Apple iMac ME088LL/A Late 2013, Intel Core i5-4570 3.2GHz 16GB DDR3 RAM 1TB HDD storage - 27in, Silver (Renewed)

BRIEF SUMMARY:If you’re in the Apple ecosystem - either by choice or because you need to run a certain application - this late 2013 iMac may well be a good investment if you have a clear understanding of your needs and shop carefully. Being able and willing to undertake upgrades may allow you to extend the usable life of the Mac. I’m currently running the latest versions of Adobe Photoshop CC, Lightroom CC, and Bridge with excellent performance - Logic Pro X, Ableton Live 10, FL Studio 20, and the 2019 version of Microsoft Office are also running flawlessly and smoothly. If you are looking for an affordable and usable Mac, this may well be a good choice.FULL REVIEW:If you’re looking for an affordable and reasonably fast iMac for things such as digital photography, video editing, or digital music production, a late 2013 iMac may be a reasonable choice. I would strongly suggest that - before you make an investment of $1,000 to $1,500 in a refurbished iMac - you do a bit of homework to decide on what your needs are and what, if any, upgrades you might be willing to make. There are several YouTube videos that review this particular iMac, so I won’t repeat everything that’s already out there on the web. Start with YouTube reviews.What I did, which I would not suggest for everyone, was purchase a refurbished iMac and then performed a series of upgrades. The iMac that I purchased was a late-2013 27-inch iMac with:Intel 3.4 GHz Core i5-4670 CPUnVidia GeForce 775M GPU with 2 GB VRAM16 GB DDR3 1600 MHz RAM1 TB mechanical hard drive (7200 rpm)I purchased mine from TechDeals4Less and was very happy with the service - the iMac came very well packaged and shipped with a brand new Apple Magic Keyboard and Mouse, which run about $150 if you were to purchase them new. There was a small chip out of the lefthand corner display glass; otherwise, the iMac looked brand new. It came with a fresh installation of macOS High Sierra, which is a very good choice for an OS since it will run both 32-bit and 64-bit applications without complaint. It’s stable and still being updated by Apple.This baseline configuration is pretty usable as is. The single biggest issue is that the mechanical hard drive by current standards is very slow. I clocked boot time from system chime to login screen at 73 seconds and hard disk read/write speeds (using Blackmagic Disk Speed app) at 175 MB/s. That’s OK, but would become somewhat irritating in all day use. In 2020, a mechanical hard drive seems ancient.I ended up performing a series of upgrades to the system using primarily a combination of instructional videos from iFixIt and OWC. If you want to max out this particular iMac, here’s what you could do:- Upgrade the RAM to a max of 32 GB - this is trivial since the RAM can be accessed by opening the small door in the back of the unit - I went with two 16 GB kits from Timetec and, so far, the system is running well - you can install up to 4 DIMMs - Upgrade the hard drive to an SSD - this makes a pretty significant difference, but is a moderately difficult operation since you have to literally cut the glass display from the chassis - the glass is glued in place by Apple using adhesive tape (no joke) around the perimeter - this has to be carefully cut and the display lifted away - the OWC tutorial on this is absolutely the best - I replaced the stock mechanical HDD with a Crucial MX500 1 TB SSD drive and am getting read/write speeds of about 460 MB/s on the SATA3 connection - if you do this, keep in mind that you’ll need a 3.5” SSD adapter, which will run about $20 - Install an NVMe PCIe SSD drive - this will give you the maximal performance, but requires a full system tear down to remove the logic board - the PCIe adapter is on the back of the logic board and uses a proprietary 12+16 slot, so you’ll need an adapter, such as the one sold by Sintech. All of the 27” iMacs from late 2013 have the NVMe slot - if you purchase a 21” iMac, ONLY the ones that came with a fusion drive will have this - also, be aware that the PCIe is only 2-channel (PCIe x2), so you won’t get blazing speeds - several reviewers suggested going with a decent, but not top of the line NVMe drive, which I think is reasonable - I ended up using a Sabrent Rocket Q 1 TB NVMe PCIe drive and am pretty happy with it - I’m getting about 750 MB/s read/write speed and am using it for my boot and application drive - this upgrade made the biggest single difference in system performance - system boot time dropped to 19 seconds and applications load very quickly - I would not really recommend upgrading the CPU - the max that the system will support is the Intel 3.5 GHz Core i7-4771 (4 cores, 8 threads) CPU - the upgrade is difficult and you risk irreparable damage to your system if you try this - I did, but I would not want to do it again - check out the IFixIt page for information as to how this is accomplished - I found a new i7-4771 CPU here on Amazon - upgrading from the stock 3.4 GHz (dual core) to the 3.5 GHz (quad core) brought a 30% improvement in Cinenbench 20 scores, which is decent since I want to use this for video editing - again, this is a difficult undertaking and you need to be sure that your skills and toolset are up for itKeep in mind that the GPU and VRAM are not upgradeable - you’d have to swap out a logic board in order to do this. The options in 2013 for a 27” iMac were:3.2 GHz Core i5 with Nvidia GeForce GTX 750M with 1 TB VRAM3.4 GHz Core i5 with Nvidia GeForce GTX 755M with 2 TB VRAM(optional) upgraded system to 3.5 GHz Core i7(optional upgraded system to Nvidia GeForce GTX 780M with 4 GB VRAMObviously, the GTX 780M GPU with 4 GB VRAM would give the best video performance, but you’ll have to shop around to find one of these (relatively rare) units - you might need to troll eBay in order to locate one.RECOMMENDATIONS:If you’re looking for an affordable (by Apple standards..) iMac for general computing, this late 2013 model may be a very good choice. The 27 inch monitor is still gorgeous, even if it isn’t a Retina display, and at 2K resolution, is very nice. In terms of specs, I would suggest looking for a refurbished unit with:- 3.4 GHz Core i5 or 3.5 GHz Core i7 CPU - either of these will give very acceptable performance and will come with at least the GeForce GTX 755M GPU and 2 GB VRAM - An SSD drive - a traditional mechanical hard drive is simply too slow - you’ll probably want at least a 512 GB drive - you could use an external drive for file storage if neededDon’t worry about RAM - that is very easy to upgrade and very affordable - you can max out at 32 GB, which is more than enough for most needsI should also mention that the latest operating system that can be installed is macOS Catalina (version 10.15) - at the time of this review, macOS Big Sur (version 10.16) is out in beta, but may not support this model. I’m running macOS Mohave (version 10.14.6), which is the last version of macOS that still supports 32-bit applications. I may or may not upgrade to Catalina. We’ll see.So far, I’ve been really happy with this iMac. It runs all of the apps that I need with very good performance. I think a refurbished late 2013 iMac is still a pretty good deal.Good luck!--2020 Aug 21 Update:I just upgraded the system to macOS Catalina - everything went very smoothly. The only casualty in terms of 32-bit applications was TextWrangler, which is now owned by BBEdit. Other than that, everything is working and I can confirm that you can upgrade without hiccup to Catalina.

