21.5 inch iMacs run hot and tend to fail—Is it Form over Function?

[Chris Gahran]

I believe several members use iMacs in studio as their tethered shooting platform. What's the useful life of an iMac? (BTW, I have some G5 towers that are ten years old and they could be used for daily shooting with FlexColor.)

•  Are 27 inch iMacs more reliable than the more portable 21.5 inch machines? (The bigger case may run cooler.)

•  Are iMacs good for years of use or do you upgrade after 3-4 years?

•  Are iMacs really 2-3 year usage consumer grade computers?

Background: I have two mid-2010, 21.5 inch iMacs for location work. (3.6 Gz Intel Core i5, 4 GB RAM, ATI Radeon HD 5670 video cards with 512 MB VRAM.) I bought them from Apple so I could run OSX 10.6.8 and Rosetta. (I need Rosetta so I can use FlexColor to make 16-shot images when I want.)

The video card on iMac #1 failed a month ago and Apple replaced the card with an identical unit. I fear that card will fail again in four to five years.

iMac #2 is starting to show the same problems iMac #1 exhibited before it would no longer startup. I'm guessing iMac #2 will be in for repairs before Christmas.

I do not see myself buying any new Macs because I believe I need to run Rosetta. Rosetta limits me to OSX 10.6.8 which means iMacs and towers built 2010-2011. (BTW, they have FW800 connectors—Great!)

[NickT]

Chris the 27 I run, (with fusion drive) has been rock solid. I went iMac because the pro was too new for me but I think it (the pro) will be my next upgrade.