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Need advice on this used iMac

scienide09

scienide09

macrumors 65816
Original poster
May 5, 2007
1,385
0
Canada
MacRumors friends, I'm looking for some advice.

There's an opportunity for me to get my hands on a 24" iMac at what seems a good price. Unfortunately, my knowledge and experience lies mostly with MBs and MBPs, and I'm not too familiar with the iMac line. I'll keep doing my research, but I'm hoping your advice will help me make an informed decision.

iMac 24"
2.8GHz C2D
2GB RAM
320 GB HD
SuperDrive
model MB325LL/A
(At this point I'm not certain, so assume the unit comes with the standard 256MB HD2600 pro GPU.)

Seller is looking for $1000CAD, but I suspect there may be some wiggle room on that. Any thoughts on this? Anything I should be wary of? Thanks for your help!
 
In my own opinion, I'd spend a little more and buy the base-line iMac 21.5" brand new, it has warranty, more RAM, bigger hard drive, faster processor, higher quality screen+backlight. That's $1199.

Or even a refurbished 21.5" from Apple with warranty and the better graphics card, and a 1TB HDD as opposed to a 500GB in the base-line, for just $1299.

That's my 2 cents, I'd much rather pay out a little bit more, and get one of much higher quality, if you can, I'd even say wait out for the refresh in the next couple of months, you'll see higher spec machines at even same if not better prices.
 
Buy if your in need of a machine now. Otherwise I would wait and watch for the refresh
 
Valid points so far, and I thank you for them.

I should have indicated that the price is in Canadian currency. I've updated the original post to show this. Current exchange rates put $1000CAD at approx. $960USD.
 
I'd pass. Small hard drive and only 2GB ram is slow. For $999 USD you can get a refurb 21.5" iMac with 500GB hard drive, 4gb ram, 3.06 CPU, much better IPS backlit LED monitor and 1 year warranty. Plus a wireless keyboard and magic mouse
 
TheBritishBloke said:
In my own opinion, I'd spend a little more and buy the base-line iMac 21.5" brand new, it has warranty, more RAM, bigger hard drive, faster processor, higher quality screen+backlight. That's $1199.

Or even a refurbished 21.5" from Apple with warranty and the better graphics card, and a 1TB HDD as opposed to a 500GB in the base-line, for just $1299.

That's my 2 cents, I'd much rather pay out a little bit more, and get one of much higher quality, if you can, I'd even say wait out for the refresh in the next couple of months, you'll see higher spec machines at even same if not better prices.
Click to expand...

Vantage Point said:
I'd pass. Small hard drive and only 2GB ram is slow. For $999 USD you can get a refurb 21.5" iMac with 500GB hard drive, 4gb ram, 3.06 CPU, much better IPS backlit LED monitor and 1 year warranty. Plus a wireless keyboard and magic mouse
Click to expand...

A couple of mentions of buying new/refurbished, and looking at the 21.5" model. I see the logic in this, but the appeal of the 24" display is part of what's drawing me to this deal. Unless you're suggesting that the display quality of the 21.5" model is that much better

Mac7 said:
Buy if your in need of a machine now. Otherwise I would wait and watch for the refresh
Click to expand...

This is the approach I usually take, so not too helpful in telling me more about this Mac. When I end up with an iMac, it will take over the role of my primary computer, displacing (but not necessarily replacing) my 2.33 MBP. My wife uses our MacBook most of the time, but is going back to graduate studies in the fall. Having the extra screen real estate would help.
 
Well do you want the extra screen in the 24"? Or more HD space and ram in a refurb 21.5"
 
I would go for the new one. If I'm not mistaken, the new one has an LED screen compared to the old one which does not - so it will be better. Plus, you are getting 1080p resolution, so it can compare pretty well with the 24''. I would go for the 21.5inch that has warranty.
 
I have that exact iMac. I bought it last year off of a Craigslist add and paid right around $950 from what I can remember. It's our main machine and I use it for email, web surfing, photo management/post processing, video editing/ripping/encoding, office work, skype/ichat, etc. etc.. It was an upgrade for us from an older Intel Coreduo white iMac 2.0Ghz. It meets our needs well and I haven't had any problems with it at all. Yes the internal hard drive is smaller than current standard drives, but I use externals for all of my media/files and only use the internal drive for the OS, programs, and a few odds and ends. I'm counting on this machine to last me a few more years. Would it be great to upgrade to an i5 or i7 machine, sure, but it's not necessary at this point for what we do.

I think the key is buying what will meet your needs. If this 24" iMac does that and you are set on your budget, then get the best price you can, and go for it. If you want to better future proof and are willing to raise your budget than maybe I'd look at the newer 27" refurbs or even wait on the next refresh.

I'm happy with the purchase I made. Best wishes in your decision making. Let me know if I can answer any other questions or help in any other way. :)
 
If you don't need a computer immediately, just keep an eye out
on the refurb store. That's where I got my iMac and couldn't be happier.
 
It's worth around 800CAD, if you can't lower the price much by bargaining, I suggest you buy the new one.
 
The consensus seems to be that I should hold off on this in favour of a newer model.

The improved screen real estate and better GPU compared to my current main machine were the selling points for me. HD space isn't an issue -- my MBP has the stock 120GB drive, I've still got sufficient free space, and 40GB is being used by a Bootcamp partition. My network drives settle the rest of my storage needs. I would likely want to update the RAM though.

I don't need it now -- just want an iMac, and thought the deal looked better that maybe it was. Luckily, I can afford to wait, and to keep saving.

I came seeking advice, and got it. Thank you all for your comments and suggestions, very much appreciated.
 
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