Brad, what’s your recommendation for a new Mac mini set up including a external drive to store pictures? Processor go with i7? Memory 16gb? Storage 256? Monitor BenQ 4K HDR? Anything else?

My 2008 IMac has the symptoms as everybody else on this thread and it’s time to retire it!

Thanks for your advice!
Rex

I dont understand. How do you go further than an iMac Pro 27? On the near horizon, Intel doesnt have anything more powerful than a many core Xeon. Even an i9 is no match. The pro goes higher on RAM now. Sure with a Hackintosh you might be able to tweak a bit more out of it, but will the OS truly support beyond normal spec? How many cores do you need? Also the reality with video card, is that if you are pushing hard on video, an iMac is not the most proper tool, going Mac Pro tower gives the room for pro level video.

Something sounds very wrong. I don't like the fusion drive, but it is still faster than your old stuff. I would say there is still something wrong. Take it to Apple and complain nicely. It needs to be fixed and if not, replaced. If you do get it replaced, asked them to replace it with a SSD (pay the difference). Good luck.

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~Brad

My iMac died a about 6 months ago.
Was a 27" iMac with Fusion drive.
It was the drive that failed and because I stupidly encrypted the back up drive with an iMac suggested password, I lost everything apart from a couple of files I had on a usb drive.
Having said all that, now that I have got over being super pissed, I will buy another iMac (but SSD only, no more fusion drives for me) so am also pissed that nothing has been announced.
I don't think I can wait too much longer (currently using a 2011 24" iMac that is as slow as a wet week) so may have to buy the current model.

Two suggestions, password manager and online backup of critical data.

This one is supposed to be pretty good.

If you encrypted with file vault, it is usually tied to your icloud account and they can usually help you recover. Same with the suggested password should be synced with your icloud keychain if you had that syncing to icloud as well. Good luck!

I agree 100%, I always recommend an SSD over Fusion. Too many failures with the fusion.

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~Brad

I dunno. Someone who encrypts their drive probably doesn't want to share their data with foreign governments.

Anyway, just stumbled onto this thread and I'm always amused how so many people assume its the computer, not them that's wrong. My dad is notorious for this. I spent some time with him the other day and deleted a ton of unnecessary apps from his system tray and deleted some malware which was running. And look at that, after a few restarts, its performing a lot better.

Better yet, backup what you need, and format the computer. In some instances yes, it won't go back to how fast it was when you first bought it (due to the OS updates) but often times you'll see it's a lot better. I recently formatted my 2013 i5 Lenovo laptop which was nothing special - upped the ram to 16gb and put in a Samsung SSD. Works like a charm. I don't need to stay logged in because bootup takes what, 10 seconds?

I love my work MacbookPro, (well, not the usb-c ports) but I'm too cheap to spend money on a Mac for myself.

That's great. Sorry this post has turned into a Mac vs PC debate which was NOT the original query. Don't get a new computer if you don't need to. Like I said, I have gone on 8yrs with some of mine. It was only when the software would no longer comply and I use a lot of power with what I do.

No iCloud account for me and it doesn't even matter anymore as to the files that I lost.
I don't really need them anymore anyway (new business) and the really critical stuff I had either on the usb or reconstructed them using hard copies of the critical information
Might even go for the iMac pro. Pretty much all I will ever need and should last me a long time with no fusion drive (hopefully!)

Total aside. I have two 15 or 17" 2008 mbp's that start flawlessly

I bought a new 13" in 2013. It's shit, a lemon, 3 HD fails

I'm told its a fault in some cable, stopped using it. Went to pc and its been great, but my last mac was a disaster

I am looking at a new one, but will probably look for a warranty or more where I buy it as the last one was bad