What can I do with my 2011 iMac 27"

October 10, 2021 10:41 AM

I purchased it new, packed it away four years ago when moving, and never opened it again. I want to restore it to factory defaults and find a way to use it. Have you done this? Any suggestions? If it can't be used, can it be recycled? Thanks!
posted by racersix6 to Computers & Internet (10 answers total)

If you are so inclined, you could install Linux on it.
posted by Too-Ticky at 10:45 AM on October 10, 2021 [5 favorites]

You can use it as a monitor.
posted by mumkin at 11:02 AM on October 10, 2021 [5 favorites]

I was using mine until I upgraded last year. They're decent machines. Mumkin is right, the older ones can be used as a secondary monitor (newer ones can't) so if you have a newer iMac or even a laptop, try it out.
posted by jessamyn at 11:30 AM on October 10, 2021 [4 favorites]

I picked up a 24-inch 2011 the other day and it's proven to be a pretty capable machine. With a suction cup and a Torx bit it's not terribly difficult to add an SSD: https://www.ifixit.com/Device/iMac_Intel_27%22_EMC_2429 and the machine really benefits. Our son uses it for remote learning and very light gaming - for him it's an upgrade from the 2012 Mac Mini he was using. Perfectly suitable for web browsing, music, movies and the like.

The most modern version of Mac OS that it'll run is 10.13.6 - If you connect it to the internet and hold down Command-Option-R after the startup chime it'll boot into Internet Recovery mode and download a clean copy of 10.13.
posted by Nekosoft at 11:33 AM on October 10, 2021 [2 favorites]

If you use Internet Recovery to erase the hard drive and/or reinstall an older version of OS X, you may run into a "This Item is Temporarily Unavailable" error message. You may need to adjust the date and time with a placeholder value. The linked item describes the problem and the solution in more detail.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 12:53 PM on October 10, 2021 [2 favorites]

Also seconding iFixit's instructions. Adding an SSD is an easy way to extend the life of an older iMac by another 5-7 years. iMacs are built to last, generally.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 3:56 PM on October 10, 2021 [1 favorite]

If I had one I would use it as an iTunes remote control to connect to the main computer.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 5:33 PM on October 10, 2021 [1 favorite]

I'm using a 2010 Mac mini and a 2011 iMac 24" ... for the iMac I was able upgrade to High Sierra, max out the ram on my own, and buy a lightning ssd hard drive and use it as the default boot drive, which vastly sped up overall performance. It's snappier than my 2013 MacBook Air and is still quite functional as a school computer and fortnite gaming machine for my son. If the mini ever dies it'll act as a replacement media server (I use Plex) until I finally save up for an M1.
posted by furtive at 6:44 PM on October 10, 2021 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Thank you all so much! This is great information.
posted by racersix6 at 7:04 PM on October 10, 2021

there is a way to get it to run versions of osX that require "metal" .. it involves upgrading the gpu .. it is not for the faint of heart but it is not impossible. if you do this, you could run Mojave, Catalina, maybe big sur (but.. probably not for long.) People are still very avidly doing this , as evidenced by this massive 657 page long thread on Mac rumors. There are several long, thorough youtube videos as well on it, one memorable one featured some.. I think.. German siblings, two brothers, showing how they did it (in English.)

hope this helps!
posted by elgee at 9:54 PM on October 10, 2021 [1 favorite]