When to buy

When to buy: a reader asks…

I’m thinking that it’s about time for me to get a new computer. My 2006 iMac has served me well, but the hard drive is failing and the monitor flickers. Plus, it’s slowed down as I’ve updated OS X, seems like I’m always seeing the spinning beach ball. I’m thinking a new iMac but am wondering if now’s the right time?

The rumor mills for the release of a new iMac are pointing to the fall of 2016, possibly about the same time that Apple releases the iPhone 7. So if you can wait a few months, it might be worth it. Not just because you’d get the latest one out (though you might), but that once a new model comes out, the price drops on leftover stock of the older model iMac. Even last year’s model is still going to be a significant upgrade from what you have now.

Your 10-year-old iMac has given you great service and I think you’ve gotten a good return on your investment, but a lot has changed since then. For one thing, the amount of RAM that you can (and should) get with an iMac is much greater than a decade ago. Back then, 2gb of RAM was considered sufficient, nowadays 8gb is considered the norm.

Hard drives have been significantly improved, a speedy Solid-State Drive (SSD) is much more reliable and faster than the old spinning hard drives. The amount of hard drive storage space has probably not changed too much. Speedy SSDs don’t have the monster capacity that you see in traditional hard drives, but with all the online storage facilities now, it’s not as important.

And the screen resolution has improved as well, you can get a Retina screen that’s gorgeous and at either 4k or 5k of pixel density. The new iMacs are substantially thinner and lighter than your old one. The one thing you’ll have to get used to is the lack of a built-in CD/DVD drive. Even your mouse and keyboard are improved – both are wireless. You can opt for a trackpad instead of a mouse as well if you prefer.

So if it’s not a problem to wait for the newest models to be announced (certainly by November at the latest, more likely September), then that would be a good time to buy a new iMac. But there is something to be said for not waiting around, there’s always going to be new models released and you could keep on waiting forever. Not to mention that it sounds like your old iMac is on its last legs, you don’t want to wait till it’s crashed and died before getting the replacement.

In the meantime, you should take the first opportunity to make a good backup (Time Capsule/Time Machine or just a thumbdrive copy of all your personal files) so that if your iMac should die, at least you don’t lose those files. That could be more painful than the loss of the computer itself…