iMac 2012 Base 21.5 or Refurb 2011 Base 21.5
- Thread starter ballerjb
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whodareswins
macrumors regular
Depends how much you are willing to spend. I personally would go with the 2011 model. Upgrade the RAM and maybe add an SSD (Which is what I am going to do very soon) and it will be blazingly fast!
Yebubbleman
macrumors 603
Honestly, both base models from both revs suck. I'd go with a high-end 2012 21.5" iMac with 16GB of RAM and a Fusion Drive. Much more worth your while than either of those.
TrboMac
macrumors regular
Well I have a 2011 baseline iMac and it hardly sucks. Guess it depends on what you use a computer for..
To the OP; I decided to go w/ the 2011 model after weighing out the pros/cons:
-2011- Has OD/firewire port, 7200rpm HD, can upgrade RAM up to 32GB easily.
-2012- No OD/fw port, 5400rpm HD, may not be able to upgrade RAM yourself. Does have improved CPU/GPU and USB 3.
It all boils down to what you need your computer to do, how much you have to spend... My decision was a no brainer and I love my 2011 21.5" iMac. I too switched from PC.
To the OP; I decided to go w/ the 2011 model after weighing out the pros/cons:
-2011- Has OD/firewire port, 7200rpm HD, can upgrade RAM up to 32GB easily.
-2012- No OD/fw port, 5400rpm HD, may not be able to upgrade RAM yourself. Does have improved CPU/GPU and USB 3.
It all boils down to what you need your computer to do, how much you have to spend... My decision was a no brainer and I love my 2011 21.5" iMac. I too switched from PC.
I went with a refurbed base-level 2011 21.5". My wife needed a DVD drive and the price difference between the base 2011 21.5" and the base 2012 21.5" was almost $400 when you add in the cost of an external DVD drive. The 2012 has a larger harddrive but the 500 GB in the 2011 was plenty. The 2012 comes with a minimum of 8 GBs but I added 8 GBs to the 2011 modelfor a total of 12 GBs for $36. The graphics cards appear to be pretty close in performance and either is way more than my wife will ever need. The difference in processor performance is small and there is way more processing power than my wife will ever need. This was a pretty easy decision.
Based on US apple store EDU pricing:
$1249 2012 base iMac, 8GB ram, 1TB HDD, nicer screen
$1249 = $979 2011 iMac 4GB RAM & .5TB HDD + $199 120GB SSD Lacie TB external + $70 16GB RAM
I would take the 2011 with 20GB of Ram and Thunderbolt SSD boot drive over the nicer screen.
$1249 2012 base iMac, 8GB ram, 1TB HDD, nicer screen
$1249 = $979 2011 iMac 4GB RAM & .5TB HDD + $199 120GB SSD Lacie TB external + $70 16GB RAM
I would take the 2011 with 20GB of Ram and Thunderbolt SSD boot drive over the nicer screen.
TrboMac
macrumors regular
Wow, that is a steal. I'm assuming it was bought off Ebay or Craigslist?
Thanks for the Break down.... Point well made. Just need to find one in the reburb store....
CrickettGrrrl
macrumors 6502a
Hey, I take exception to that rude comment, my 2011 base 21.5" iMac is not sucky!
I added 16GB RAM myself --so I'm disappointed with the 2012's lack of user upgradeability. Plus I have FW external HDDs so I still need that port. The info about the 2012 iMacs has me rethinking iMacs in the future for something a bit more adaptable. Anyway, THRILLED with my 2011 iMac.
I added 16GB RAM myself --so I'm disappointed with the 2012's lack of user upgradeability. Plus I have FW external HDDs so I still need that port. The info about the 2012 iMacs has me rethinking iMacs in the future for something a bit more adaptable. Anyway, THRILLED with my 2011 iMac.