Great computer, for a great price - until I couldn't get any audio no matter what I tried. I updated the system to OSX 10. Went to download my work apps, and they aren't supported because they require OSX 11. Apple doesn't support OSX11 on pre 2015 models. This is a late 2013. So it's entirely useless for my purposes, even if the speakers worked. I will return.

I highly recommend this company on Amazon, I ordered it and it came within 20 hours. Opened up and I am amazed and extremely impressed! It’s beautiful clean and it works Amazing as if it were a 5,000 dollar brand new one, If your wise, you will purchase from this company and Amazon! I am in love, it’s so worth the money, no marks, everything works meticulously superb!! Wireless keyboard and mouse! I am now going to get a Apple super optical drive to complete it❤️❤️ This company is professional and prompt! I am so impressed, I had to make sure I wrote a review as soon as possible! They must have top Internet Technicians working here, because it shows! I am so very happy I chose this company, Top Notch and first class service!! Thank You very much for delivering this magnificent masterpiece Apple Computer! I will recommend your company to everyone I know!

Provide you with a temporary mouse and keyboard so you can start it up. Comes in very good condition and is safely packaged. Mine was bubble wrapped in side a thicker bible wrap in a huge box. Works great aside from the occasional shutting down when it needs to fix itself.

After reviewing a lot of iMac computers on Amazon I honed in on this iMac ME088LL/A Intel Core i5-4570 X4 3.2GHz 16GB memory 1TB HD 27",Silver (Certified Refurbished). I'm using it to record music with a few different DAW's (Digital Audio Workstation's). Music is a hobby and passion I have enjoyed since I was young. I've found this iMac to be able to do what I need it for and so far...so good!! I have upgraded to High Sierra OS and not a problem using the programs I use as mentioned. I wanted/needed the large 27" screen as my (older eyes) need all the help I can get. I have recorded with various plugins for guitar/keyboard and this iMac never blinks. I purchased it from a vendor (wish I could remember their name) in California through Amazon and they did an excellent job with the shipping/packing and the included Apple mouse and keyboard and everything works as it should. Honestly I have no complaints about my purchase and am grateful to Amazon and the vendor in California for having a great experience in purchasing it and really enjoying it. Thanks again for another great shopping experience here on Amazon!!!Apple iMac ME088LL/A Intel Core i5-4570 X4 3.2GHz 16GB 1TB 27", Silver (Certified Refurbished)

This iMac was advertised as coming with a fresh Mojave install. Ours was installed with High Sierra, and despite contacting the seller, we were not able to update the OS further online. After only 3 months, the apps we use have higher minimum requirements than this system can provide, so we tried reinstalling the OS hoping to solve its inability to upgrade. Still unable to update. This is virtually useless to us. I should have returned it immediately when it did not come as described.

Did not come with original apple mouse or keyboard. Had damage around the speakers. Not sure if it was from shipping or what.

I am happy. It was well packed, easy to set up and runs like a champ. It is faster than my two year old PC and handles my graphics easily. My only complaint was the teeny tiny keyboard. I bought a regular size one and I'm 100% thrilled. If you buy one google the .pdf quick start guide for the model you are buying as it did not come with instructions. Most thrilling was putting in my Apple ID and having my laptop sync through the cloud! Got all my files easy peasy. LOVE.