Appalling that lower tiers still have HDD. Any refurb sites?

[fs454]

Hey guys,

I'm working to buy about 16 Macs for a medical office that I run IT for, but am pretty surprised how difficult Apple's lower tiers are for all models. MacBook Airs must be CTO for more than 4GB of RAM on all models (how insulting is that!), and iMacs have standard spinning disk hard drives unless you get spendy. I'd love an iMac with basic specs but 8GB of RAM and an SSD or fusion drive, but this is not easy in current Apple world.

As far as I know, Apple's refurb store only allows a customer to purchase one of those items, and they usually only have one in stock anyways. I'm getting seven Late 2012 Airs (8GB/256GB SSD) for $699 each from OWC because it's a no brainer with how stripped the new models are, but am having trouble sourcing iMacs. I've tried MacMall and MacSales/OWC but am still having trouble sourcing recent iMacs.

Bottom line is I'm looking for four refurb (~2014) 21 or 27" iMacs that don't have a spinning disk drive equipped for around $1300-1400 a pop. Does anyone know of any sources I'm not thinking of?

Thanks!

 

[bogg]

Apple online store (or phone them).
2015 CTO 21.5" iMac w. 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD: $1299
2015 CTO 21.5" iMac w. 8GB RAM and 1TB Fusion drive: $1199

Wasn't that hard to find...Don't know why you don't seem to want to order CTO, they'll only take a few days longer to get to you...

 

[hfg]

Try B&H Photo...
They usually have the new BTO configurations. Possibly used ones.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/iMac/ci/6490/N/4110474295?origSearch=IMac

 

[Samuelsan2001]

It's not appalling no one sells standard configuration all in ones with SSD's as standard.

 

[maflynn]

For me, the issue isn't that Apple is selling standard configurations with the hard drive, what I do hate, is that they're using 5400rpm drives. Some of the configurations use the Fusion drive which gives you a lot of the SSD space with ltos of storage. While I'm no fan of the 1TB Fusion drive, the 2TB is a nice option with 128GB of flash storage.

Also You can easily configure the computer to suit your needs - don't like hard drives, replace it with an SSD when buying the mac. Simple solution

 

[KnighsTalker]

For me, the issue isn't that Apple is selling standard configurations with the hard drive, what I do hate, is that they're using 5400rpm drives. Some of the configurations use the Fusion drive which gives you a lot of the SSD space with ltos of storage. While I'm no fan of the 1TB Fusion drive, the 2TB is a nice option with 128GB of flash storage.

Also You can easily configure the computer to suit your needs - don't like hard drives, replace it with an SSD when buying the mac. Simple solution

I say 2 thumbs to that!

 

[MacRobert10]

For me, the issue isn't that Apple is selling standard configurations with the hard drive, what I do hate, is that they're using 5400rpm drives. Some of the configurations use the Fusion drive which gives you a lot of the SSD space with ltos of storage. While I'm no fan of the 1TB Fusion drive, the 2TB is a nice option with 128GB of flash storage.

Also You can easily configure the computer to suit your needs - don't like hard drives, replace it with an SSD when buying the mac. Simple solution

Hitachi has had out, for well over a year, a 7200 RPM drive, 2.5" form factor, and very high areal density which gives it media to transfer speeds on the of SATA 1 threshold. Not as fast as an SSD, but like night and day compared to what Apple is putting in their systems. Model number is HGST HTS725050A7E630. Data sheet is here:

https://www.hgst.com/products/hard-drives/travelstar-z7k500

I put that in a customers system after running a Scannerz test on it revealed the original HDD was bad. After putting the HGST in I thought something was wrong because a preliminary test made it look like it was an SSD (almost). I thought Scannerz was just making an error and reflecting the drive buffer transfer so I did some mass data transfers to the newer HGST drive and it confirmed that it was just that fast. It's not SSD fast, but night and day compared to what Apple had put in their system. Now here's the real kicker: The HGST, which was a 500GB drive cost just under $60, and yet Apple is still putting "old technology" type HDDs in their systems with HDDs in them. I'm not saying the OP should put these in instead of an SSD (he couldn't do that with a MacBook Air any way), my point is some of the Apple's equipped with HDDs aren't even using very good HDDs.

To the OP:

Occasionally Micro Center has a supply of off-lease Apple equipment. Unfortunately they're usually in-store pickup only, but Micro Center is a chain and there may be one near you. Go to their website at:

http://www.microcenter.com

and at the top of the page there should be a store selector which can tell you if there's one in your vicinity. I've never bought an Apple from them but may consider one of these in the future.

 

[fs454]

For me, the issue isn't that Apple is selling standard configurations with the hard drive, what I do hate, is that they're using 5400rpm drives. Some of the configurations use the Fusion drive which gives you a lot of the SSD space with ltos of storage. While I'm no fan of the 1TB Fusion drive, the 2TB is a nice option with 128GB of flash storage.

Also You can easily configure the computer to suit your needs - don't like hard drives, replace it with an SSD when buying the mac. Simple solution

This is true, but I don't know, I guess I find the new models pretty deplorable when they now come with a low voltage netbook CPU, soldered ram, and a 5400RPM hard drive standard. They used to have standard wattage CPUs and even quad cores as well as the obvious upgradeable RAM for the same price. It's just gouging at this point.

 

[bogg]

This is true, but I don't know, I guess I find the new models pretty deplorable when they now come with a low voltage netbook CPU, soldered ram, and a 5400RPM hard drive standard. They used to have standard wattage CPUs and even quad cores as well as the obvious upgradeable RAM for the same price. It's just gouging at this point.

Well, the 27" has a desktop cpu, 3.5" 7200rpm, you could stick to that

But I agree, it's sad to see the 21.5" become nothing more than a "net-top"

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Well, the 27" has a desktop cpu, 3.5" 7200rpm, you could stick to that

But I agree, it's sad to see the 21.5" become nothing more than a "net-top"

Tosh, the 21.5 inch has a quad core desktop CPU with the best currently available iGPU that rivals most mid range mobile dGPU's as found in all in one machines.

(This is of course ignoring the very cheap one that is a poor buy with MBA internals.)

 

[maflynn]

But I agree, it's sad to see the 21.5" become nothing more than a "net-top"

The 21" iMac is no slouch, I wouldn't go that far. Yes, I think Apple cut too many corners, in terms of storage and only sticking with an iGPU, but that iGPU has the horsepower to drive the display.

The 4k machine is very nice, great display, fast chipset. I think overall, its a nice machine.

 

[Max(IT)]

This is true, but I don't know, I guess I find the new models pretty deplorable when they now come with a low voltage netbook CPU, soldered ram, and a 5400RPM hard drive standard. They used to have standard wattage CPUs and even quad cores as well as the obvious upgradeable RAM for the same price. It's just gouging at this point.

I'm not a fan of the soldered RAM and surely I won't buy an iMac with a 5400RPM drive (not even with a Fusion TBH), but I can't see any iMac with "netbook CPU"....

 

[bogg]

I'm not a fan of the soldered RAM and surely I won't buy an iMac with a 5400RPM drive (not even with a Fusion TBH), but I can't see any iMac with "netbook CPU"....

Personally I read it as notebook, guess that's where I went wrong