2008 iMac getting too old?

nztim · Post by **nztim** » Thu Dec 04, 2014 8:04 am

I have been offered a 2008 iMac pretty much the same sorta deal as this.. http://www.trademe.co.nz/computers/desk ... 475978.htm

Would it be worth it? I just want to set it up in my studio full time for recording. I have a Presonus Firepod interface and will most likely just be using garage band or reaper. I just don't want to buy it and have to upgrade it next year...

Side note, those who use garage band if I did go ahead would I be able to transfer garage band projects between the two? (Over network or USB)

TmcB · Post by **TmcB** » Thu Dec 04, 2014 8:19 am

I have a 2009 MacBook that's still going strong using logic x
What I'd suggest is to max out the RAM and get an SSD in there and it'll do the biz.

sopachrga · Post by **sopachrga** » Thu Dec 04, 2014 8:46 am

I have a 2009 iMac at home (8GB Ram), which is starting to struggle with heavily loaded Logic sessions.
It'd be fine with a few tracks in Garage band etc. But a big pile of some newer plugins and Logic Pro x can start to make it stutter.

nztim · Post by **nztim** » Thu Dec 04, 2014 10:42 am

Ahh, its only got 2gb of ram so that would be doubling my price just to up that... Then add a SSD and Ive trippled it.. Might see what bartering I can do.

rickenbackerkid · Post by **rickenbackerkid** » Thu Dec 04, 2014 10:52 am

getting old in the tooth, but should be fine for that use. More RAM will probably be needed. If you want a good deal on RAM/SDD pm me for mates rates.

TmcB · Post by **TmcB** » Thu Dec 04, 2014 11:02 am

nztim wrote:Ahh, its only got 2gb of ram so that would be doubling my price just to up that... Then add a SSD and Ive trippled it.. Might see what bartering I can do.

Sounds like you'd do better keeping your ear to the ground for something with better specs to be honest.

druz15 · Post by **druz15** » Thu Dec 04, 2014 11:08 am

nztim wrote:Ahh, its only got 2gb of ram so that would be doubling my price just to up that... Then add a SSD and Ive trippled it.. Might see what bartering I can do.

get RAM and SSD from crucial, way cheaper than Mac stuff.

I got 16GB RAM upgrade for my MBP for $185 landed

Post by **Capt. Black** » Fri Dec 05, 2014 9:50 am

Yeah getting as much ram as you can fit is going to make it work better. Regardless of the age. Newer computers still like lots of ram and that's about the cheapest thing you can do to make it faster.

Having said that, it's getting harder to find FireWire drive cases now so I recommend holding out for anything running usb3. Not so much for the recording and mixing, any FireWire 400 or usb2 drive can handle heaps of tracks. But when you need to back up or move larger projects around, usb3 is light years faster. The more you do, the more often you'll be wanting to load and backup older projects.

Post by **Capt. Black** » Fri Dec 05, 2014 9:55 am

Sorry just adding to that thought. You can use usb3 drives on a usb2 computer so I'd buy them as a matter of course. All you can get these days anyway. Do all your recording and mixing off the external drives. That way you don't clog up your main mac drive and if you take the project to another mac, it's likely that will have usb3 and therefore making it easier to share or hand off projects you might collaborate on.

Just thinking ahead/aloud.

rickenbackerkid · Post by **rickenbackerkid** » Fri Dec 05, 2014 12:07 pm

good advice Capt.

sty · Post by **sty** » Fri Dec 05, 2014 12:15 pm

Just to add some input.

I think my wife has a very similar iMac to that. might be a year older, but it seems absolutely fine for most things and only really struggles with video compression/processing but still gets through it.

BUT as has been said get the RAM maxed out, it's a very low cost/high value upgrade and buy it from Crucial. On our iMac it was a very simple upgrade as there's an easily accessible port on the bottom specifically to get at the RAM so no excuse not to do it. OS X has always loved lots of memory to get the best performance out of it.

Those macs have loads of usb (and I think a Firewire port) on the back.

Now it would be a great idea to put an SSD in it, but last time I looked at changing the actual hard drive in that iMac it looked like a very major job (and I"m used to opening up my laptops and computers and upgrading all sorts of stuff, and chipping consoles etc. so it scared me) so personally I wouldn't go there.

rickenbackerkid · Post by **rickenbackerkid** » Fri Dec 05, 2014 12:44 pm

Those macs are somewhat of a pain to repalce drives in. I've done a couple at work and it's a fairly large undertaking

Tonemaker · Post by **Tonemaker** » Fri Dec 05, 2014 4:07 pm

I'm not sure you can just drop in any ole ssd drive, the last ones sent for repair had firmware that runs the fans on the hdds for some reason, so I was told.

Kris · Post by **Kris** » Fri Dec 05, 2014 6:10 pm

No USB 3 on them,one of the reasons I ditched mine and got a newer mini.small enough to put in a bag and take to the jam room for tracking.128g sd and run sessions from externals on usb3,although does get glitchy once the tracks start to mount up

Post by **Capt. Black** » Wed Dec 10, 2014 7:34 pm

Kris wrote:No USB 3 on them,one of the reasons I ditched mine and got a newer mini.small enough to put in a bag and take to the jam room for tracking.128g sd and run sessions from externals on usb3,although does get glitchy once the tracks start to mount up

Really? How many tracks you talking about?

I have to say that I've had a great run from USB3 drives so far. And to their credit, I do more video editing from them that audio mixing. Which is far more taxing on the drive. I usually take one along to any gigs I record and track straight to the drive. I also download video footage to the drive via my laptop as that is faster.
But then I just hook em up to my my not so new Mac Pro which only has USB2 and happily mix audio or cut video from them.

What I have found is that the cables that come with the drives in the box, are super flaky! About 50% attrition rate!!! Just when I think a drive is crapping out in the middle of a job I change that cable and magic! Fixed.

NZGuitars.com : Filling you with GAS since 2003