Do I need a new iMac?

[Hisacorn]

I have a late 2009 27" iMac.
3.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor
8GB 1067 MHz DDR3 memory
OS X 10.6.8 {Yes I know I've been very bad and haven't updated....}

I'm wondering if this can be upgraded/updated for what I'm interested in, which is photography, editing with PS and LR, as well as making short {3 minute} videos with Final Cut Pro/Adobe Premiere.

Of should I just bite the bullet and get a new iMac.

Thank you for any/all thoughts.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

I have a similar vintage iMac (albeit a 2.8 Ghz i7 quad-core CPU) that I've upgraded the memory to 16GB and replaced the original 1TB HDD with a 1TB SSD on. It is running the latest version of macOS, High Sierra, and is my programming power house. The upgrade to the SSD provided the biggest boost.

Upgrading to 16GB of memory and replacing your current HDD with a SSD will run you about $300 or so. You can then upgrade to High Serra, to get a little more life.

However, the biggest bottleneck in your case is going to be the Core 2 Duo processor.

The flip side of this equation is that you've gotten nearly 10 years out of the machine, and you might want to look into investing any new money into a new machine that better matches your current (and future) needs. You can hand this machine off to a child/relative who doesn't mind using it since its resale value is essentially nil right now.

 

[ferrarr]

Don't forget, you may also need to update your software, to work with the newer Macs.

 

[Hisacorn]

Thank you both so very much!

 

[pm-r]

I'm wondering if this can be upgraded/updated for what I'm interested in,

Some excellent suggestions provided, but you could also create a partition and clone and then update it with a later OS X version and see how things work for you in its current hardware state.




- Patrick
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