Did I make the right decision?

[insimbi]

I recently purchased a Late 2012 27" iMac refurb from Apple the same day the 2013 models were announced. It was a base model 27" with the 1TB Fusion drive.

After thinking about the newer upgrades included with the 2013 model, I decided to return my refurb to my local Apple store and purchase the base model 27". My thinking was that with the new Haswell chip, new AC wireless standard and better Nvidia 755M GPU, that it made sense to just get the 2013 model instead.

I wasn't able to get a Fusion drive in the store because they don't have that option in store (base model with Fusion), and secondly, my budget just didn't allow it.

Just wondered what others think of this decision. With the new upgrades for 2013, did I make the right choice to give up the Fusion and get the newer 2013 model?

 

[elithrar]

The Fusion drive would be a much more noticeable gain in day-to-day work over 802.11ac and/or Haswell. Haswell is a tiny jump on the desktop front, and unless you have a fat pipe or carry out large file transfers often, 802.11ac won't really improve your browsing.

(as much as I hate to say it, I think you made the wrong choice)

 

[bensimpsy]

i think you made the right choice. there are plenty of options for adding a SSD yourself or alternatively have an Authorised Service Centre do the modification for you.

 

[MikeChicago]

You made the right choice. As someone said in response to my post, you can easily upgrade storage but you cannot easily upgrade GPU. I am doing a similar switcharu. Although I'm having HDD problems that prompted the return/exchange.

 

[Bluebros]

I think you made the medium choice, (just to try and balance out the other two opinions)

That Fusion Drive does seem pretty nice as that's what I've ordered and its clear SSD is the way to go in terms of speed. That said, is it too late to make another exchange? If not, you can always add an external SSD drive.

I hear once you go SSD, you don't go back...

 

[tom vilsack]

Unless you plan on getting a fusion or ssd drive you made a poor choice.

 

[insimbi]

I think you made the medium choice, (just to try and balance out the other two opinions)

That Fusion Drive does seem pretty nice as that's what I've ordered and its clear SSD is the way to go in terms of speed. That said, is it too late to make another exchange? If not, you can always add an external SSD drive.

I hear once you go SSD, you don't go back...

I was thinking I would use a SSD drive I already have and install it into a USB 3.0 enclosure. I would install OS X on the SSD and boot from that.

 

[bp1000]

I was thinking I would use a SSD drive I already have and install it into a USB 3.0 enclosure. I would install OS X on the SSD and boot from that.

Yes plenty of people do this and achieve around 250MB/Sec - 350MB/Sec read speeds and of course much better random access compared to the HDD.

Decent advantage over the internal disk.

 

[tomnavratil]

Yes plenty of people do this and achieve around 250MB/Sec - 350MB/Sec read speeds and of course much better random access compared to the HDD.

Decent advantage over the internal disk.

Very fair point. Once you considered having an external SSD through USB 3 as a boot drive and apps drive, you can use your internal drive for data storage and you can benefit from increased speeds.

 

[insimbi]

Well, after a sleepless night thinking about what to do, I returned my stock 27" to the Apple Store this morning. I've now ordered a stock 27" with the 1TB Fusion drive update for $200. I feel like my iMac will last longer this way and the resale will be better at some point. The performance will be better of course as well.
Now I just have to wait for it to ship

 

[elithrar]

Good move. Be patient next time