Referbs are the way
It looks like when the new MB and MBP came out the referb models went from a 18% discount to a 28% discount. Currently the referb imacs are selling at a 18% discount if they increase this to 28% when the new line comes out it will be a great deal. A Refurbished iMac 24-inch 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 1mb, 320 hard Drive is selling for $1499. With a 28% price cut (off the full price) that is like $1273. Add 4GB from crucial.com for $110 and you are out $1383 for a great computer. For most people this is a solid computer.
The way I look at is, if you want a powerful computer you have to buy a Mac Pro. The small incremental bump from a 2.4 to a 2.8 won’t be noticed. The Penryn new chip set won’t make a huge difference to the performance
(1-8%) The new Penryn chip will give you a 16% increase in battery life compared to the Merom, but on a iMac this is not feature.
The only realistic way to make a computer faster is to get a lot of RAM or a major architecture system change like a quad processor or a much faster Front side bus (with faster RAM), perhaps a faster hard drive 7200rpm. Performance for most people is limited to getting data off the harddrive into memory (RAM). You want to spend money on anything that speeds up this operation. More RAM = less trips to the harddrive to get stuff. Faster harddrive = faster loading and writing of temp data. I have always used a PC so I might be missing something as I have no real expierence with a Mac.
As for hard drive space, just be smart about storing data on external devices like Time Capsule.
My plan is to wait for the new line, pick up a 2.4Ghz, 4GB of ram from crucial and a 1TB time capsule (I need a new wireless network router anyway).
I have been a PC user my whole life, this will be my first Mac
. Question to you old mac hands, is this a solid plan or am I missing something?
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