Advice on which iMac to purchase

[imacinmyhead]

Hello All,
I currently use a crappy Dell 9100 laptop P4 (5 years old) which is a little sluggish, but otherwise works well. So this is more of a want versus need, but I would like to purchase an iMac, but I need some advice from some people that know Apple products (ie. macrumors members).
First, this iMac would be used for some gaming (Mostly Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress 2 and maybe other games that would run on this system) but not hardcore gaming. I currently do not encode videos or use Photoshop (although I may try and get into it in the future). Lastly, I would only be using this iMac if/when the fabled quad-core iMac arrives (Probably don't need quad-core based on current uses, but I'll be keeping this one for a long time.) at which point I will sell this one and buy a quad-core.

So, I've been thinking it over for a while now, and I've come up with a few options.

1. Buy a refurbished 20" iMac and upgrade to 4gb ram - $999
http://store.apple.com/ca_edu_108165/product/FB323LL/A?mco=MjE0NDk5Mw

2. Wait until the "Back to School" promotion and buy a 20" iMac + ipod - -$1350 I already have an ipod, so I'd probably sell it anyways.

3. Wait until SL comes out and buy a new one.

So, what would you guys do? Keeping in mind what I'd be using this for and that I want to sell this when I'm done, and would like to get as much money back as possible. Some things that have been running around in my head are - 08 vs 09 screen, DDR2 vs DDR3, gpu. Thanks so much. It feels so good that I'll finally be converting!

 

[J&JPolangin]

...this would probably be pretty old tech once the quad iMacs finally start rolling out...

 

[miles01110]

Just wait until the model you want comes out.

 

[clyde2801]

Max out the ram in your dell, and empty stuff of your hard drive you don't need if it is getting full. That should help with it's sluggishness.

Save your money and use your existing system until it no longer does what you want it to do, and then get the mac you want.

 

[imacinmyhead]

I've thought many times about upgrading the RAM, but couldn't pull the trigger because I didn't want to spend $150 just to upgrade to 2GB RAM on a laptop I hate looking at. (Upgrading an iMac to 4gb ram is cheaper? Strange.)

And money is not really an issue (it was until last night) since I won a small lottery prize, and I'm not a student (but my sister is, hence the student discount). I could buy a maxed out iMac, but seeing as this would only be a "rental" computer, I didn't want to.

You guys do bring up a valid point, but I'm not sure I could wait that long. Anyone else care to add their 2 cents?

 

[mcpryon2]

I've thought many times about upgrading the RAM, but couldn't pull the trigger because I didn't want to spend $150 just to upgrade to 2GB RAM on a laptop I hate looking at. (Upgrading an iMac to 4gb ram is cheaper? Strange.)

I picked up a refurb 2.8GHz 24" iMac ($1199) last month and the upgrade to 4GB of RAM from Crucial was about $50.

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

I picked up a refurb 2.8GHz 24" iMac ($1199) last month and the upgrade to 4GB of RAM from Crucial was about $50.

I think the OP was talking about his older Dell laptop memory, not the iMac. Older memory chips are less produced compared to newer memory chips, thus more expensive.

I recommend the OP springing for the 24" iMac w/ the GT120. It's enough for gaming and Photoshop. Any of the older 24" iMac with the NVIDIA chipsets (8800 something) would also be a good value, if you like to wait for the possible upcoming quad cores.

 

[The Hammer]

Option 3. Wait for SL.

 

[imacinmyhead]

Actually, another thought popped into my head; When do you think will we start to see refurbs of the current generation of iMacs?

 

[Gregintosh]

Actually, another thought popped into my head; When do you think will we start to see refurbs of the current generation of iMacs?

I am guessing it won't be long. It will probably coincide with when the fix for 4850's comes out, because all the units people have been exchanging (multiple times in many cases, so Apple should have a large stock of returned 4850's with the freezing issues) will have to be sold as refurbs.