Need purchasing help.

[pcglobal]

I want to purchase an iMac for my son. He wants a 27" display and the best feature that I can purchase. My budget is $1250.00 and I was planning on buying a used unit on Ebay. I have it narrowed down to two units and was hoping to get some guidance on which one I should buy.

This one has higher end specs, but is older and does not have Retina or warranty:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-iMac...979408?hash=item4b32de5790:g:ZDEAAOSwFSxaTYgk

This one is newer with warranty & Retina, but lower specs:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/iMac-A1419...539740&hash=item1a3fe912bf:g:Uz8AAOSwUg9aVnlW

 

[Glmnet1]

What will your son use it for?

The first one is quite old, 2012, which means it's close to being considered vintage by Apple (no support from them) and will soon not be able to upgrade macOS. But it has an SSD. Still I wouldn't recommend to buy this now.

The second one is a better choice overall but it has a regular HDD. If you purchase it consider buying an external SSD over USB 3 or Thunderbolt 2 and booting from it, it will greatly improve the overall performance.

I know it's over your budget, but if you know your son is careful with his things and since I suspect he likes games, this one might be a better value in the long term: https://www.apple.com/shop/product/...uad-core-Intel-Core-i5-with-Retina-5K-display

 

[Samuelsan2001]

That is a tough choice....

The first one has an ssd and will feel far faster in general use. The second one has a great screen and is a better faster computer but the HDD will make it feel very sluggish most of the time.

 

[pcglobal]

Thanks for the replies. He will be using it for web surfing & schoolwork plus uploading picture/videos. Nothing heavy duty.

 

[jerwin]

well, putting aside everything else

"higher spec": fastest video card available at the time. Good for games.
"lower spec but more recent": slowest video card available at the time. Good for running the 5k screen and ... not much else.

so the choice lies between a machine meant for gaming (among other things), and a machine meant for institutions where one is not allowed to play games-- like schools.

 

[ElectronGuru]

Ssd are important but getting a non retina iMac at this point is like driving 1000mi to the coast and spending your week 10 miles from the beach. You can but why

Jump on the second and figure out the ssd later.

 

[pcglobal]

Would you recommend an SSD, or would a Fusion drive be fast enough?

 

[jerwin]

also the 680mx is good for CUDA.

 

[Glmnet1]

Would you recommend an SSD, or would a Fusion drive be fast enough?

The 1tb has a really small SSD portion but the 2-3tb have 128gb of SSD, so you should at least get the 2tb. Pure SSD is still faster and there is no moving parts in it that can fail over time.

 

[Juicy Box]

This one is newer with warranty & Retina, but lower specs:

This does have better specs, but it is older. I would go with the other one.

This one has higher end specs, but is older and does not have Retina or warranty:

This may not have as good as specs, but you can always upgrade the RAM yourself, or have your son do it. You can also run an external SSD boot drive, and just the internal as a backup drive or extra storage.

I would go with your second choice.
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Would you recommend an SSD, or would a Fusion drive be fast enough?

The 1tb has a really small SSD portion but the 2-3tb have 128gb of SSD, so you should at least get the 2tb. Pure SSD is still faster and there is no moving parts in it that can fail over time.

I think almost everyone would recommend a SSD over a 1TB Fusion Drive on new Macs. The 1 TB Fusion has a 32GB SSD in it, and is basically a tiny step up from just a HDD.

The 2TB and 3TB Fusion Drives have a 128GB SSD.

The original 1TB Fusion Drive that came out for the Late 2012 iMacs had 128GB SSD.

I think it was the Late 2015 iMacs that switch to 1TB Fusion Drives with 24GB SSD, and the 2017 models that increased it to 32GB SSDs.

I have a Late 2012 27" iMac with the original 128SSD Fusion Drive, and I wished I would have just gotten an SSD.

The Fusion is okay, and great if you use the same few apps over and over again, but if I take a break from using the app for awhile, then I would see a significant slow down until I used it frequently again.

 

[Fishrrman]

Frankly, I would NOT buy "a used unit from ebay".
Just too risky for buying an iMac.
Particularly if the prior owned opened it up.

I -would- consider buying an Apple-refurbished iMac.
You get a 1-year Apple warranty and you could even buy AppleCare for it.

Get a 27" (even the most-base model) -- if it fits your budget.
Otherwise, the 21" will have to do.

If budget considerations mandate that you can afford only one that has a platter-based hard drive inside (out-of-the-box, these will be SLOW) -- you could speed it up significantly by adding an EXTERNAL USB3 SSD, even a small-capacity one. It will make a GREAT difference!

 

[Juicy Box]

Get a 27" (even the most-base model) -- if it fits your budget.

This might be an option.

I like Apple's refurbished, but I bet it will be hard to find an Apple refurbished 27" iMac for their price requirement. You have to check it often, and there is no way of knowing if there will ever be one.

Frankly, I would NOT buy "a used unit from ebay".
Just too risky for buying an iMac.

Of course there is risk involved, it has to be weighed against the amount of money you are saving or your maximum budget amount.

I bought an iMac G4 on ebay, maybe 12-14 years ago, it was formerly evidence for some crime, and was purchased from a police auction. The HDD was removed, and it did not run according to the listing.

It was risky, but paid off. I installed a new HDD and it was perfect. It ended up being my favorite design of all Apple devices, even to this day.