2009 Core i7 iMac vs. 2010 Core i7 iMac?

It's not worth 500$ more unless the minor GPU bump is significant for you. I would go with refurb

Hellhammer said:

It's not worth 500$ more unless the minor GPU bump is significant for you. I would go with refurb

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+1

The $500 is definitely enough motivation to go with the refurbs. Save the $500 towards the next machine you buy in a few years.

wirelessness said:

After waiting patiently for the latest refresh I am still on the fence about buying the new model.

The i7 model is what I have been interested in but I am dubious if the new model is that big of an improvement of the the last generation model....MAINLY because the 09 i7's are now available for $1699 refurbished. At the original price of $2200 it's a no brainer to go with the mew model. But for $500 less I'm not so sure....thoughts?

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refurb all the way. i returned my new quad i5 for the refurb i7. had to eat a $189 restocking fee (damn apple), but it still evens out to be the same price instead of $200 more.

The refurbs look very, very good now. The internal SSD drive looks like a scary upgrade for a DIY. Not something I would do unless they made it easy.

wirelessness said:

The other significantly cool change to the 2010 models is the addition of a 3rd SATA interface and the option to add and SSD drive. That said, I am not hearing great things about the performance and especially the long term performance of the SSD drives Apple are using. I'm not really too excited about paying an extra $650 to have to opportunity to swap out the Apple provided SSD drive with one that is better.

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It's crazy price for SSD plus it's very hard to do it yourself so you would pay 600$ on top of that 500$, making the new one 1100$ more.

What bothers me is that I am still paying $1629 for LAST years model in a REFURBISHED state. Regardless of how much I'm saving over new, its last year (or older) tech thats been refurb'd. That's a lot of money for a refurb. Am I the only the that is bothered by that?

Sixtyin3 said:

What bothers me is that I am still paying $1629 for LAST years model in a REFURBISHED state. Regardless of how much I'm saving over new, its last year (or older) tech thats been refurb'd. That's a lot of money for a refurb. Am I the only the that is bothered by that?

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You are. The way I look at it.. a refurb means they've "double checked and fixed" the issues. It's like getting a CPO warranty to me on a car rather than off a small used car lot. Plus it's $500...

I had a 21.5" i5 3.6 on order yesterday for $1597 (corp discount). Today I canceled it and ordered a $1699 27" i7 refurb. So for $100 more, I'm getting a much larger screen, and a monster i7 quad HT/TB setup. I sacrifice on the video card but I'm not PC gamer.. I have a PS3 for that.

The refurb deal is just too good

Sixtyin3 said:

What bothers me is that I am still paying $1629 for LAST years model in a REFURBISHED state. Regardless of how much I'm saving over new, its last year (or older) tech thats been refurb'd. That's a lot of money for a refurb. Am I the only the that is bothered by that?

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Actually, that's a VERY good deal considering the 27" backlit display and quad processing power of the machine.

If you want cheap, there are a LOT of windows based options.

cheers
JohnG

Sixtyin3 said:

What bothers me is that I am still paying $1629 for LAST years model in a REFURBISHED state. Regardless of how much I'm saving over new, its last year (or older) tech thats been refurb'd. That's a lot of money for a refurb. Am I the only the that is bothered by that?

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Hi,

It may be that the iMac's in the Refurb store are in fact new and that Apple is just getting rid of the final stock.

I've heard great things about refurbs from Apple. Some people have started up their machine only to discover it has upgrades they didn't pay for!

s.

mr.steevo said:

Hi,

It may be that the iMac's in the Refurb store are in fact new and that Apple is just getting rid of the final stock.

I've heard great things about refurbs from Apple. Some people have started up their machine only to discover it has upgrades they didn't pay for!

s.

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Yup, my refurb runs great. However, no extras for me. A friend of mine had 8GB in his.

is it only me that hate used machines? i mean, i dont like that dude x have used a machine before me, but thats just me i guess.

i do agree that the 10-15% gain in peformance maybe isnt worth the price. But still, faster ram, cpu and gpu, ill take that any day.

henrikrox said:

is it only me that hate used machines? i mean, i dont like that dude x have used a machine before me, but thats just me i guess.

i do agree that the 10-15% gain in peformance maybe isnt worth the price. But still, faster ram, cpu and gpu, ill take that any day.

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Yeah, I am sure most of us would as well. But cost vs budget is one of the things that almost everyone has to look at as a deciding factor. If money was no object, screw the iMac, give me a 12-core Mac Pro.

Just bought the i7 refurb to replace my old 1.8gh 17" 4.5yr old iMac that's been very good to me Just could not pass up that awesome price of 1699 for such an incredible machine!!! Here's to hoping it has no yellow screen issues or cracks, etc. Please be nice to my new baby FedEx

henrikrox said:

is it only me that hate used machines? i mean, i dont like that dude x have used a machine before me, but thats just me i guess.

i do agree that the 10-15% gain in peformance maybe isnt worth the price. But still, faster ram, cpu and gpu, ill take that any day.

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i never thought of it like, oh this guy had this computer before me. Apple's refurbs are top notch. In fact, I've only purchased Apple refurbs. New Apple computers are more expensive and what's the point? You still get the great 1-year warranty. And in this case, you get an i7 for $200 LESS than the new i5 w/edu discount (1899). The old i7 is worth it over the new i5 if it's MORE expensive. To be cheaper is a steal.

The Core i5 750 is still worthwhile. It just takes some suffering to endure the Mobility HD 4850.

Eidorian said:

The Core i5 750 is still worthwhile. It just takes some suffering to endure the Mobility HD 4850.

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The Mobility 5850 isn't that big upgrade. Definitely not worth hundreds unless every frame matters

Hellhammer said:

The Mobility 5850 isn't that big upgrade. Definitely not worth hundreds unless every frame matters

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So it's:

i7 + 4850 512mb
1066 ram
vs
i5 5850 1gb
1333 ram

same price.

henrikrox said:

is it only me that hate used machines? i mean, i dont like that dude x have used a machine before me, but thats just me i guess.

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Guess you plan on marrying a virgin then?

dwd3885 said:

So it's:

i7 + 4850 512mb
1066 ram
vs
i5 5850 1gb
1333 ram

same price.

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i7 + 4850 - Hyperthreading will increase the longevity of the machine! 4 vs 8 threads.

dwd3885 said:

So it's:

i7 + 4850 512mb
1066 ram
vs
i5 5850 1gb
1333 ram

same price.

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Depends on what do you do. i7 supports HT which makes it better deal IMO but if GPU is more important for you, then the new one is better.

Hellhammer said:

Depends on what do you do. i7 supports HT which makes it better deal IMO but if GPU is more important for you, then the new one is better.

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Well the GPU is that much better than having the extra hyperthreading? Sorry to hijack thread, but I don't game. But I do a lot of aperture work and video editing in iMovie. But most have been fine with my 3.06 C2D iMac ATI 4670 graphics. And the i7 WOULD'VE been $200 CHEAPER, if I didn't already buy the i5 and have to eat the $189 restocking fee. I guess if it were $200 cheaper then definitely the way to go.