2012 Refurb vs 2013 new?

[kdochert]

I see 2012 27 iMac i7 3.4 GHz GTX680MX 1 Tb fusion 8gb RAM in the US refurb store for $1999. My question is what would I have to spend to get similar performance with the new haswell iMac's? I'm guessing i would need an i7 3.5GHz GTX 775M 1 Tb fusion 8gb RAM for $2400 to be similar or slightly faster?

Of course with either option I would upgrade RAM myself.

The main processor intense tasks I do is photoshop and some video riping / converting.

Apprecitate any advice.

 

[rkaufmann87]

I see 2012 27 iMac i7 3.4 GHz GTX680MX 1 Tb fusion 8gb RAM in the US refurb store for $1999. My question is what would I have to spend to get similar performance with the new haswell iMac's? I'm guessing i would need an i7 3.5GHz GTX 775M 1 Tb fusion 8gb RAM for $2400 to be similar or slightly faster?

Of course with either option I would upgrade RAM myself.

The main processor intense tasks I do is photoshop and some video riping / converting.

Apprecitate any advice.

Why not just look in Apple's online store and speck out a similar iMac. Then you will have your answer.

 

[bartonjm]

I see 2012 27 iMac i7 3.4 GHz GTX680MX 1 Tb fusion 8gb RAM in the US refurb store for $1999. My question is what would I have to spend to get similar performance with the new haswell iMac's? I'm guessing i would need an i7 3.5GHz GTX 775M 1 Tb fusion 8gb RAM for $2400 to be similar or slightly faster?

Of course with either option I would upgrade RAM myself.

The main processor intense tasks I do is photoshop and some video riping / converting.

Apprecitate any advice.

Do you get the education discount? That might make a difference. I'd say that the older ivy bridge i7 is a fine computer, but I used the education discount. This leveled things out a bit because I don't think you can use the discount on refurbs.

 

[Bear]

If yo care about the graphics performance, you would need a 780M as the 775M is slower then the 680MX.

 

[yjchua95]

I see 2012 27 iMac i7 3.4 GHz GTX680MX 1 Tb fusion 8gb RAM in the US refurb store for $1999. My question is what would I have to spend to get similar performance with the new haswell iMac's? I'm guessing i would need an i7 3.5GHz GTX 775M 1 Tb fusion 8gb RAM for $2400 to be similar or slightly faster?

Of course with either option I would upgrade RAM myself.

The main processor intense tasks I do is photoshop and some video riping / converting.

Apprecitate any advice.

If you do video converting, ripping and Photoshop, you're going to need the i7, because it has 8 threads. i5s only have 4 threads.

The Ivy Bridge Fusion is slower than the Haswell Fusion because the Haswell Fusion uses a 128GB PCIe SSD, while the Ivy Bridge Fusion uses a 128GB SATA3 SSD, which is slower. So if you go for a refurb, I suggest a pure SSD setup instead.

 

[kdochert]

Thanks

Great info guys, especially about the 775M being slower than the 680MX as thats the info that is hard for me to figure out. I was aware of the PCI flash used on the new machines making the fusion drives faster which is another factor to consider, but the 2012 refurb option still looks attractive to me. Or I could wait until 2013 refurbs start showing up but I haven't seen one yet.

27inch retina would be the ultimate but don't see that one being economically viable for a few years yet.....