Looking to buy an iMac

Medic311 · Sep 15, 2014

despite the most recent thread on MR front page about the Retina iMac coming, i am looking to buy an iMac right now

this is the build i am looking at:

21.5"
i5 2.7Ghz
8GB memory
1TB drive

it's currently on sale at Best Buy for $1179. minus the $100 .edu discount it becomes $1,079. minus the 10% mover's coupon it becomes $927. i can get it tax free if i drive 35 mins to the Delaware Best Buy.

is the above build for $927 worth it?

toddzrx · Sep 15, 2014

That's for you to decide.

Personally, I won't buy a computer with a traditional spinning hard drive; way too slow. The extra dollars to buy it is way worth it.

yjchua95 · Sep 15, 2014

Medic311 said:
despite the most recent thread on MR front page about the Retina iMac coming, i am looking to buy an iMac right now

this is the build i am looking at:

21.5"
i5 2.7Ghz
8GB memory
1TB drive

it's currently on sale at Best Buy for $1179. minus the $100 .edu discount it becomes $1,079. minus the 10% mover's coupon it becomes $927. i can get it tax free if i drive 35 mins to the Delaware Best Buy.

is the above build for $927 worth it?

For the lack of Fusion/SSD alone, I wouldn't buy it.

MartinAppleGuy · Sep 16, 2014

Medic311 said:
despite the most recent thread on MR front page about the Retina iMac coming, i am looking to buy an iMac right now

this is the build i am looking at:

21.5"
i5 2.7Ghz
8GB memory
1TB drive

it's currently on sale at Best Buy for $1179. minus the $100 .edu discount it becomes $1,079. minus the 10% mover's coupon it becomes $927. i can get it tax free if i drive 35 mins to the Delaware Best Buy.

is the above build for $927 worth it?

My iMac has a HDD and it is not slow like others are saying. I boot up (which on a Mac, you only restart once every 3 months) in 30 seconds and apps open just as fast as on 15" rMBP 2014 with PCIe SSD due to app cache. They can take a second or two to open, but after that they open just as fast. The spec you posted it fine

macs4nw · Sep 16, 2014

Medic311 said:
despite the most recent thread on MR front page about the Retina iMac coming, i am looking to buy an iMac right now
this is the build i am looking at:
21.5"
i5 2.7Ghz
8GB memory
1TB drive
it's currently on sale at Best Buy for $1179. minus the $100 .edu discount it becomes $1,079. minus the 10% mover's coupon it becomes $927. i can get it tax free if i drive 35 mins to the Delaware Best Buy.

is the above build for $927 worth it?

Well, it's the mid-tier 21" model, which is $1299 in the AppleStore, so if you can get it for $927 brand spanking new with full warranty, you're doing pretty good, in fact even better than in the refurb store where it's currently selling for $1099.

After having had flash memory in my computers, I personally wouldn't buy anything with less than at the very least a Fusion drive, but that's just me.

If you don't mind the HDD, $927 is definitely a sweet price for that iMac.

yoney · Sep 16, 2014

I have this model too. Yes, turning it on takes a while because of the HDD, but during regular use of the device you certainly won't feel the difference. And the price is definitely worth it. I would personally recommend it.

JustMartin · Sep 16, 2014

toddzrx said:
That's for you to decide.

Personally, I won't buy a computer with a traditional spinning hard drive; way too slow. The extra dollars to buy it is way worth it.

lol - And you can say this with all the benefit of knowing this user's needs and budget? If you're going to be doing disk intensive work that's making money, then you can put a figure on saved time. More likely you're looking at longer boot times that you'd likely use doing something else to start your day. Turn on your computer, make coffee, start work, the extra 20 seconds it spends booting up are immaterial.

iono11200 · Sep 16, 2014

I bought exactly the same machine new a little over a month ago for $1175. As others have said it is a bit slow booting up. Aside from that I don't really notice it, but I'm not doing anything intense either. It's my first iMac and I decided to buy what I thought would do me well for about 5 years as well as what I could afford. Added some Bose speakers and the 2tb Airport Time Capsule. Sure if I had gobs of money I would surely BTO but its a gorgeous machine and so far I'm very happy with it. I would buy it again without hesitation. Good Luck with your decision!

toddzrx · Sep 16, 2014

JustMartin said:
lol - And you can say this with all the benefit of knowing this user's needs and budget? If you're going to be doing disk intensive work that's making money, then you can put a figure on saved time. More likely you're looking at longer boot times that you'd likely use doing something else to start your day. Turn on your computer, make coffee, start work, the extra 20 seconds it spends booting up are immaterial.

First: I couldn't care less about boot times with an SSD; they make a difference almost constantly for the average user when opening apps and so on. This forum has abundant testimonials of people who have either done the surgery themselves or bought the SSD in a BTO and found it's well worth the cost because of the overall benefit of a faster computer.

Second: Obviously I don't know the user's needs; then again, neither do you. But he did ask for opinions on whether the cost for this particular machine was worth it, and I gave him one. He's free to listen or not. Frankly your response is a bit bizarre and doesn't inform the discussion much.

Saileshbreaker · Sep 17, 2014

Go for it! it's a very powerful machine, I got one this weekend for $900 from the apple store after a special discount from work. I was initially going for a rMBP but ended up getting the iMac and I don't regret it. Works very quick even with a standard hdd

MartinAppleGuy · Sep 17, 2014

toddzrx said:
First: I couldn't care less about boot times with an SSD; they make a difference almost constantly for the average user when opening apps and so on

No they don't. Mac's are put to sleep much more often that restarted (and a lot of users even just restart only when a software update requires it). It's really hard to justify for the average user to get an SSD because saving 20 seconds once every three months is not worth that money.

