2011 I mac refurb $979, or 2012 new $1299

Man, I went to an Apple Store to buy the new one, and I did it. All I can say is I'm living a dream! The machine is amazing and all reports about it are very good. Go for new one!!!

I've posted this before, but from an entry level iMac, I went w/ the 2011 model for these reasons:

-2011 baseline iMac- Has OD, has firewire port, has a 7200rpm HD, can easily upgrade RAM up to 32GB

-2012 baseline iMac- Doesn't have OD/FW port, has a 5400rpm HD, can't upgrade RAM easily (apparently from pics the glass is held in by adhesive). Does have upgraded CPU/GPU and USB 3...

For me it was a no brainer to go w/ the 2011 iMac and I love mine. With your computing needs I'd vote for doing the same.

Keep in mind if you get the 1TB HD, they had a recall on those, so make sure you're getting a HD that wasn't recalled. For that reason I chose the 500GB since I don't have many pictures, etc. like most people.

I'm really glad I bought my 21" iMac 2011 last March and didn't wait for the new model. Heres why:
1. DVD drive (I know apple says it out of style, well, i still burn CD's for my car that has an out of style cd player in, I still play dvd's for my kids on my iMac, so yea, I still use it)
2. Slower HD. My iMac has a 7200rpm drive opposed to the new 5400rpm drive in the new iMac.
3. Can't add ram. really apple? That was the first thing I did when I received my iMac, sure 8 gigs might be good today on a new iMac, but what about a couple years from now? A person won't have the option of adding any ram.

Now, I know you can buy a dvd drive from apple ($79) and add more ram BTO ($$$) and add a fusion drive ($$$$$) but that would greatly raise the price of it. Which defeats the whole purpose of buying the base model.

if you go go with the refurb you'll also be saving about $350!
in my opinion, I think its a no brainer, but again, my personal opinion.

This was an easy decision for me- went with refurbed 21.5" 2011 base model.

1) My wife needs a DVD and we would have had to purchase an external DVD player for the 2012 model ($30 - $80 extra)

2) Paid $979 vs. $1299. However, if we went with a 2012 I probably would have specified 16 GBs of memory for another $200. This makes the price difference $500 (plus the cost of an external DVD). I did add 8 GBs to the the 2011 refurb for a total of 12 GBs for $36. I don't plan on opening up the box ever again.

3) The 2012 has a 1 TB drive but the 500 GBs in the 2011 refurb is more than enough.

While the 2012 has USB3, this is not an issue for us.

sostoobad said:

I seem to be hearing some mixed comments on the new 1299 I mac, while I usually hear strong praise for the 2011 I mac. Apple has them at 979.00 refurb.
The 2012 is 1299.00 for a person whose needs are not huge...(right now have a 2011 mac mini and will keep it) whats your play ?

I download alot of pictures and the usual stuff, email surf net, a few apps.

And what do you personally like or dislike about either ?

Click to expand...

sostoobad said:

I seem to be hearing some mixed comments on the new 1299 I mac, while I usually hear strong praise for the 2011 I mac. Apple has them at 979.00 refurb.
The 2012 is 1299.00 for a person whose needs are not huge...(right now have a 2011 mac mini and will keep it) whats your play ?

I download alot of pictures and the usual stuff, email surf net, a few apps.

And what do you personally like or dislike about either ?

Click to expand...

I just pulled the trigger on a 2011 21.5" refurb, but the higher model with the 2.8Ghz i7 for $1229. I just couldn't get past the lack of DVD drive (which I still use), the huge question about upgradability and the big cost difference of the new models.

To get a 2012 21.5" iMac with 16gb of ram and a decent drive was going to be at least $1949! I already had some extra memory (from a MBP after upgrading it) and a SSD (same) so it costs me nothing on the 2011 to upgrade.

I'll lose out on thinness, USB 3.0, and probably the biggest thing the better anti-reflective screen.

Where is everyone seeing the 2011 iMac for $979?

I just got a 2011 imac, 27" 3.1 ghz...it's going to nice to be able to upgrade the ram myself

AgRacer said:

Where is everyone seeing the 2011 iMac for $979?

Click to expand...

Apples refurbished store.

I went with a 2011 21.5 refurb too. Very happy. Installed an internal SSD and it is a great machine.

rpg51 said:

I went with a 2011 21.5 refurb too. Very happy. Installed an internal SSD and it is a great machine.

Click to expand...

What SSD did you go for?

I did a turnkey purchase and installation at OWC. Computer was dropped shipped to OWC by Apple refurb store. My memory is that the price including all the shipping and installation for the SSD - 250 gig - was appox $325 - 350 but I could be off, can't remember exactly. Had the ram upgraded to 8gig at the same time. The screen was flickering when I got it but it was repaired by local apple folks for no charge and it is perfect now. Great computer. Very fast.

rpg51 said:

I did a turnkey purchase and installation at OWC. Computer was dropped shipped to OWC by Apple refurb store. My memory is that the price including all the shipping and installation for the SSD - 250 gig - was appox $325 - 350 but I could be off, can't remember exactly. Had the ram upgraded to 8gig at the same time. The screen was flickering when I got it but it was repaired by local apple folks for no charge and it is perfect now. Great computer. Very fast.

Click to expand...

I didn't realize OWC would do the SSD upgrade for you. Wouldn't be cost affective unless when you purchased you had shipped to OWC like you did.

sostoobad said:

I seem to be hearing some mixed comments on the new 1299 I mac, while I usually hear strong praise for the 2011 I mac. Apple has them at 979.00 refurb.
The 2012 is 1299.00 for a person whose needs are not huge...(right now have a 2011 mac mini and will keep it) whats your play ?

