Sebuy a secound hand Imac - Help needed.

[pmooreimages]

Hi everyone,

I have been thinking of moving to a mac for a few months now and then today i got offered a good condition Imac by a guy at work. he is not very good with computers so the only stats he has managed to give me are...

its OS 10.5.8
24in silver
duel core
1gb (he thinks) of ram.

does anyone know which model this might be, just im trying to find out the processor speed and how much I can upgrade the ram by (and how much it would cost to upgrade the ram)

Also anyone got an idea on how much i should offer for it?

Thanks in advance,
Pete

[Bandit Bill]

You should try to get more info. from the seller.

If the machine is running, click on the Apple in the top left hand corner. The first item in the drop down menu is "About This Mac". Click on "About This Mac" and it will display the system information, including the amount of memory in this machine. There is another button that reads " more info" click on "more info" for more details about the Mac.

I think all of the 24" aluminum iMacs are upgradable to 8GB of RAM.

[pmooreimages]

thanks bandit, Ill relay the message to him on monday.

[Bandit Bill]

[pmooreimages]

Yer ive been having a look at refurbs for awhile, before this offer i was planning on getting a mac mini. I can probably get this Imac for about $500. Im just hopping that it has a reasonable processor and as you say can be upgraded to 4gb of ram atleast otherwise It wont be much use to me.

[Bandit Bill]

If you can get a 24" iMac for $500, I would purchase it.

Outlined in red is lowest end 24" aluminum iMac. It's a good machine. If you max out the RAM to 4GB you'll be in good shape.

[Cypher]

I have the 20" mid 2007 aluminium iMac 2.0GHz Core 2 duo, the one to the left of the highlighted section in Bandit Bills post. I bought it as the aluminium model was introduce in Aug 07 and it's still going strong. After about 6 months I upped the ram to 4GB initially it was only 1GB

I'm still happy with the performance of the whole system and I don't see a need to even think about updating it yet. The only reason I can see at the moment as a justification to upgrade, would be to get a larger screen.

These iMac's came with 10.4.0 Tiger, yours has 10.5 Leopard so it may be newer which would give it a faster processor

I'm not sure of US prices but $500 seems pretty ok to me. If some one offered me a 24" iMac for £300UKP (approx equivalent) I'd buy it.
_________________
Phil

Mac Mini 2.53GHz - iMac 2.0Ghz - Macbook Pro 2.4GHz - iPad 1 32GB 3G
6TB Netgear Ready NAS NV+ - 6TB Drobo S

[macmanmacman]

dang 500 i would buy it

[pmooreimages]

the problem is that i work in the graphic / print / web industry so I want to make sure the processor is a work horse and the ram can be upgraded a fair bit to help console for the crappy graphics card.

The price i was offerd it is actualy £500 (yer im a brit) but for easy on conversation with bandit I said $500 as the new mac here would cost about the same as a new mac in the US (as in £1000 here or $1000 there).

I know its a very good deal, especialy as its barly ever been used or even taken out the box but just need to make sure it is good enough for my needs. :/

[pmooreimages]

After reading Cypher's reply I had a look at the release date on Mac OS 10.5.8 which was on August 5, 2009. So unless im getting confussed some how that would mean that this mac would be the one on the Far right of Bandits list above? (ofc providing he hasnt updated the OS, but he said he will do a new install with the orginal disks before I buy)

Are there any 24in aluminium, intelduel core Imacs produced after that one that anyone knows about?


(the guy im buying off is completely computer illiterate and is still having trouble giving me any more details.)

[Cypher]

Did you find out what processor was in the iMac ?

Where about's in the UK are you ?
_________________
Phil

Mac Mini 2.53GHz - iMac 2.0Ghz - Macbook Pro 2.4GHz - iPad 1 32GB 3G
6TB Netgear Ready NAS NV+ - 6TB Drobo S

[Cypher]

Chances are it's an earlier model which has had software updates applied to get to 10.5.8. It could have originally come with Tiger 10.4.0 and he may have upgraded to Leopard 10.5.0 and software updates pushed it up to 10.5.8

As you say he's not computer literate it may well be a original Leopard machine . Leopard was released in late October 2007 so I'd say it more likely to be the one Bandit highlighted or maybe the next model.
_________________
Phil

Mac Mini 2.53GHz - iMac 2.0Ghz - Macbook Pro 2.4GHz - iPad 1 32GB 3G
6TB Netgear Ready NAS NV+ - 6TB Drobo S

[pmooreimages]

nope still waiting on the processor info...starting to get a little annoyed with all the waiting for info tbh but if it gets me a cheep mac It will be worth it

In down in one of the silly fishing towns in Kent. how about yourself mate?

Thanks, it seems i was having a blond moment and thinking the auto updates where completely differant OS releases lol.

[Cypher]

I'm up North, pretty close to Manchester.

As Bandit Bill mentioned he just needs to click on the Apple Logo in the top left menu bar, and select About this Mac. He should then see a pop up like this with the info you need


_________________
Phil

Mac Mini 2.53GHz - iMac 2.0Ghz - Macbook Pro 2.4GHz - iPad 1 32GB 3G
6TB Netgear Ready NAS NV+ - 6TB Drobo S

[pmooreimages]

Oddly i finaly got the info today! It is the exact model Bandit has highlighted above without any of the upgrades (thanks bandit) I am going to see if i can knock him down on the price a little more but will probably buy it even if i cant

Thanks for all the help guys and i look forward to joining the ranks of the Mac users (well...personal Mac users..I use a Mac Pro at work)