Good time for refurb?

[k.alexander]

I also picked up one of the base 2011 21.5 iMacs (after a long debate between getting one of those or a new mid-tier mini). Does anyone know if these deals are as good as they're going to get on the 2011 iMacs (I paid $979), or there price will get better over the next few months (be it refurb or new or whatever)??? I'm not in a huge hurry. Really don't need a new machine till Dec.

 

[dndlnx]

There is also the issue of the dreaded Rev A syndrome, where freshly redesigned iMacs sometimes have issues that were not worked out during development. I got burned by this when the original G5 iMac was introduced. I bought one, and we had all kinds of problems with the motherboard and oozing capacitors. This was common with those early G5s. I'm not sure I want another Rev A iMac, which was another factor influencing my decision on the refurb.

I'm relatively new to the Mac world. My first one was a Rev A, when the new iMacs truely were the s***. The 2560x1440 display, quad-core desktop processors. There were various documented issues, but I took a shot at one. No problems at all.

For $350-ish extra the revisions are pretty legit, when I thought about it.

When I made this thread I was 75% leaning toward refurb, 25% considering new. Now I'm not sure, I may get a new one.

 

[phoenixsan]

I will say....

go for it, that deals dont last too much! The new iMac is nice with

USB 3.0
Fusion drive
i7 processor options

No so great without FireWire, tough.....

 

[primalman]

I today just ordered the refurb iMac 27" 3.4Ghz i7 with the 1TB drive and 1GB video. I have a grant that expires late November with all paperwork in by Dec 1, so I could not wait for the new 27" to be available. Oh well. I feel pretty good about the purchase, as the refurb was $100 cheaper today than it was before the announcement. Saves me like $600+ with the upgrades I would have added on the new one. Been waiting since June to get basically the same thing just cheaper!

Apple sometimes gives you upgraded stuff like the drive size, RAM and video memory if that particular machine is in the stock at that moment, but usually there is no guarantee. Here's hoping!

Awesome! I got my iMac and set it up overnight. This morning after I was fully logged in I see that even though the box and shipping list say 1TB drive and 1GB video card, the actual machine is 2TB and 2GB video!! So I saved like $700 off what the upgrades would have cost. Still came with only 2x2GB ram, but I bought 2x8GB and now I have 20GB ram!

 

[Matador Red]

Awesome! I got my iMac and set it up overnight. This morning after I was fully logged in I see that even though the box and shipping list say 1TB drive and 1GB video card, the actual machine is 2TB and 2GB video!! So I saved like $700 off what the upgrades would have cost. Still came with only 2x2GB ram, but I bought 2x8GB and now I have 20GB ram!

This exactly what happened to me! I ordered the 3.4, 1TB with 1GB graphics and received a 3.4, 2TB with 2GB graphics. I added applecare and self installed ram to bump it to 20gb. So I was able to get a killer iMac within my budget. I admit the 2012 looks awesome but I am extremely happy with my purchase plus the 2012 is going to be ultra pricey from the looks of it. Refurb seems like a great deal for me.

 

[dranakin]

Notebookcheck says that the AMD Radeon HD 6970M and the NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M are nearly identical in performance. However, does the extra 512MB (for 1GB total) on the Radeon make a big difference?

 

[chilly willy]

This exactly what happened to me! I ordered the 3.4, 1TB with 1GB graphics and received a 3.4, 2TB with 2GB graphics. I added applecare and self installed ram to bump it to 20gb. So I was able to get a killer iMac within my budget. I admit the 2012 looks awesome but I am extremely happy with my purchase plus the 2012 is going to be ultra pricey from the looks of it. Refurb seems like a great deal for me.

I'm seriously considering refurb for same reason, though 2012 iMacs look cool.