This version of the Early 2013/Late 2013 iMac is stripped back and only available to educational institutions; it is not available for sale to individuals. To cut $200 and make this a $1099 computer, Apple scaled back from a 2.7 GHz quad-core i5 CPU to a 3.3 GHz dual-core i3, reduced hard drive storage capacity, but kept the Thunderbolt port. This model’s 4 GB of system memory, Intel HD Graphics 4000 with shared system memory, and 500 GB hard drive are lower spec than what the consumer model has. Other than that, this model appears to be identical to the entry-level consumer iMac. This model also shipped with a slightly earlier version of OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2) versus the consumer model which shipped with 10.8.4.

You get slightly faster RAM over last year as well at 1600 MHz versus the Late 2011’s 1333 MHz DDR3. 

(Above: Early 2013 iMac ports, shown from Quickstart guide on Apple’s website)

Intel HD 4000 Graphics and shared video memory

The Intel HD line of Integrated Graphics continue trend of “vampire video” (that’s where the video bites into system memory). The 2006 Mac mini was the first Mac in a long, long time to do this, and more Macs started doing this in the late 2000’s – early 2010’s. Apple Silicon GPUs have unified memory, changing the traditional views on how system memory is used and shared throughout the system.

Unsupported macOS

Although it is not officially supported, the Early 2013 21.5″ Education Model iMac can run the latest intel build of macOS via OCLP. Fortunately, this iMac has an Intel HD 4000 GPU which is able to be patched as “Legacy Metal” in macOS, allowing it to run decently smoothly in macOS 13 Ventura and beyond.

For a serious speed boost, it’s best to pry one of these open, and upgrade to an SSD, and max out the RAM. The maximum CPU upgrade possible for this iMac is an i7-3770s.

Details

• Announced March 5th, 2013
• Apple model number: A1418 (EMC 2545)
• Model ID: iMac13,1
• Order: ME699LL/A
• Discontinued June 18th, 2014

Mac OS

• Requires macOS 10.8.2 (Build 12C2037) Mountain Lion through macOS Catalina 10.15.7 officially.

Core System

The only CPU shipped with this iMac is a Dual-Core, Hyper Threaded, 22nm Ivy Bridge i3 CPU. Socket FCLGA1155/H2.

Legend: L1i = L1 Instruction Cache, L1d = L1 Data cache

• Intel Core i3-3225 ($1099): 3.3 Ghz, 2 Cores, 4 Threads, No Turbo
  55W TDP, 22nm, Per-Core: 32KB L1i/32KB L1d, 256KB L2, Shared: 3 MB L3
  Comes with: MMX, SSE 4.2, AVX 1, VT-x, EPT

Maximum CPU Upgrade possible:

• *Price reflection Dec 2024
• Intel Core i7-3770s (~$49*) 3.1 GHz, 4 Cores, 8 Threads, 3.9 GHz Turbo, 65W TDP, 22nm, Per-Core: 32KB L1i/32KB L1d, 256KB L2, Shared: 8 MB L3, Comes with: MMX, SSE3, SSE 4.2, AVX 1, TXT, VT-d, VT-X, AES-NI, EIST, XD bit

Memory

• All models: 8 GB or 16 GB 1600 MHz PC3-12800 SDRAM ~25.6 Max Memory Bandwidth. Chip supports up to 32GB, according to Intel.

Video

• iGPU: Intel HD 4000, 512 MB+, 650 Mhz Base, 1.05 Ghz Max Dynamic Frequency
  • Intel says it can support up to 3 total displays, PCIe 2.0 x16
  • VRAM is dynamically allocated but unspecified on Intel’s website.
• 21.5″ IPS TFT LED-backlit LCD display, 1920 x 1080 @102PPI
  • Support for millions of colors
• “Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display at millions of colors and”
  • 2x 2560 x 1600 displays via Thunderbolt 2, at millions of colors.
  • Supports Multiple displays and mirroring

Drives

• 500 GB 5400 RPM 2.5″ SATA 3.0 (6Gb/s) Rotational Hard Disk Drive
  • Configurable to a Fusion Drive. In this model it was a combination of a traditional hard drive and 128 GB of “flash RAM”.

Expansion/Misc

• Facetime HD Camera
• 2x Thunderbolt 2 ports
• 4x USB-A style USB 3.0 ports
• Bluetooth 4.0
• 802.11ac (a/b/g/n) Wifi
• Gigabit Ethernet RJ-45 connector
• SD-Card slot reader
• 3.5mm Headphone Jack
• Stereo Speakers
• A single Microphone
• Kensington lock slot
• 185W Power Supply, seems to be shared across models

Included Peripherals

• iMac 21.5″ Education
• Wired Apple Aluminum Keyboard with Numeric Keypad
• Wired USB Mighty Mouse
• Power Cord
• Documentation, Apple Stickers

Physical

• Size:H/W/D 17.7 x 20.8 x 6.9 in/45 x 52.8 x 17.5 cm
• Weight: 12.5 lb./5.68 kg