iMac 27" 2009 i7-860 vs 2011 i5-2400S

[Dadioh]

I have a bit of a dilemma and wanted to solicit a few opinions here. I used to have a Mac Pro 8-core machine that was my workhorse doing video conversion and as a general purpose machine. I do not do anywhere near as much video conversion now that my whole DVD library has been ripped and it was a waste of this machine's capabilities so I recently sold it and put a much lower power micro PC as a server for the disk farm and bought a 27" iMac to serve as my primary machine. I no longer do much in the way of video conversion or video editing but nice to know processing power is available if required.

So I picked up a 2009 iMac 27" i7-860 2.8GHz with 4850m graphics. I got a decent price at $1100 plus shipping and am happy with the results with handbrake runs and Geekbench scores on par with my 8-Core Mac Pro. However, no warranty remains on this machine. I bumped up fan speeds a bit because I wasn't entirely satisfied with the CPU and GPU temps but machine is still very quiet.

However, I am considering a deal on a refurbished 2011 27" i5-2400S 2.7GHz i5 6770m graphics. With this machine I would end up with a full 1 year warranty and I can add 2 more years of Applecare if I want. Also, being a Sandybridge processor the power consumption is better but is it lost in the wash as far as total power is concerned? Would the 2011 i5 iMac run any cooler? I guess I also get thunderbolt but can't think of any immediate use for it with peripheral costs being so high.

The 2011 would end up costing me an additional $200 and I would have the hassle of moving my 1TB SSD from my current iMac to the new one and selling the 2009 iMac.

What would you do? Factors to consider....

Warranty
Processor
32nm Sandy Bridge 4-Cores 4 Threads 65W
vs
45nm 4-Core 8 Threads 95W
4850m vs 6770m - similar performance?

Any thoughts welcome. I know it can go either way but wanted to see if there was another consideration I have overlooked.

 

[NutsNGum]

I'd probably just buy decent third party insurance for the one you currently have. I can't imagine there'll be much in the way of a speed increase either through the CPU or GPU. That and changing hard drives in an iMac is akin to light brain surgery.

If you're happy with your current one and it does everything you need it to, I'd stick with it till it breaks. Either that or wait a couple of weeks until the new ones may make an appearance. Personally, I'd wait and see whether it'd be worth holding off for one of those.

 

[Dadioh]

I'd probably just buy decent third party insurance for the one you currently have. I can't imagine there'll be much in the way of a speed increase either through the CPU or GPU. That and changing hard drives in an iMac is akin to light brain surgery.

If you're happy with your current one and it does everything you need it to, I'd stick with it till it breaks. Either that or wait a couple of weeks until the new ones may make an appearance. Personally, I'd wait and see whether it'd be worth holding off for one of those.

Yes. I think this is the same conclusion I have reached. I repair Macbooks and have no issues opening and working on the iMacs so self repair is certainly what I would do if anything ever broke. I guess I was just caught up in the "newness" of the 2011 iMac but other than warranty I don't think it gets me anything other than $200 lighter in the wallet