2011 21 inch iMac vs refurbished 27 inch 2010 iMac?

[TheRat]

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http://store.apple.com/ca_epp_490139/product/FC511LL/A?mco=MjEwNTcxMTA

I have a dilemma - should I go for this iMac, or the higher end 21.5 inch 2011 model? This one has everything I'd want (1gb graphics card - 1tb hard drive - massive screen for multitasking while doing homework) at a much more reasonable price. The only question is whether or not the new one would hive me a much higher boost in performance to consider passing this up. The most intensive thing I'd do besides running a massive iTunes library would be play Starcraft 2, does it run at high settings well? What would be the advantage of going for the newer machine over this one on terms of what I would be using it for? Thank you!

PS: if I do go for the new one, is it worth the additiOnal cost for the i7 for me? Thanks for the help agaIn!

 

[TheRat]

link's dead, guess they sold out fast - anyways it was the higher end 27 inch 2010 model i5. can anyone help?

 

[adrian.oconnor]

I've been wondering the exact same thing. The performance of the previous generate was impressive (especially the i7), and I don't play games so the older 5000 series GPU would be perfectly good enough. The current generation i7 is an absolute monster, but too expensive to justify the price (for me at least).

The only thing stopping me buying an iMac right now (either refurb or new) is that I can't easily plug an SSD in. A friend has just built an i5 2500K with an SSD and it absolutely screams along. There's no way I'm paying £400(GBP) for a 256GB drive of Apple's choosing -- that's more than the price of a Vertex 3. I wish Apple had build a little trap door for a second HDD, much like they did for RAM.

Interested to know which way you decide to go. The refurb store does seem to change on a daily basis (right now it's just i3s in the UK store). When the i5 was there it was only £200 cheaper or so than the current i5, so in that case I'd probably go new.