Upgrade iMac?

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Hi, I'm new to the forum and was hoping to get some advice.

I have an iMac 12,1 that does not support Mojave, I recently bought a MBP as well which obviously does.

I want to use the iMac for all my photos and iTunes media as they don't fit on the MBP, photos are shared through iCloud if I need them on my MBP when I'm out and about.

The iMac runs like a dog, I have a reasonable quote to install a 250GB SSD and 4TB Hard drive setup as a Fusion drive, this will more than cover my media needs and backup of all documents via iCloud, Time Machine and backblaze.

My concern is the impact of using old apps in High Sierra as my MBP is upgraded to new versions of the OS.

For example, Will I have problems managing photos in the older photos app vs the new ones that are bound to arrive. How long will it be before other apps stop supporting High Sierra etc.

Basically, trying to weigh up the pros and cons of getting another couple of years out of the iMac or put the money towards a Mac Mini.

Thanks,

Mark.
 

Raz0rEdge

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A couple of things. I would not recommend a fusion drive at all. Second, do NOT use the internal built-in drive for Time Machine backups. You ideally want to backup to a external drive. Your iMac is from 2011 and indeed can't run Mojave, just like my 2009 iMac can't. However, I've upgraded my iMac with a 1TB SSD and have High Sierra installed on it and it is quite performant. You will find upgrading from the spinning drive to a SSD will make a big difference.

Managing your photos in High Sierra and/or Mojave won't make any meaningful difference to the photos themselves.

My recommendation is to upgrade the spinning disk to a 1TB drive. On my 2009 iMac this was a very easy thing, took about 30 mins to complete. The drive was around $300 if I remember correctly. Anyway, once you have the SSD, I would recommend a fresh installation of High Sierra on there as opposed to using a backup or anything, that will give you the best performing machine.

Ensure that you also upgrade your memory to the maximum the machine supports (which is 32GB) and you will be set for a few years. Applications will continue to support High Sierra for at least another 3-5 years before they deem it too old, requiring an upgrade.
 
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Appreciate the advice, I should have been more clear on the Time Machine, it is an external HDD which I use to backup both the iMac and the MBP via the network.

Interesting that you don't recommend a Fusion drive, any reason for that? I'll also check my memory, I did upgrade to 16gb, didn't realise it may support 32gb!
 

Raz0rEdge

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Can you look at the About this Mac and give us more of the specifics about the machine? That will help us direct you better on the upgrades. And the reason I don't recommend a fusion drive is that you aren't really getting that big bang for your buck as you would going full SSD. The idea of fusion drive is that you couple a slow spinning drive with a fast SSD so that frequently accessed stuff will be in the SSD. But if you are constantly accessing different things, then they are constantly being fetched from the slower spinning media and you are totally negating the benefit of the SSD.

On the other hand, go with just a large enough SSD and you'll be able to access files at the same speed regardless of when and how often you access it.
 
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Makes sense, appreciate you taking the time to respond, I will take a look at the SSD prices at the moment.

Details are attached.

image001.png
 

Raz0rEdge

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Just to confirm, is this 21.5" or 27". At some point in time, the 21.5" didn't have user upgradable memory while the 27" retained that aspect. Either way, if you are already at 16GB, that should likely be fine unless you're doing a lot of video/photo editing with large files.
 
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no worries, it's the 21.5 and the memory is upgradeable. I agree that the 16GB is definitely adequate for my needs (biggest drain is a Window 10 VM). The SSD option seems the best way forward I reckon, prices look okay but I may get a 'professional' to fit it. Looking at some websites I'd be a bit worried dismantling my iMac!!!
 

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The 2009 was very easy. But I know that shortly after that, maybe the 2010 or 2011 models, the iMac screen is glued in place as opposed to just held by magnets, so going professional might not be a bad idea.
 
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Another reason to avoid Fusion drives is that fusion drives are made by combining two drives together to look like one. But doing that means that if EITHER of the drives fail, or the software that fuses them has any problems, you lose everything on BOTH of them. And two things fused are less reliable than either one alone. So get a bigger SSD and have that great speed in that machine.
 
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Glue was mentioned in the breakdown along with very delicate wiring, I'll see if I can get a reasonable quote. Thanks for the advice.

- - - Updated - - -

Yep, I'm going to price up SSD's and get the biggest I can within budget, I think they have come down in price a bit recently
 

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The 2009 was very easy. But I know that shortly after that, maybe the 2010 or 2011 models, the iMac screen is glued in place as opposed to just held by magnets, so going professional might not be a bad idea.

I am pretty sure this is correct. 2012 seems like the year the Screens started to be glued in. I got a used late 2012 so I could run Mojave and it's for sure a Glue Mac! :D

I was right. Here is the 2011 with DVD drive.

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/...inch-aluminum-mid-2011-thunderbolt-specs.html

Markrow. does your imac have a DVD drive? If so it uses Magnets to keep the glass on the front and you use suction cups to take it off. If you end up doing it yourself watch either iFixit or OWC's video on that machine. The rest requires a #10 Torx screwdriver for the screen.
 
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I can also confirm the 2011 iMac glass on the front is held on by magnets

the screen underneath is screwed in and thats on both the 21' and the 27'
 

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