Have IMAC 27 Questions

[MacGuy01]

Hi Everyone, well after years of thinking about it I finally did the deed. I whipped out my credit card and bought an IMac 27 and I am excited. If UPS does its job it will get delivered sometime this afternoon and then the adventure will begin. Like anything new and shiny I know there is going to be a learning curve and I have some questions which I would appreciate answers to.

I bought the computer from a re-seller in the Tampa, FL area and I have dealt with him before and he gets good reviews so I am pretty confident in my purchase. I have been a PC guy for the past 30 or so years so this is a bit of an adventure for me but I am looking forward to it and as I said I have some questions that I would appreciate answers to:

1) I do not see a network port on the IMacs. Does that mean that they connect to the Internet by WiFi only?
2) I do not see a headphone jack on the IMacs. sound is very important to me as I listen to a lot of high end music on my PC (and I mean quality Celtic Woman, Lauren Daigle, Oonagh, Santiago Helene Fischer and others. None of this R&B or Rap garbage). I have an amazing 5.1 Klipsch THX Cert Promedia sound system on my PC and I am not going to be happy if I can't migrate it over to my IMac.
3) I use flash drives extensively. I have Office 2016 installed on my PC and I will also buy and install it on my IMac (or I may use the free O365 that is bundled with Outlook web based email although I don't think the free O365 has all of the featured that I need). Can the PC based Office be read by an IMac based Office and the reverse?
4) I have 2 printers. One if an HP OfficeJet and the other is a Canon AiO that I mainly use for scanning documents. I have both printers hardwired to my PC with a USB A-B cable and I will eventually do this with my new IMac but in the interim I want to at least set up my IMac to print on my HP OfficeJet. In the past if someone has been in my house with their laptop and needed to print I just go to Devices and Printers-Add a Printer. The client device finds the printer over my WiFi network and then installs a micro-driver onto the client and bada-bing, bada-boom the client is printing. Can this be done with an IMac?
5) At some time I will be connecting a 2nd Monitor to my IMac. I have a Dell 24" BriteView Monitor connected to my PC and it will eventually get connected to my IMac. My new IMac has a Thunderbolt port and I know I can get a Thunderbolt to DVI cable. Is it as simple as connecting my Dell Monitor to my IMac and turning it on or are there hoops to jump through? if there are hoops what are they.

These are all of the questions I can think of for now. I will add that Questions 2 and 4 are must haves and if a way cannot be found to accomplish these tasks then the IMac will be returned. Thanks for the help everyone and see ya around the Forums.

 

[pigoo3]

Hi Everyone, well after years of thinking about it I finally did the deed. I whipped out my credit card and bought an IMac 27 and I am excited. If UPS does its job it will get delivered sometime this afternoon and then the adventure will begin. Like anything new and shiny I know there is going to be a learning curve and I have some questions which I would appreciate answers to.

Hello MacGuy...a big welcome to Mac-Forums!

Before we answer those questions...we really need to know exactly what model iMac this is (27" iMac's have been around since 2009...and there are a ba-zillion different models).

Knowing this we can better answer all questions.

Thanks,

Nick

 

[IWT]

@MacGuy01, A warm welcome to Mac-Forums.

As our Admin, pigoo3, said, we must have the full details of your "new" iMac; but we can make some generalisations:

The iMac can connect with the Internet either by WiFi or by an Ethernet cable between Mac and Modem/Router.

And there is a headphone Jack (strangely) located at the back of the iMac on the right side as you look at the Mac's screen.

I don't see an obvious problem with Q4; but of course it does depend on the age and specs of the iMac.

And I think we can probably solve Q5.................

Over to you

Ian

 

[MacGuy01]

@pigoo3 and @IWT Thanks for jumping in with the quick responses. Your answers help a lot and ease my mind a bit. All I have right now is just the photos that are in the ad that the re-seller posted when I ordered the IMac and I did not see an Ethernet port or a Headphone Jack in the photos but it is nice to know that they have them. UPS is showing my computer as "Out For Delivery" and I know their drivers do businesses first and homes after that so I am not expecting it until this afternoon or evening.

