
• 512GB SSD storage
• Gigabit Ethernet
• Magic Mouse 2
• Magic Keyboard - US English

Curious as to the cost if you don’t mind sharing…

glblanchard

It was a little under $3k.