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Refurbished iMac vs New

M

matthewm46

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 16, 2007
6
0
Canada
Hi there, I'm a long-time reader and forum stalker but now I need some help deciding which iMac to buy.

I can't decide between this refurbished 27" iMac

http://store.apple.com/ca/product/G0MS5LL/A/refurbished-imac-34ghz-quad-core-intel-core-i7

Which has the GeForce GTX 680MX graphics chip, 1TB Fusion Drive and Core i7 upgrades or if I should pay the extra $200 (with education discount) and get a brand-new 27" iMac with the GTX 775M graphics chip, 1TB Fusion Drive and Core i7 upgrades.

It's really the 680MX vs 775M comparison that concerns me. This will be a computer for gaming and school work. I study cinema and will need to produce movies. Upgrading to the 780M will be stretching my budget just a bit too far.

Thank you!
 
Remember the Fusion drive in the 2013 model will use a PCIe SSD and the 2012 will not. I also wouldn't pay for an i7 upgrade though a lot of people do.
 
matthewm46 said:
...
It's really the 680MX vs 775M comparison that concerns me. This will be a computer for gaming and school work. I study cinema and will need to produce movies. Upgrading to the 780M will be stretching my budget just a bit too far.
...
Click to expand...
In short in order of performance: 775M->680MX->780M.

And the one question about stretching your budget. Think of how many years you'll be keeping the iMac for. It might be worth the stretch if you were planning on 4 or more years.

roland.g said:
Remember the Fusion drive in the 2013 model will use a PCIe SSD and the 2012 will not. I also wouldn't pay for an i7 upgrade though a lot of people do.
Click to expand...
Good point on the SSD. As for the i7, they said they will be working with video and that's one of the cases where an i7 could help a lot.
 
Newb to graphics cards

Could someone explain to me how the 680 is better than the 780? Isn't the 680 much older than the 780? Usually technology gets better over time....
 
Kayan said:
Could someone explain to me how the 680 is better than the 780? Isn't the 680 much older than the 780? Usually technology gets better over time....
Click to expand...
The 780M is better than the 680MX. If you've seen any benchmarks otherwise, the 780Ms being tested weren't in iMacs.
 
Right so the 780M or 680MX would be better options in any case then. Considering I'll be keeping it for years and years, I guess upgrading to the 780M would be the best choice.
 
matthewm46 said:
Right so the 780M or 680MX would be better options in any case then. Considering I'll be keeping it for years and years, I guess upgrading to the 780M would be the best choice.
Click to expand...

The 780M is very, very slightly faster than than 680MX. Reason being the 680 is an MX version, whereas the 780 is the M variant. If you can get the 2012 model for much cheaper than the 2013, I don't think any sane person would get the 2013 model. If there's not much in it, go for the newest version. You get pcie storage (may or may not be so noticeable depending on your uses), wireless ac (may or may not be noticeable depending on your uses).
 
WilliamG said:
The 780M is very, very slightly faster than than 680MX. Reason being the 680 is an MX version, whereas the 780 is the M variant. If you can get the 2012 model for much cheaper than the 2013, I don't think any sane person would get the 2013 model. If there's not much in it, go for the newest version. You get pcie storage (may or may not be so noticeable depending on your uses), wireless ac (may or may not be noticeable depending on your uses).
Click to expand...

Yeah, the only things leaning me towards the 2013 model is the PCIe fusion drive and Haswell processor--I don't use ac wifi. I'd save $375 with the 2012 model compared to the 2013 one with 780M (or $240 over the 2012 with 775M). I think the 2012 one might be the better deal to be honest...
 
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