To answer the pertinent question the IMac I am getting was made approx. 2012 and the OS is High Sierra. The computer is a 2.7 Ghz with 12 Gigs of RAM. It has 512 Megs of video RAM as well as an SSD. I will probably put or have put in a 2nd hard drive to store photos and videos on and believe me when I say that I take a lot of photos.

Thank you again and I am looking forward to interacting with all of you.

 

[pigoo3]

Probably still need some clarification on exactly what model 27" iMac this is. There was no 2.7Ghz 27" 2012 iMac (there was a 2.7GHz 21" 2012 iMac)...there also was a 2.7Ghz 27" 2011 iMac. This is very important...since it can make a big difference in terms of what macOS versions it can run.

As member IWT expertly shared...your 27" iMac definitely has an ethernet port and a headphone/audio out port.

Also be aware that if this is a 2012 or later 27" iMac...getting inside to do things (such as installing a 2nd HD as mentioned)...is more difficult than previous models...since the display glass is held in with adhesive strips.

As far as question 5. That Thunderbolt port also works as a mini-display port. If you wanted to attach the external monitor as mentioned...you may/probably need a mini-displayport to DVI adapter...or mini-displayport to DVI cable (I actually just ordered & received one of these a couple days ago for use with an older Apple computer I purchased recently).

HTH,

Nick

 

[ferrarr]

Here are a few websites I frequent when purchasing used Macs;

ifixit.com has D-I-Y repair guides for almost all Macs. Very good details.

Mac Repair

Repair guides and disassembly information for Apple's Macintosh personal computers.

www.ifixit.com

Everymac.com lists just about every Apple product ever. Easy to find specs for every model.

Mac Specs, Prices, Answers and Comparison: EveryMac.com, Est. 1996

A complete guide of every Mac, iPod, iPhone, iPad and Mac clone with technical and pricing info. Specs on every Mac, answer Mac questions, compare Macs and more.

everymac.com

 

[hughvane]

I too have recently purchased a used iMac 27", late 2012, i7 3.4 processor.

It definitely has both an ethernet port (which I use) and an audio-out port (which I don't).

The inbuilt speakers are good, until such time as you need crashing rock or heavy classical, which is when you should utilise an external audio setup. I use bluetooth to a JBL system for that.

Enjoy your iMac, they are wonderful machines.

 

[techiesteve]

Hopefully the OP will get back to us soon as the delivery was expected Friday. Hopefully it will arrive undamaged in it's original box. Here in the UK I see too many 27" iMacs shipped by courier smashed up or with at least the foot bent and mechanism damaged due to inadequate packaging.

 

[Sawday]

Hopefully the OP will get back to us soon as the delivery was expected Friday. Hopefully it will arrive undamaged in it's original box. Here in the UK I see too many 27" iMacs shipped by courier smashed up or with at least the foot bent and mechanism damaged due to inadequate packaging.

Just to add one little bit of info to ally shipping worries. I bought my 27" from MacBank (now MacFinder) here in the UK and is was packed to withstand a direct hit from a neutron bomb - far better than the original packing that my previous 24" came in from Apple.

 

[chscag]

The original 27" iMac packaging that Apple uses here in the US is quite sturdy. It consists of a strong outer box that surrounds the inner box which contains the iMac. I used that same packaging to send an older 27" iMac to my son who lives in the Atlanta, Georgia area. It arrived in perfect condition. Shipping was via UPS.

 

[MacGuy01]

Hi Everyone, the 27" Mac didn't work out so I had to keep looking. I am now the owner of an IMac with either 22" screen or it is what the owner called a 21" wide screen IMac. The "About Computer" says the unit was made in "Late 2009". It is a 3.06 Dual Core. I know that is a bit old but I got the computer for a good price so I am happy for the moment.

The unit is running High Sierra with 4 Gigs of RAM. Yes you read that right. I think the guy I bought it from took the cheap way out. I plan to upgrade the RAM to 12 Gigs. Right now the computer hangs up whenever I am working with large files and I am think an increase of RAM. will help. The hard drive is a platter drive and I am thinking or upgrading it to a SSD.

I was on the Crucial web site trying to run their RAM scan and the Crucial web site keeps taking a halt and giving me a "500" error. Does anyone know what that means?