I download alot of pictures and the usual stuff, email surf net, a few apps.

And what do you personally like or dislike about either ?

Click to expand...

I'm assuming you're considering a 21.5" iMac, in which case, I'd totally go with the 2012 model. Of course, the 16GB of RAM and the Fusion Drive CTO upgrades are an absolute must.

My reasoning is that, it seems as though this iMac fixes a lot of the reliability issues that plagued the 2009-2011 iMacs and there's nothing that sucks more than out-of-warranty repair (which on the iMac - Apple's least internally user-accessible computer - is something you'd have to consider). The switch from 3.5" drive to 2.5" drive will be off-set by the use of the Fusion Drive. The 2011 21.5" iMac never officially supported 16GB of RAM let alone 32GB, so your ability to order it with 16GB of RAM is still a good addition (albeit at an annoying price hike). You lose out on FireWire 800 (which you likely won't miss [and if you do, there's an adapter you can buy that brings it back]) and you lose out on the optical drive.

Speaking of the optical drive, those of you who can't live without an optical drive ought to consider getting one of those external full sized 5.25" form-factor tray-load (i.e. same type of optical drive as is used on towers and the Mac Pro). Not only will it be more reliable than the crap Apple used in previous generation iMacs, it will also be cheaper (and thusly cheaper to replace if ever there's a problem), and it will deliver faster performance overall. Yes, that detracts from the all-in-one-ness, but so does the external hard drive you ought to use for Time Machine along with any other external accessory that you'd use one of the four USB ports or two Thunderbolt ports for. Big deal. Frankly, for a desktop, I'd say that's an upgrade over using Apple's piece of crap internal optical drive.

The lack of the audio-in port is irritating, though I can't say that in the last four Macs that I've owned (all of which had one) I've ever used it once. It would be nice if they at least let you use the port for both input and output functionality as had been done on the white unibody MacBooks as well as the non-retina 13" MacBook Pros, but, again, I guess no one used it and if someone badly needs it, there's always a USB adapter to restore that functionality.

Yebubbleman said:

Speaking of the optical drive, those of you who can't live without an optical drive ought to consider getting one of those external full sized 5.25" form-factor tray-load (i.e. same type of optical drive as is used on towers and the Mac Pro). Not only will it be more reliable than the crap Apple used in previous generation iMacs, it will also be cheaper (and thusly cheaper to replace if ever there's a problem), and it will deliver faster performance overall.

Click to expand...

I'm thinking that an external Blu-Ray burner is the way to go. They have USB 2.0 models for around $100 or less. I'd like to hear from folks who went that direction.

Spink10 said:

I didn't realize OWC would do the SSD upgrade for you. Wouldn't be cost affective unless when you purchased you had shipped to OWC like you did.

Click to expand...

There might be a local service center that would do the SSD install for you at a reasonable price. Here in Vermont there is Small Dog - http://www.smalldog.com/.

I would have said 2011 until i visited apple store today...the new 2012 model is sooo nice.

-less glare
-what appears to be sharper picture
-way less heat coming off top (i mean way!!)
-hard to sell in store,but couldn't hear any fan noise
-just so clean and sexy looking
-minor point,it's a lot lighter (not that we move desktop around alot)
-would think better future resale value

Difference is to small to go for refurbished get the new one

TRAV9614 said:

Apples refurbished store.

Click to expand...

All I see is the 27" iMac. Is there a link that I'm missing?

EDIT: Now they are showing up. I guess they come/go like the 16g iPad2.

Its not about the price, its the computer. 2011 is wonderful with SSD upgrade will cost a little less than 2012 and you will have SSD AND 500 gig internal disc. Great system. Move versatile. Easy ram upgrade. DVD drive. Audio jacks. No thin edge. Don't need or want thin edge. That is why I have my MB Air.

With the SSD properly installed there is almost no heat and no fan noise.

The 21.5 refurbs pop up about every other day on the refurb store.

I have the same dilemma, however I need it for semi-pro use. The main issue I keep getting though, is that whatever advice I get it's that Fusion is a no-brainer/must have etc. That's fine, but it basically rules out the base unit, and then it would be silly to not upgrade the RAM while you're there. With all of that in mind, you are then looking at a machine double the price of the 2011 refurbs that keep popping up. Considering they have a good hard drive in and slightly slower, but still good specs (and you can do the RAM yourself) then it is a completely different decision alltogether. I'm sorely tempted by the refurb now when it next appears on the store, as that seems to be a great value discount for what you get.

darkanddivine said:

I have the same dilemma, however I need it for semi-pro use. The main issue I keep getting though, is that whatever advice I get it's that Fusion is a no-brainer/must have etc. That's fine, but it basically rules out the base unit, and then it would be silly to not upgrade the RAM while you're there. With all of that in mind, you are then looking at a machine double the price of the 2011 refurbs that keep popping up. Considering they have a good hard drive in and slightly slower, but still good specs (and you can do the RAM yourself) then it is a completely different decision alltogether. I'm sorely tempted by the refurb now when it next appears on the store, as that seems to be a great value discount for what you get.

Click to expand...

That pretty much sums it up. It was a no-brainer for me. I bought a refurbed 2011 21.5" for $979. It is easy to get sucked into the mindset of "it will be a really nice machine if I add this to it". Pretty quickly you are just shy of $2000. Apple pretty much gouges you on the memory upgrade: $200 to go to 16 GBs. This works out to $160 of pure profit (incremental cost of 8GB to 16 GBs is roughly $40). On my refurbed 2011, 4 GBs to 12 GBs cost me $36.

Where is everyone seeing the option to add SSD and more RAM to the refurb units? All I get is "Add to Cart".