Refurb 2011 base 27" vs potential 2012 base 21.5"

27" without a doubt.

27" no question.

I am a photographer who shoots a lot of film (and scans them...35mm, 6x6 and 6x7) and the bigger screen is wonderful. I came from a 21" widescreen 1680x1050 monitor and there is absolutely no comparison. Also, I've only had the base 27" iMac for a few weeks (I got one for a great deal open box at BB) and just recently added 8gb of ram (for 12gb total). It's a great machine.

So like I said, go for the 27".

wcrankshaw said:

First post here...I apologize for yet another A vs B type post.

To start off, I don't NEED a new computer, but I really WANT a new computer and am waiting patiently like everyone else. But, I'm beginning to wonder if a spec bumped 2012 base 21.5" would be that much better than a 2011 base 27" refurb. I can only spend as much as the price of the refurb, so a 2012 27" isn't an option regardless. Would I actually get more bang for my buck by getting the 27" screen? I'm not a gamer. Handbrake and photoshop (large negative scans) are the most intensive uses of my computer. Any opinions on this?

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Plus 3 on the 27"!

27". More than powerful enough now, plus it has thunderbolt. Don't worry about USB 3.0. The screen space is more important.

If you can wait, the price of the refurbs will drop when the new ones appear.

wcrankshaw said:

Thanks! So just to be clear, for my uses, I should prioritize 27" over possible USB3, ivy bridge, etc?

The curious part of me still wants to wait and see the new iMacs, but I'm also afraid the current refurbs will all vanish when the new ones appear.

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+5 on the 27".

Ivy bridge doesn't mean much for the desktop. USB3 is only useful if you need it, and only you can answer that question.

The current refurbs won't vanish for many months after new iMacs appear, but they will drop in cost, so it pays (financially) to wait for a refurb 2011.

I would definitely take the screen size over USB3.0.

I was able to snag my iMac for $1499 as an open box.

27-inch
3.1GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5
2560 x 1440 resolution
4GB (two 2GB) memory
1TB hard drive1
AMD Radeon HD 6970M with 1GB

I then added a Corsair Force GT 240GB SSD and 16GB 1333mhz RAM.

wcrankshaw said:

Unfortunately, my savings require that I stop at the 2.7GHz one, unless of course the prices of the higher up models come down after the release of new models.

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http://store.apple.com/us/product/FC813LL/A

Another vote for the 27". I love my 21.5" model, but it's getting on in years, and now that I'm in the market for an upgrade, I'm not even considering another one. 27" of screen real estate is a game changer.

As far as USB 3.0, meh. My new MBP has USB 3.0, but it doesn't work with my USB 3.0 drive. Sooooo. Not a big deal.

zedsdead said:

27". More than powerful enough now, plus it has thunderbolt. Don't worry about USB 3.0. The screen space is more important.

If you can wait, the price of the refurbs will drop when the new ones appear.

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How much more of a drop are we looking at...or historically anyways? I'm glad I came by this thread, was close to pulling the trigger on a refurb 27"...but I can hold out a few more weeks if the price drops more!

If nothing else, you should see the current refurbished pricing drop 10-15%. After a little while, 2012 refurbished units should become available. The low end of the 27" 2012s may be a better option. Cpus aren't changing much. You may see a faster gpu, but it doesn't have to be NVidia. AMD also released updates in the past year. The tdp of ivy is considerably lower. It would be nice to see better thermals, but I'm not counting on it. You would see usb3 in the new ones. This makes quite a difference. If you're dealing with large files in photoshop your experience is affected far more by ram than cpu. Some of the things that were truly taxing on the cpu have been written into OpenCL support anyway with CS6 (note liquify benchmarks on barefeats). Whatever you do, if you're working with large files, don't install less than 16GB of ram. It's the cheapest performance upgrade you can make.

I read somewhere that Michael Bay edited the 2nd and 3rd Transformer movies on a 13" Macbook Pro because it felt more intimate and personal. Just something to consider.

Roy G Biv said:

I read somewhere that Michael Bay edited the 2nd and 3rd Transformer movies on a 13" Macbook Pro because it felt more intimate and personal. Just something to consider.

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Right, haha...

Roy G Biv said:

I read somewhere that Michael Bay edited the 2nd and 3rd Transformer movies on a 13" Macbook Pro because it felt more intimate and personal. Just something to consider.

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Maybe that's why they sucked so bad

No **** huh lol

Roy G Biv said:

I read somewhere that Michael Bay edited the 2nd and 3rd Transformer movies on a 13" Macbook Pro because it felt more intimate and personal. Just something to consider.

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No wonder those sequels have this cheap feels