Also, I can't figure out how to open .pdf files. I have Adobe PDF Reader loaded but I can't get the files to open. Do I maybe need to initialize the .pdf file or something like that?

I am sure I will have other questions as I go along and I'll check in here as I get them. I hope everyone is good.

 

[ferrarr]

What browser are you using to access Crucial? You might nave better luck with Firefox.

PDF files should open with macOS Preview.

Here's the link for Adobe Acrobat Reader,

Adobe - Download Adobe Acrobat Reader

Download free Adobe Acrobat Reader software for your Windows, Mac OS and Android devices to view, print, and comment on PDF documents.

get.adobe.com

 

[Slydude]

Before you invest money in memory for a computer that's more than a decade old try running a simple test to see whether more memory might be useful:

1. Reboot your Mac and log in as usual.
2. Launch Activity Monitor (in the Utilities folder) and click the memory tab. Move the window somewhere where you can see it as you go about your work.
3. Go about your usual activities until things start to slow down. Look at the memory pressure at the bottom of the graph.

Unless you are consistently in the yellow or red your slowdown may be from something else. In a machine of that age, the hard drive would be my next guess.

Here's more information on Activity Monitor See memory usage for your Mac in Activity Monitor

 

[Rod]

Dear MacGuy01, I'm a bit unsure about your intentions with this iMac. I hope you are not expecting it to be your primary device. I have nothing against vintage Macs, I have had one or two myself and if you are just intending this as a way of dipping your toes in the Mac operating system that's fine but this device will be very limited in some areas due to its software and hardware.

High Sierra is MacOSX 10.13 released in 2017 it's the latest MacOSX your 2009 iMac can run. The current macOS, Monterey 12.3 uses a different filing system (APFS) and only runs 64bit applications.

You are correct in thinking 4GB RAM is woefully small even for some applications that are compatible with High Sierra as 2017 Macs generally had 8GB.

Because High Sierra is 5 years old it is no longer supported by Apple for Security updates so if this is an issue for you I would suggest using a third party web browser with its own security updates but 4GB RAM will struggle to open some pages even so.

Last but not least there will be very few apps on the Mac App Store that this device can run.

Having said all that, I have a 2010 MacBook which runs High Sierra quite well with Microsoft Office for MacOS (2016), Express VPN and Brave web browser (because it provides great online security) but it has 8GB RAM. Because I have been a Mac user for many years I was even able to download some old 32bit apps from my Purchase History on the App Store and it makes a great standby device.

Perhapes you are aware of much of this already but I write this just in case you aren't. If for example you are merely intending to use it as a music media manager then it should be adequate although compatibility with your sound system is unknown.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

Hi Everyone, well after years of thinking about it I finally did the deed. I whipped out my credit card and bought an IMac 27 and I am excited.

Have a look at this FREE e-book:


iMac Essentials

‎iMac Essentials

‎Computers & Internet · 2015

books.apple.com

 

[Randy B. Singer]

Macintosh OS High Sierra: The Missing Manual

free e-book

macOS High Sierra: The Missing Manual

Chapter 1. Introduction MacOS High Sierra is the 13th major version of Apple’s Unix-based operating system. It’s got very little in common with the original Mac operating system, the one … - Selection from macOS High Sierra: The Missing Manual [Book]

www.oreilly.com

 

[MacInWin]

For the pdf files, if you want to use Adobe instead of Preview (it's entirely up to you, Preview is fully capable, but if you already have Adobe...) fine a pdf file and right click on it to bring up a menu. One of the items will be Get Info. Click on that and a long skinny window will open with details of the file. At the bottom is an icon of a lock. Click that and enter an admin password (probably your own will do). Then about half way down in that window is a prompt for "Open with" and a selection box. Click the box for alternatives and select the app you want to open the pdf. Right below is "Change all" which you can click to have the system set what you have selected as the default for ALL pdf files. Give it a few seconds to run, then you can close the Get Info window and now you should be able to click or double-click on a file with pdf and it opens in that selected app.

This same process can be used for any and all type files, to associate them with an app of your choice.

 

[slussen2]

Hi Everyone, well after years of thinking about it I finally did the deed. I whipped out my credit card and bought an IMac 27 and I am excited. If UPS does its job it will get delivered sometime this afternoon and then the adventure will begin. Like anything new and shiny I know there is going to be a learning curve and I have some questions which I would appreciate answers to.

