Refurbished iMac 21.5" or Older 27 iMac?

[kyriostrife]

I have a budget of around $1000-$1100 for an iMac to run a piece of software called ProPresenter for a church.

I am debating on getting a 21.5" iMac from the Apple Refurbished section. It's a mid-2017 quad-core with 1TB HDD (not fusion or SSD) with Radeon Pro for $1099. Last night it was available but today it's not there so unfortunately, I can't post a link. I'm hoping more will come back in stock asap.

The other option is to look for a 27" with comparable specs but it will obviously be older. The extra screen real estate is preferable, but the goal is to just fit it in the price range. The issue is that I won't find anything in that price on the Apple Refurbished page. I wanted the AppleCare just for preventative purposes.

Mac Of All Trades has a couple of 2013 27" iMacs in that price range. If anyone has any recommendations I would be greatly appreciate it.

ProPresenter runs great on older specs, but I want to make sure I get at least 3 years out of whatever computer I get.

ProPresenter Specs:

• OS: Mac OS X 10.9 (Mavericks), 10.10 (Yosemite), 10.11 (El Capitan), 10.12 (Sierra), or 10.13 (High Sierra)
• Processor: 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor or better
• RAM: 4 GB RAM (8 GB recommended)
• Graphics: While not required, a dedicated graphics card with 1GB VRAM is recommended, particularly if playing back a wide variety of HD video files
• Stage Display: Additional output required for stage display function (third video out – PCI or USB). Only the Mac mini and MacBook Air lack a third video out port.

I appreciate any input.

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

The 1TB drive in the 21.5" iMac is a pretty slow 5400rpm notebook style hard drive. Even a 27" model with a 7200rpm platter drive is getting slower as everything else gets faster and faster in the IT world. If you can get a 2013 27" model with a full SSD of say 512GB, for mine that is the way to go.

The late 2013 27" iMacs come with one of three graphic cards of 1GB, 2GB or 4GB GDDR5 memory.

For use with a stage display, as my church also uses, suggest going with 16GB of memory.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Keep checking the Apple Refurb section. I mean, check often. They update the available models frequently, and the most desirable configurations seem to disappear as quickly as they appear. I recently bought a 5K iMac from there, and the SSD models seemed to go really quickly.

 

[kyriostrife]

The 1TB drive in the 21.5" iMac is a pretty slow 5400rpm notebook style hard drive. Even a 27" model with a 7200rpm platter drive is getting slower as everything else gets faster and faster in the IT world. If you can get a 2013 27" model with a full SSD of say 512GB, for mine that is the way to go.

The late 2013 27" iMacs come with one of three graphic cards of 1GB, 2GB or 4GB GDDR5 memory.

For use with a stage display, as my church also uses, suggest going with 16GB of memory.

I appreciate the input. It looks as if the 27" may be what we need to go with.

Would this one be a good option? - http://www.macofalltrades.com/iMac-27-inch-3-4GHz-QCi5-Late-2013-p/im-27-34-l13-1tb-2vc.htm

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

No keyboard, no mouse anda platter HDD not an SSD. Not for me.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

I appreciate the input. It looks as if the 27" may be what we need to go with.

Would this one be a good option? - http://www.macofalltrades.com/iMac-27-inch-3-4GHz-QCi5-Late-2013-p/im-27-34-l13-1tb-2vc.htm

I’ve purchased a “good condition” Mac Pro from Mac of All Trades before. The system runs great, but the case is pretty dinged up. I expected some flaws, but this one had substantial gouges, scuffs and scratches in the outer shell. Just something you should be aware of since you are buying for someone else.

 

[Fishrrman]

You are almost certainly going to be UNHAPPY with ANY iMac (regardless of year) that has only a platter-based hard drive inside. Reason: speed. A platter-based hard drive is going to be s__l__o__w, if you get my drift.

You want either a 2tb fusion drive or an straight SSD.

The other option would be to add a small (250gb) external USB3 SSD to be the boot drive.

 

[kyriostrife]

You are almost certainly going to be UNHAPPY with ANY iMac (regardless of year) that has only a platter-based hard drive inside. Reason: speed. A platter-based hard drive is going to be s__l__o__w, if you get my drift.

You want either a 2tb fusion drive or an straight SSD.

The other option would be to add a small (250gb) external USB3 SSD to be the boot drive.

Yeah i've pretty much crossed off everything that doesn't at least have a fusion drive.