App launching wise, OS X caches app data in RAM to allow it to fetch from both RAM am HDD the next time it is requested. This means that while you may be one second opening an app on the HDD and half a second on an SSD, they will both be equal then next time they are opened due to app caching. Even when it comes to opening things for the first time (which is there a user will notice the difference between a HDD and an SSD), I have found very little difference between my iMac with a HDD and a 2014 MBPr 15" (with PCIe based Flash and quad core i7). One app I tried taken 7 seconds on the MBPr 15", and 9 seconds on my HDD iMac. Opening it up after that with app cache, both opened at the 3 second mark. It's not exactly apples and apples in that comparison, but the MBPr actually has a better CPU and PCIe based flash.

toddzrx · Sep 17, 2014

MartinAppleGuy said:
No they don't. Mac's are put to sleep much more often that restarted (and a lot of users even just restart only when a software update requires it). It's really hard to justify for the average user to get an SSD because saving 20 seconds once every three months is not worth that money.

That's why I said I couldn't care less about boot time?

Seems like folks here just like to argue. Easy to do on a forum I guess.

Anyway, if the OP is still tuning in, I hope you were able to make a decision on your purchase. Keep in mind that new iMacs are likely coming within the next 4 or 5 months, so don't know if that's a factor or not.

Medic311 · Sep 17, 2014

i'm finally back. i was suspended for 3 days due to a troll who was antagonizing me. he mod alerted me twice back to back...once for calling him stupid and then again for calling him a clueless fanboy (both of which were minor in comparison for what he was saying to me). then a mod suspended me claiming that i apparently had been warned before about my etiquette which was odd b/c i don't ever remember getting a warning...so yeah lol. icing on the cake is that as far as i can tell nothing happened to him. despite being a forum regular here on Mac Rumors, i clearly was given an unfair deal but w/e. i guess i need to watch what i say around people who are relatively new to Macrumors and who have clearly only joined to instigate.

anyways i have been thinking about the drive vs SSD and i must say the SSD is wicked fast. i've been using my new Macbook Pro Retina 13" for the last few weeks then went back to a Windows 7 5200 rpm hardrive-based laptop and it was painful. my dilemma is that best buy doesn't carry fusion-drive models, which i am baffled by but w/e. if i bought from the Apple Store the price would be super high compared to the insane deal i would be getting now for the model i mentioned in the first post.

decisions decisions...

i do very much appreciate everyone's input though

SaSaSushi · Sep 17, 2014

MartinAppleGuy said:
No they don't. Mac's are put to sleep much more often that restarted (and a lot of users even just restart only when a software update requires it). It's really hard to justify for the average user to get an SSD because saving 20 seconds once every three months is not worth that money.

Oh, but if a longer boot time was the only disadvantage of hard disks. That said, even as infrequently as I do reboot my machine I appreciate being able to do so in a few seconds.

App caching is nice but it won't do anything to improve transfer speeds which are obviously significantly faster with solid state. Then there are the advantages of no moving parts, silent operation, less heat and lower power consumption. The list goes on.

Hard disks have their purposes. All of my drives for backup and media storage are HDD. For booting the OS, however, it is SSD all the way.

Irishman · Sep 18, 2014

Medic311 said:
despite the most recent thread on MR front page about the Retina iMac coming, i am looking to buy an iMac right now

this is the build i am looking at:

21.5"
i5 2.7Ghz
8GB memory
1TB drive

it's currently on sale at Best Buy for $1179. minus the $100 .edu discount it becomes $1,079. minus the 10% mover's coupon it becomes $927. i can get it tax free if i drive 35 mins to the Delaware Best Buy.

is the above build for $927 worth it?

Have you checked to make sure your Best Buy will honor all those stacking discounts that you're expecting to receive??

Do you know if their POS systems calculate those the same way you have?

Questions to ask if you want to avoid a potential disappointment.

DooDuh · Sep 18, 2014

MartinAppleGuy said:
My iMac has a HDD and it is not slow like others are saying. I boot up (which on a Mac, you only restart once every 3 months) in 30 seconds and apps open just as fast as on 15" rMBP 2014 with PCIe SSD due to app cache. They can take a second or two to open, but after that they open just as fast. The spec you posted it fine

Nice to see the HDD get some love around here. Everyone seems to be on the Fusion bandwagon... I, however, remain wary. I will be buying a 27" within a month and I will probably either get the 3 TB HDD or go for broke and get the 1 TB SSD... which I hope will have a price reduction with the next iMac update.

Medic311 · Sep 18, 2014

Irishman said:
Have you checked to make sure your Best Buy will honor all those stacking discounts that you're expecting to receive??

Do you know if their POS systems calculate those the same way you have?

Questions to ask if you want to avoid a potential disappointment.

yes to both of your questions. i've done this numerous times for macbooks airs and ipads that i flipped. and i did it for my Macbook Pro Retina 13" that i got for myself

bubsdaddy2000 · Sep 18, 2014

I'm still loving my 2011 27" iMac refurb that I paid $1200. The screen size and and quality makes it worth having a somewhat older machine.

MartinAppleGuy · Sep 18, 2014

DooDuh said:
Nice to see the HDD get some love around here. Everyone seems to be on the Fusion bandwagon... I, however, remain wary. I will be buying a 27" within a month and I will probably either get the 3 TB HDD or go for broke and get the 1 TB SSD... which I hope will have a price reduction with the next iMac update.

I'm not the only one either, I know of a few people who have walked into an Apple Store and struggled to tell the difference between the two with normal operations. I feel that the people that say their Fusion Drive is so much better are comparing it to their older mac with a HDD. Hardly fair when these older macs will most be likely 2007/8/9.

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