I bought the computer from a re-seller in the Tampa, FL area and I have dealt with him before and he gets good reviews so I am pretty confident in my purchase. I have been a PC guy for the past 30 or so years so this is a bit of an adventure for me but I am looking forward to it and as I said I have some questions that I would appreciate answers to:

1) I do not see a network port on the IMacs. Does that mean that they connect to the Internet by WiFi only?
2) I do not see a headphone jack on the IMacs. sound is very important to me as I listen to a lot of high end music on my PC (and I mean quality Celtic Woman, Lauren Daigle, Oonagh, Santiago Helene Fischer and others. None of this R&B or Rap garbage). I have an amazing 5.1 Klipsch THX Cert Promedia sound system on my PC and I am not going to be happy if I can't migrate it over to my IMac.
3) I use flash drives extensively. I have Office 2016 installed on my PC and I will also buy and install it on my IMac (or I may use the free O365 that is bundled with Outlook web based email although I don't think the free O365 has all of the featured that I need). Can the PC based Office be read by an IMac based Office and the reverse?
4) I have 2 printers. One if an HP OfficeJet and the other is a Canon AiO that I mainly use for scanning documents. I have both printers hardwired to my PC with a USB A-B cable and I will eventually do this with my new IMac but in the interim I want to at least set up my IMac to print on my HP OfficeJet. In the past if someone has been in my house with their laptop and needed to print I just go to Devices and Printers-Add a Printer. The client device finds the printer over my WiFi network and then installs a micro-driver onto the client and bada-bing, bada-boom the client is printing. Can this be done with an IMac?
5) At some time I will be connecting a 2nd Monitor to my IMac. I have a Dell 24" BriteView Monitor connected to my PC and it will eventually get connected to my IMac. My new IMac has a Thunderbolt port and I know I can get a Thunderbolt to DVI cable. Is it as simple as connecting my Dell Monitor to my IMac and turning it on or are there hoops to jump through? if there are hoops what are they.

These are all of the questions I can think of for now. I will add that Questions 2 and 4 are must haves and if a way cannot be found to accomplish these tasks then the IMac will be returned. Thanks for the help everyone and see ya around the Forums.

Hi MacGuy, you say, 'sound is very important to me ...' so I thought I'd mention that I bought an M1 iMac, 24" a few months ago, and found I had to turn the bass off for listening to speech, otherwise the sound was just too orotund and diffuse. It was hard to hear what was being said. I wonder whether other users have had a similar experience.

For music the sound is great (but I have left the bass turned down). Still, I'm surprised at the lack of volume. My mobile, a 2019 Huawei, seems to have more power. This is definitely a disadvantage when listening to videos on YouTube, for example.

(Sorry, I thought you were talking about a new iMac! - anyway, my comments are out there.)

 

[pigoo3]

The unit is running High Sierra with 4 Gigs of RAM. Yes you read that right. I think the guy I bought it from took the cheap way out.

If we assume this 2009 iMac (when you got it) had its original 4GB of RAM installed...and original owner never added or removed any RAM...original owner was quite smart!

Apple has (in almost all situations)...has long been known to charge insane prices for RAM upgrades (including Apple computers where the RAM was easily upgradeable by the owner). Apple would typically charge 2-3x for RAM upgrades at the time of purchase.

Hypothetical example. A 16GB RAM upgrade (when this 2009 iMac was new)...could have cost and extra $400 (maybe more). DIY price might have been only $150-$200 in 2009.

- Nick

p.s. Plus...original owner may have been quite happy with 4GB of RAM. 4GB of RAM back in 2009 was pretty good!.

p.p.s. 2009 MacBooks only came with 2GB of RAM.

 

[MacGuy01]

@slussen2 Did Apple install some sort of "Premium" sound in their IMacs? The reason I ask is right now I am using a pair of junk speakers on my IMac and the sound is much better than I thought it would be. I bought them for $5 from a Thrift Store to use with my Dell Laptop and with my laptop the sound is at best average. I hooked them up to my new IMac because I wanted speakers and they sound very good. I am surprised and impressed.