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I would strongly recommend waiting for the next refresh, but if you want something now, anything with an SSD will do - Fusion Drive included. Don't get it if it only has an HDD.
 
Has this user been spoiled by SSD performance yet? If no then the entry 27" could work, especially if you order extra ram from a reputable 3rd party such as OWC or crucial to buffer against memory swap space usage. That one only has an HDD, but it is a full desktop 7200rpm HDD.

Users who have already been spoiled by an SSD often have trouble going back to HDDs; if that is the case then another SSD or 2TB fusion drive is best and would limit your options to either a custom config or the top-end 27".

The 1TB iMac fusion drives (24GB SSD) appear to offer diminishing returns as system ram increases and is best skipped if you anticipate the mac will ever be upgraded past 16GB.

Skip the 21" default configs. The 5400rpm drives in those occasionally prompt "why is my mac slow" help requests.
 
I'd take the cheapest base model (1.6GHz with Intel 6000 graphics) with the 256GB SSD upgrade.

The default 5400 drive is dog slow, and the fusion drive upgrade is not much better, since that Mac can only upgrade to 1TB which has a tiny SSD.
 
I'd take the cheapest base model (1.6GHz with Intel 6000 graphics) with the 256GB SSD upgrade.

The default 5400 drive is dog slow, and the fusion drive upgrade is not much better, since that Mac can only upgrade to 1TB which has a tiny SSD.

I don't see that on Best Buy's website. The reason he wants to buy from Best Buy is that he has a give card. Would he just be able to purchase AppleCare for iMac from Best Buy? I don't see that as an option either on their site.
[doublepost=1496004425][/doublepost]I assume the memory is upgradeable to 16GB on these iMacs from a previous poster, but is that the case? I think 8 GB should be fine for him.
 
I don't see that on Best Buy's website. The reason he wants to buy from Best Buy is that he has a give card. Would he just be able to purchase AppleCare for iMac from Best Buy? I don't see that as an option either on their site.

I doubt Best Buy stocks any buy-up configurations. AppleCare however is listed as a protection plan option on the website once an apple computer is selected.

One work-around would be to get a 21.5" plus an external USB-3 SSD drive. One could then install MacOS onto the external and then use the internal HDD as extra storage or as a time machine backup... but doing things that way is an unnecessary complication compared to getting something useful out of the box.

Note that the 1.6GHz version is a dual core only as powerful as a MacBook Air. Even a non-power user shopping for a desktop might expect more unless they only want the iMac for the screen size.
 
After the update today--now what should he buy? I was thinking the 4K 21 Inch with Fusion drive?
 
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