21.5 iMac: New 2012 or used 2011?

[gdourado]

Hello,

I was just offered the chance to buy a mint 2011 i5 21.5 iMac for 850.
The iMac is a mid 2011 i5 2.5 with 4gb Ram, 500gb HDD and a 6750M.

I know it has just a 500 hdd and 4gb of ram and it is an older Sandy Bridge, but the price got me thinking...

The 2012 goes:
- i5 2.9 8gb of Ram 1tb fusion = 1500
- i5 2.9 16gb of Ram 1tb fusion = 1670
- i7 3.1 16gb of Ram 1tb fusion = 1840

For the 2011, I can get:
- Seagate Barracuda 7200 rpm 2tb sata III = 90
- Samsung 840 Pro SSD 128gb = 120
- Samsung 840 Pro SSD 256gb = 200
- Optibay = 30
- CORSAIR Vengeance 2 x 8 GB DDR3-1600 PC3-12800 CL10 = 70

Which means, I can get the 2011 with a 2tb and 128gb Fusion with 16gb of ram for 1160.

Or the 2011 with a 2tb and 256gb Fusion with 32gb of ram for 1310.

And if wanted I can even upgrade the CPU with an i7-2600s for another 280...

This is tempting... What do you think? Hassle free 2012 or 2011 with DIY upgrades? In the end, what would be the better machine?

Cheers and thanks!

 

[forty2j]

Depends on how important the following factors are to you:
- 10% bonus CPU performance
- 30% bonus GPU performance
- Reduced screen glare
- Absence of optical drive

If you've already looked into what it would take to tear the 2011 apart, then I have to assume you'd be willing to do it. Kinda defeats the point of an all-in-one to me (I just want to move it from box to desk and forget about it) but that's on you.