iMac 27″ 2011 for sale $200 (was $290)

• CPU Intel  2.7GHz i5-2500s Quad-core
• RAM 8Gb upgradeable to 32Gb
• 27″ 2560 x 1440 display (LED backlit)
• 128 Gb Samsung SSD
• 2 Tb Harddrive
• No keyboard nor mouse included in the price
• Contact via Craigslist Boston-South-Shore
• $290 cash on pickup

Extra Options you might consider

• new black USB keyboard, HP USB mouse + $20
• RAM upgrade from 8Gb to 16 Gb + $40

You could always do these upgrades later yourself, or we could do them while you are here to pickup the computer.

macOS High Sierra installed on Fusion-like SSD-harddrive.

In macOS High Sierra you can pool your SSD and Harddrive together using Core-Storage, which will give you SSD speed for your mostly used files,  you can find an in-depth guide in

• Setting Up a Fusion Drive on Your Current Mac. 

The configuration has to be done from a terminal window.

• Download High Sierra distribution from Apple and save to an USB flashdrive
• install the USB-flashdrive in iMac
• Turn the iMac on, press the Option key when you hear the chime, release on next screen
• select the Orange icon to boot from the USB-flashdrive
• Once booted, start Terminal-App, and enter the commands in the box below

diskutil list
diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ ssd128Gb disk0
diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ hdd2Tb disk1
diskutil list
diskutil cs create fusion disk0s2 disk1s2
diskutil cs list
# note the Core Storage Logical Volume Group UUID, from the above command
LVG_UUID=B7EB3388-6B5A-461F-BC7D-2177B409C88A
diskutil cs createVolume $LVG_UUID jhfs+ Fusion2Tb128Gb 100%
diskutil cs list

When done, shutdown the Terminal-App, and start the install of High Sierra, be sure to select the Volume we just made when the system asks you where you want to install macOS.

This iMac has been cleaned out and High Sierra newest version has been installed as described above.  Ready to use.

Are iMacs from 2011 any Good?

I think they are perfect, most of the Desktop computers in our house are iMacs from 2011, running macOS, Ubuntu and Windows-10

This is the last generation of iMacs that is upgradeable, you can replace, the CPU, graphics card, RAM and disks, (3 SATA controllers), Wifi, and Bluetooth.  All parts including the screen and glass are replaceable, so even if trouble should arise it can be fixed, parts are readily available on Amazon or eBay.

This iMac is perfect for office use, Web-browsing YouTube, NetFlix, and iMacs have brilliant sound and picture, and this iMac still performs almost as well as newer Macs, see below.

The main difference to newer CPUs is that the newer CPUs are much more energy efficient, while performance has only gone up very moderately, quite important for laptops, but not so much for desktops. Equipping these iMacs with a good SSD and as much RAM as you can afford is the best way to get a good system.

With more than 2 Terabytes of disk space, this could act as a server for your video collection or use as a Time-Machine backup server for your MacBooks.

This iMac running High Sierra is ready to be used as an external monitor for your MacBook.

Some youtube videos to get you inspired:

• Here’s why this $400 iMac is one of the best ever!
• Old Macs seem to last forever. Here’s why.
• Setting up Time Machine server in High Sierra – YouTube
• i3 12100F Vs i7 2600 – Budget 12th Gen Vs High-End 2nd Gen

Below I have included the Geekbench 5 result for all the Macs in our household and some newer ones for comparison

Year Model    CPU       Freq   Cores     single multi geekbench

2011 iMac-27  i5-2500s  2.7GHz Quad core, 770   2092

Other Macs in our household
2010 iMac-27              i7-870    2.9GHz Quad core  584   2222
2011 iMac-27              i5-2400   3.1GHz Quad core  665   2134
2011 iMac-27              i7-2600   3.4GHz Quad core  781   2777
2011 MacBook-pro15        i7-2820qm 2.3GHz Quad-core  549   2621
2014 MacBook-pro15-retina i7-4770hq 2.2GHz Quad-core  821   2661
2015 iMac27-retina        i7-6700k  4.0GHz Quad-core  987   3827

Comparison to newer Macs:
2017 Macbook-Air  i5-5350u  1.8GHz Dual-core  655   1350
2018 MacBook-Air  i5-8210y  1.6GHz Dual-core  729   1456
2019 IMac-21      i3-8100   3.6GHz Quad-core  829   3180
2020 iMac-27      i7-10700k 3.8GHz 8-core    1251   8133  newest Intel iMac
2021 iMac-24      Apple-M1  3.2GHz 8-core    1718   7480  newest M1 iMac