iceaxe wrote:From the Apple site:
These Mac models are compatible with OS X El Capitan:
iMac (Mid 2007 or newer)
So, I'm assuming I can just upgrade to latest and greatest first thing, then install software...?
My wife has a mid 2011 2.7 core i5 with 12gb of ram. It's running el-capitan and I do not envy that machine. Mind you, she's not running audio. She's a photographer, but still, even day to day stuff, it's really sluggish.
The advice to buy refurb from Apple is solid. I don't know what country you're in, but check this out -
http://www.apple.com/shop/product/FGX82 ... na-display
$1150
I've got the same machine and it's pretty kick ass, I run it clam shell, hooked up to a 27 inch Ben Q monitor. You should definitely consider something like that over that iMac. Bump up $200 more dollars and you can get a 2013 iMac -
http://www.apple.com/shop/browse/home/s ... ac/imac/27
Remember, like mentioned above, those machines come with the 1 year Apple warranty and the option to extend to 3 years with Apple Care.
Based on that, the iMac you listed just isn't worth the money.
The flip side is that you could chose not to upgrade to El Capitan - keep it on Snow Leopard because if it's primarily a music machine, why not? Run it with an older version of Live - again, why not? As long as the features are there that you need.
The cool thing about this is that it opens up a whole shit load of cheap second hand hardware options because now you can run all the audio interfaces that aren't supported on El Capitan (or even Yosemite). You can find a lot of shit that people paid decent money for a few years back that is going for peanuts now if you look around on eBay and on sites like Reverb.
Even so, man, at $1200 it just doesn't seem worth it for that machine you listed.
Thanks in advance!