Refurb current base model or ...

[fnq v much]

or is a better deal these previous models for another $20?
http://store.apple.com/au/product/FC509X/A
No thunder bolt or hd cam or lion installed, but with support for 16 GB ram and a 1TB hard drive; what does the chip and card spec mean?
Seems to be more turnover for them in that they are not always available like the current type.
I've been watching the store for weeks since my last one succumbed to its power board problem.

 

[obsidian1200]

I'd go with a refurb current base model. It can actually support 16GB of ram, and also comes with a quad core i5 processor (vs. the dual-core i3) and an updated graphics card. Aside from the larger HDD and preinstalled Snow Leopard OS in the i3 refurb, I'm not sure why you'd choose that over the newer model.

 

[Orlandoech]

I'd go with a refurb current base model. It can actually support 16GB of ram, and also comes with a quad core i5 processor (vs. the dual-core i3) and an updated graphics card. Aside from the larger HDD and preinstalled Snow Leopard OS in the i3 refurb, I'm not sure why you'd choose that over the newer model.

I agree, I was confused too.

 

[fnq v much]

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so why are they - even that little - more expensive?
I had wondered if the HDD being twice the size might trade off against the chip/card - given i won't be playing games or cutting video - more just collecting and sorting old photos and designing various structures ...
I had got the wrong idea re ram from somewhere too; been assuming the newer one only had room for 2.
trying to get max life for as little as possible - not going to be able to afford anything else but an enclosure for the old hard drive and apple care (at the last moment) the last one could have kept doing everything i need; SketchUp and Safari were not stable but ok, iPhoto kinda buggy but i reckon the optical drive being difficult about burning or reading burnt disks was why the start-up disk was full - Itunes was all uploaded to Cloud(i think) and i coulda started easing the load if the chronic narcolepsy had not gone fatal ... so anyway what i mean is when a base model circa 2007(late) would be adequate - like, if it worked - so would i get more out of the size of the hard drive than the speed of chip/cards when i intend to keep movies on disks, documents and music in the cloud and am generally old fashioned about what is open, etc.; twenty-odd years ago, macs crashed if you weren't kind to them.
and thanks for reading, too
steven