My twin 24" iMacs are each eight years old, and they answer my needs in every particular save RAM, which is capped at a level preposterously low by current standards (both, at least, have been upgraded from the niggardly portion of RAM that figured in their original configurations). The lower-end of the current iMac lineup can't even be upgraded, not by the user, not by Apple, not by God: you'd better be prepared to live with the specs of the machine as ordered and delivered.

If the machine at BDS will slog along for another twenty months without its hard disk* expiring in the traces, and given the faltering demand for my work product, I will use it to the end of my career and take it home** late next year. If it does crap out on me much*** before 10/17, I'd probably replace it with a 27" iMac w/SSD and a hefty dollop of memory.

Macs have had a good long run these latter years: 'twas not always thus, but most of the past decade's machines since the Great Processor Shift have held their value and functionality for a good long time. Perhaps (or would it be cynical to speculate?) this has not escaped the notice of the beancounters at Infinity Loop.

cordially,

*Yes, this could be replaced with a more durable SSD of equal capacity, but I have heard it said that in many instances the iMac display is never the same once the case has been cracked. Certainly my home machine, the hard disk of which failed under its previous owner, bears subtle but ugly yellow blotches on its screen, apparently a consequence of invasive surgery.

**I am accumulating an embarrassingly large inventory of mothballed Macintoshes at home in addition to the six that are in daily or occasional use there.

***Depends how long before quitting time this catastrophe occurs. If it's a matter of a few months, I could run my remaining functions off the MBP—certainly I wouldn't drop a couple of grand on a new machine with fewer than four months remaining before I'm unchained from the oar.