New vs old

[davidra]

Have iPad, iPhone but always had PC's. Considering shifting; however, I do a lot of DVD burning.
My question is that I can get some 2011 refurbs, but they only have 4 GB of RAM. How hard is it to manually upgrade them, and is it worth it to have the internal drive? I thought about just getting the 2012 (I want a 27"with at least 8 MB) and the external drive, but the reviews of the Apple superdrive are not that good...at all. And I figure by the time I pay for the memory upgrade, I could easily buy a new one that comes with 8 MB....

Suggestions? New or old?

 

[gecko20]

Have iPad, iPhone but always had PC's. Considering shifting; however, I do a lot of DVD burning.
My question is that I can get some 2011 refurbs, but they only have 4 GB of RAM. How hard is it to manually upgrade them, and is it worth it to have the internal drive? I thought about just getting the 2012 (I want a 27"with at least 8 MB) and the external drive, but the reviews of the Apple superdrive are not that good...at all. And I figure by the time I pay for the memory upgrade, I could easily buy a new one that comes with 8 MB....

Suggestions? New or old?

First it has 8 GB not MB
But it depends of what you need it for. You can easily buy an external drive from an other producer or even a blueraydrive.
If you do a lot of encoding buy the new one, but you should think that in the old Imacs the superdrive often has his problems...
I would buy a new one with a really good drive (not apple)

 

[justperry]

I would also recommend the new iMac.
And buy a non Apple cheaper external drive.

About RAM upgradeability, the 2011 are really easy, just remove a few screws on the bottom to access RAM.

The new iMac 27" is also easy from the back, there is a door there.
But, the 21" has no User Upgradeable RAM, you have to crack open the iMac to do so.

 

[davidra]

Yeah, mind still recovering...GB. Given your comments, what is a good high quality external drive that is Mac-compatible? Is there a solid favorite?

 

[zarf2007]

Yeah, mind still recovering...GB. Given your comments, what is a good high quality external drive that is Mac-compatible? Is there a solid favorite?

I went for this in white:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Ret...UIS4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1356888833&sr=8-2

It works without problem and can also read/burn Blu-ray Discs in addition to CDs and DVDs

 

[seigaroo]

I got a refurb came with 8gb ram said 4gb but it's also easy to add some. I got lucky also came with 2tb hd said 1tb and 2gb video which said 1gb