anyone tempted by 27" iMac refurbs?

[penny_whistle]

It seems that many of the posts I see here are (logically) written by enthusiasts and/or early adopters. I get that the PC business is pushing barriers and that older computers are not especially valued.

That being said, would anybody consider a recent (mid or late 2015) 27" i5 iMac Apple refurb over a current i5 model? The deeper discounting seems mostly to be on the 1 TB hd & Fusion versions. After lurking here a bit, I can appreciate the benefits of a SSD & would hold out for one fitted with a SSD.

Not doing any gaming. Audio recording/production with a TB2 interface will be my main use. Is it foolhardy to try & save a bit by going for a previous gen model?

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

That 'deeper discounting' is because of the unpopularity of the 1TB platter and 1TB Fusion drives. The platter drive is so slow, and Apple crippled the 1TB Fusion drive by limiting severely the flash store to 32GB. The 2 and 3 TB drives each have 128GB of flash.

We all have to buy according to our pockets so if a 2015 iMac with say 512G of SSD fills the bill go for it. It will be a fast machine.

And speaking of refurbished, if you buy from Apple you get free delivery, the latest operating system and a full 12 month warranty. This can be extended to three years with the purchase of ApppleCare within that first 12 months.

 

[jlseattle]

I agree with the poster above. Get the most mac you can for the money you have to spend. I look at the purchase as a long term purchase (lasting me 5-8 years). So I go for the most I can afford. I also agree that the first thing you should look at is the hard drive. Getting an ssd will help lots in speed and long term performance of the iMac.

 

[kschendel]

You're not doing anything seriously CPU/GPU bound, it seems, so you would be an ideal candidate for a 2015 refurb with SSD instead of spinner or fusion.

As a reference point, for ordinary "office" work (browsing, email, occasional document production, occasional light photo fiddling, etc) an early 2009 iMac with added RAM and SSD is entirely usable. Not that I'm recommending you go back that far, just pointing out that for many common tasks, current machines are considerably overpowered.

 

[imac2017mm]

This can be extended to three years with the purchase of ApppleCare within that first 123 months.

I thought we had up to year to add apple care? within time of purchase

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

That has been corrected. Ten would be better however..........