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jharvey71884

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 3, 2011
299
27
So I have a base 21.5" iMac i5 2.5GHz, 500gb (5400) with 8GBs of ram. I have been messing with Lightroom a lot recently and thinking of bumping to 20GBs for my photo and video editing.

But, was offered $725 for my iMac tonight and am thinking that maybe I should get a new one.

My question, how big of a jump would i see between my model now and the 21.5' with 8GBs of ram with a 2.7 fourth generation.

Also see that in the refurbished store, they have a 27' with a 3.2 i5 and 1TB 7200 hard drive for $1399.
 

Richdmoore

macrumors 68000
Jul 24, 2007
1,956
355
Troutdale, OR
So I have a base 21.5" iMac i5 2.5GHz, 500gb (5400) with 8GBs of ram. I have been messing with Lightroom a lot recently and thinking of bumping to 20GBs for my photo and video editing.

But, was offered $725 for my iMac tonight and am thinking that maybe I should get a new one.

My question, how big of a jump would i see between my model now and the 21.5' with 8GBs of ram with a 2.7 fourth generation.

Also see that in the refurbished store, they have a 27' with a 3.2 i5 and 1TB 7200 hard drive for $1399.

I have 24 GB (2 X 8 set & 2 x 4 set) I didn't notice an upgrade from 16gb, but I mostly play around in aperture, so maybe lightroom is more memory intensive and would see more use? (if you are going to upgrade, it is around $150 for a 2 x 8 set.) The 2011 iMac will go up to 32gb, although apple lists the maximum at 16gb.

One big thing if you use the iPhone 5/5s is that the 2011 iMac won't have all of the connectivity features of Yosemite when it comes out (due to the lack of AC wifi & Bluetooth LE.) I think it will have some of the features (taking calls/text), but not all of them (such as Handoff), but it is still TBD if apple will expand the beta features to this model.

Also, the 2011 iMac has USB 2, the latest model has USB 3.

My plan is to keep my 2011 iMac, it might not be the most up to date, but it is still plenty fast for my uses and too expensive to replace every 3 years. (Of course, you can offset that with the $700, I usually just hand the old machines down to family for free.)
 

toddzrx

macrumors 6502a
Nov 20, 2012
725
263
Replace the HD or OD with an SSD and call it a day: far cheaper and it'll feel like new.
 
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