Advice: Looking at buying my first iMac, is this a deal?

[MaxxVE]

Hi everyone -

I've been a PC user all my life and with my wife and I both owning iphones and ipads I thought I would give OS X a shot. My wife is getting into photography and we've heard you just can't beat photo editing on a Mac.

I looked to craigslist because I wanted to find a great deal and something that I could sell in 6 months to a year if we don't end up liking it.

I found a Late 2009 27" iMac it has the quad core i7 2.8 processor, 8GB of ram, 1 TB of harddrive space and an ATI Radeon 4850 with 512 MB of onboard ram. He was asking $1000 but we agreed on $900.

I haven't seen it in person but he's given me the serial number, I checked it for the seagate HDD recall and it's all good with a WD drive. He says it's an easy 9/10 condition and he's just selling to upgrade to the new 2012 iMac. It comes in the original box with the recovery discs.

This seems like a good deal to me but I know nothing about the value of 3 year old iMacs.

What do you guys think?

[michaelmac]

Originally Posted by MaxxVE

Hi everyone -

I've been a PC user all my life and with my wife and I both owning iphones and ipads I thought I would give OS X a shot. My wife is getting into photography and we've heard you just can't beat photo editing on a Mac.

I looked to craigslist because I wanted to find a great deal and something that I could sell in 6 months to a year if we don't end up liking it.

I found a Late 2009 27" iMac it has the quad core i7 2.8 processor, 8GB of ram, 1 TB of harddrive space and an ATI Radeon 4850 with 512 MB of onboard ram. He was asking $1000 but we agreed on $900.

I haven't seen it in person but he's given me the serial number, I checked it for the seagate HDD recall and it's all good with a WD drive. He says it's an easy 9/10 condition and he's just selling to upgrade to the new 2012 iMac. It comes in the original box with the recovery discs.

This seems like a good deal to me but I know nothing about the value of 3 year old iMacs.

What do you guys think?

Looks like a great deal to me for the spec but I am based in UK so our prices tend to be a little inflated both new and for second-hand. Hopefully someone from the States will cover this further for you.

[The Robot Cow]

I'm new to macs but have you looked at possibly spending a little more and get a new base 21.5" iMac? The base iMac's specs are pretty close to this. Quad core i5 @2.7, 8gb of ram, 1tb of storage, nvidia GeForce gt640m with 512mb of ram.
I rather get a new one rather than a 3 year old computer, but like I said I'm new with Macs and it may be different.

[michaelmac]

For photography use the extra screen size will be a real bonus. I use Aperture and have changed from a 24" 2007 iMac to the new 27" iMac and the extra screen size is simply amazing for photo work.

The spec will mean Aperture and the like speed through.

[ctucci]

Originally Posted by MaxxVE

Hi everyone -
...
I found a Late 2009 27" iMac it has the quad core i7 2.8 processor, 8GB of ram, 1 TB of harddrive space and an ATI Radeon 4850 with 512 MB of onboard ram. He was asking $1000 but we agreed on $900.
...
This seems like a good deal to me but I know nothing about the value of 3 year old iMacs.

What do you guys think?

I think it is, at that price. I'm on the same model year with just a core2duo and the same video as yours. Mine's fine for general photography, and general purposes overall, so your with the Quad will be even more of the good stuff.

Caveat: Not sure how it's going to resell in the future, I wouldn't buy it for the purposes of resale. For the purposes of getting into OSX though, the machine you're looking at would be great, if it checks out.

Best of Luck!

[MaxxVE]

Thanks for all the input!

I didn't even think of the extra screen size being useful for photo editing but I imagine it would make a difference.

[pubjoe]

That's an incredible deal. The price is excellent. Resale value will be great. I have the same model* and to be honest, for photo editing, there is barely any noticeable upgrade to the 2012 imac (hdd model anyway) - the new model's chassis and cooling system is nicer and quieter, and it can be upgraded to 32GB ram (as apposed to 16GB in the 2009). There is also a screen improvement in the new model, which is arguable to be honest but at the end of the day, the improvement is slight.

I think for the money it would be a great introduction to OS X, and it won't cost you much ...especially if you don't get on with it for whatever reason and resell in 6 Months - you'll be a able to try it for next to nothing.

* I have actually upgraded to the 2012 imac now ...but honestly, the 2009 is the smarter option for the money. As a first time user you should definitely try the 2009.

[Drharrington]

IMHO -- that's a great deal.. the imac is worth at least 900 for the ability to use as a target display and you get the computer for free... buy it...

[patricem]

This is about the price you see the 2009's sell for on Ebay and Amazon. Sometimes you can find a 2010 model from gazelle on E-bay for about $1000. Just check this out real well before you buy.

[Drharrington]

I've looked extensively. Anything that approaches the display value is near the floor ~ 900 bucks. Not easy finding near that - people get way too caught up in specs - they forget at a minimum it's a 27 Cinema Display via target display mode.

[MaxxVE]

Thanks everyone. We ended up pulling the trigger on the iMac. It is very much different than our PC but so far we are loving it. Now we've got to decide if we want to upgrade from snow leopard to mountain lion.

[Drharrington]

That model should run lion with absolutely no issues. I wouldn't hesitate.