Upgrading iMac Late 2009

locololo2

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Jul 15, 2008
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I might be able to buy my friend's old iMac from Late 2009 for $250. It's in great condition but needs at least a fan replacement.

First off - is this a good deal?

If it's a good deal and I should buy it - what components are upgradeable? I know RAM at least but what else?
 
I work on those kinds of iMacs on a regular basis. Pretty much the RAM and the HDD are the only things that are available for upgrade. Feed it 4-8GB of ram and an SSD and it will run very nicely. The fan replacements can be a pain as it is typically a motherboard level issue that is not really repairable... so you may end up with a noisy iMac, but it so long as the fan is running (ie not dead) then it will run forever.

Note: if you are going to install a SSD then be sure to get the OS install media with it. It will make reinstalling MUCH less of a pain. Oh, and invest in a suction cup and Torx screwdriver set... that HDD is not easy to get to lol. Watch a few online videos on the process before attempting it yourself.

Other than that $250 is not a bad deal for a 2009 iMac. Just know that it is older, so it should be used for web and media use, not a high-end work or gaming machine. Do you know the system specs? CPU etc?