Apple iMac MNED2LL/A Silver 2017

The 5K Retina display is the absolute star here, but the 7th-gen Intel Core i5 is a real letdown, ranking in the bottom 14th percentile for CPU performance. With only 8GB of RAM, multitasking is a chore. Grab it for around $510 if you just want a beautiful screen for light tasks, but skip it for anything demanding.

Let's be real about the engine under this beautiful hood. The Intel Core i5-7600K is a 4-core chip from 2017, and it feels like it. In our database, it's a weak spot, falling well behind modern silicon. You can browse the web, stream video, and handle office docs without much fuss, but don't expect to edit 4K video or compile code quickly. The Radeon Pro 580 with 8GB of VRAM is a middle-of-the-pack performer, landing in the 56th percentile. It can handle light photo editing and some older games, but it's not a gaming or rendering powerhouse. The real bottleneck is the 8GB of DDR4 RAM, which is a paltry amount by today's standards, ranking in the bottom 2nd percentile. You'll feel the pinch with more than a few apps or browser tabs open. The 2TB Fusion Drive, a hybrid of a small 128GB SSD and a large HDD, gives you lots of space but feels sluggish compared to a pure SSD. macOS will live on the fast SSD portion, so boot times are okay, but loading large files from the spinning hard drive is a waiting game.

Stacked against modern all-in-ones, this iMac is a screen-first purchase. A new M1 or M3 iMac will demolish it in CPU and GPU tasks while sipping power and running silently. Even a budget Windows desktop like the Lenovo Legion Tower 5i or HP OMEN 16L will offer dramatically better performance for gaming and productivity, though you'll need to supply your own monitor. The Dell Tower ECT1250 and iBUYPOWER Slate are also in a different performance league. The only reason to choose this 2017 iMac over any of them is the 5K display. If you don't absolutely need that specific screen, every single competitor here is a smarter buy for the computer itself.

Pricing on these refurbished units is all over the map, ranging from $510 to $660. At the low end, you're basically buying a gorgeous 5K monitor that happens to have a functional computer inside. That's a decent deal if you just need a stunning display for a Mac mini or MacBook Air docked on your desk. But at $660, the value proposition crumbles. For that money, you're creeping into used M1 iMac territory, which will run circles around this Intel model in every performance metric. If you're set on this model, hunt for the $510 deal and don't pay a penny more.

The 2017 iMac 5K is a tale of two computers. That 27-inch Retina display is still a knockout, hitting a 5120 x 2880 resolution that makes text and images look incredibly sharp. It's the main reason to consider this machine in 2024, and our data shows it's backed by top-tier reliability scores, landing in the 99th percentile. But you're buying a screen with a computer attached, and that computer is showing its age. The 7th-gen Intel Core i5 sits in the 14th percentile for CPU performance, which means it's slower than the vast majority of desktops we test today.

Anyone who needs to do real work should look elsewhere. The CPU is in the 14th percentile, and the 8GB of RAM is in the bottom 2nd percentile, making this a poor choice for video editing, software development, or even heavy multitasking. If you're a student, a creative professional, or someone who likes to keep dozens of browser tabs open, this machine will frustrate you daily. Gamers should also steer clear, as the Radeon Pro 580 is a mid-range card from 2017 that will struggle with modern titles.

Buy this for the screen, not the computer. The 27-inch 5K Retina display is genuinely fantastic and makes this a compelling purchase if you can snag it at the low end of the price range, around $510. Think of it as a high-end monitor with a built-in web-browsing and media-streaming machine. For any task beyond basic office work, the aging CPU and paltry 8GB of RAM will be a constant source of frustration. If you need a computer that can keep up with modern apps, save up for an Apple Silicon iMac. This one is a specialty item for a very specific, undemanding user.