Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Struggling with keeping/selling iMac

G

GaresTaylan

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 11, 2009
870
30
Hey everyone. I have a 21.5" iMac (see sig) that I have had for about a year. When the newer iMac's came out with the i3 I came down with some nasty buyer's remorse. The newer series had a better processor, the jump to DDR3 RAM and discrete graphics. I was really disappointed that I cant use my current iMac as an external monitor, as well.

I just took on a new job at work which has blessed me with a nice raise + overtime which I didn't have before. Since then I have been thinking more and more about selling my current iMac on ebay or something, and selling the remaining components + case of my PC to get the money for an i5 or i7 iMac. While the current iMac is ok, I have been dabbling more and more with more processor intensive applications such as photoshop.

What are your thoughts and what do you think I may be able to get for my iMac on ebay or craigslist (ballpark)?
 
Check kijiji.com and sell how much they are selling for

Also, there is a website that will give u an automated appraisal of what your re-sale value should be. I forget the site but I'm sure someone knows it.
 
My suggestion is do NOT think to how much you can get for it if you sell it: you are likely to remain disappointed.

You should think to what you need the new one for.
If you need it, go for it, no remorse.

If you don't, stick to current one.
 
Another way to look at it is, if you upgrade to the i5/i7 now. In a year or so there will probably be a new iMac out leaving you dissapointed again.

If your current iMac does all you need it to you may as well keep it.
 
mjsmke said:
Another way to look at it is, if you upgrade to the i5/i7 now. In a year or so there will probably be a new iMac out leaving you dissapointed again.
Click to expand...
Are you sure?

At least for the i7, I was expecting at least a couple of years lifetime :eek:

Not telling you are wrong, just curious as I may be poorly informed ;)
 
apple is "upgrading their iMac's every year , so if you buy one today next year it will be slower and obsolete , maybe have less connector then the next revision coming .....
maybe the next has only ssd's inside who knows? but fact is the next one might have a better graphics card as well and a faster processor even if its only a couple mhz more , but that is always the case since the very first iMac in 1997 , the following year everything is better and thinner now too ,

so if you consider the "oh my god what if the next one has a "?" " you have to either sell your Mac every 7 month (because you get more if its still under warranty) , nobody who knows the iMac will buy one without warranty or apple care left unless its damn cheap
or you never buy one in first place because you always wait since 1997 for the next one with better spec

and the i3 is not that much faster then the core 2 duo , only apps that might be able to use hyper threading mmight run a bit faster , but i am not a fan of hyper threading , as its only a core 2 duo which thinks it has 4 cores but in reality still only has 2 of them

but let me tell you i use avid for film cutting on my 2007 core duo 17" iMac and it does the job very well without any need of beeing faster

and never ever have only one computer at home , not only in case it gets to busy , also as backup in case of a breakdown ,
so if you can afford the i5 or i7 without having to sell the core 2 duo , then keep it ,as you might need it after you bought the i5 or i7 , as some have a tendency to have faults, so only sell your core2 duo after you are completely happy with the new 27"i7 as thats the top of the range and as you are unhappy with the core 2 duo the i7 is the one you should aim for as the i5 will always leave you with the thought .."would i have been better off with the i7" but then next year you might think the same again of the i7 .....
 
Last edited:
Great info guys, thanks so far.

I probably should have been a bit clearer on some things. If I upgrade, ill be getting the i7 iMac. I was just kind of disappointed that compared to my current model, the refresh had some large changes in general (quad core, DDR3).

The extra real-estate of the 27" is a big win for me since i also do some PSX and PS2 emulation in Windows on my current PC. Dabbling more with photoshop and aperture, I think the i7 will be a great boost.

I understand that buyer's remorse can come with anything. It seems like the most highly rumored upgrades for the next iMac are sandybridge, 6XXX series GPUs and light peak.

--I think, but could be wrong, that the jump from the C2D to the i7 will likely be a larger leap than the one to the newer sandybridge.
--My current PC has a Radeon HD 4850 GPU in it, so the current line of GPUs should be a fine upgrade for me I would think. Besides games like Neverwinter Nights and Final Fantasy XI, I don't do any extreme gaming although Star Craft 2 and Diablo 3 sure look promising in my future.
--Light Peak sounds like a great technology, but I have a feeling it wont be on the next refresh given how new it still is. I don't do a lot of transferring to and from external hard drives.
 
I don't think the i7 will offer that big a boost for photoshop. video editing or games, yes, but editing single images is not that huge a task especially if you have plenty of ram like 8gb for photoshop. Most people don't even know that photoshop default settings are horrible and you need to make changes in the Performance settings (then quit and restart) and they get better results. I am a big CS5 user.

BTW - I just sold a iMac with the 3.06 C2D and bought a MBP with 2.4 i5 (turbos up to 2.93Ghz) and a few quick speed tests can't see the difference.

The real question is this, is your current computer not fast enough for your needs? If not then wait as there is always something faster each year for the same price. Next stop is Sandy Bridge then...
 
GaresTaylan said:
When the newer iMac's came out with the i3 I came down with some nasty buyer's remorse.
Click to expand...
When you sell your current mac, what will you do when the new one you just bought becomes the previous generation? And the one after that... and so on...

You will never be able to "out process" Adobe applications anyway. Just when you think an i7 is fast enough, they add more bloated overhead.
 
Vantage Point said:
I don't think the i7 will offer that big a boost for photoshop. video editing or games, yes, but editing single images is not that huge a task especially if you have plenty of ram like 8gb for photoshop. Most people don't even know that photoshop default settings are horrible and you need to make changes in the Performance settings (then quit and restart) and they get better results. I am a big CS5 user.

BTW - I just sold a iMac with the 3.06 C2D and bought a MBP with 2.4 i5 (turbos up to 2.93Ghz) and a few quick speed tests can't see the difference.

The real question is this, is your current computer not fast enough for your needs? If not then wait as there is always something faster each year for the same price. Next stop is Sandy Bridge then...
Click to expand...

Hmm, interesting. I will have to take a look at some of the settings when I get home. All I know is that I have an i7 iMac here in the office with 8GB of RAM and it flies in almost every conceivable way compared to my C2D.

One example of work I have been doing in photoshop is taking PDFs and converting each page to individual png files since my iPad doesnt support the font that the PDFs are written in. This allows me to export to png, create one file and then import to the iPad and view in iBooks.

Richard1028 said:
When you sell your current mac, what will you do when the new one you just bought becomes the previous generation? And the one after that... and so on...
Click to expand...

I already covered this in my last post.

Richard1028 said:
You will never be able to "out process" Adobe applications anyway. Just when you think an i7 is fast enough, they add more bloated overhead.
Click to expand...

This is very true and I see your point. Although Im not really trying to "out process." Maybe I am misunderstanding your terminology - but if I can spend 20 minutes on an automated task versus an hour it's worth it IMO.
 
and there is the problem which i have with newer software from photoshop and others , you get faster computers and bang they bring out new software thats bloated with all sorts of things you never need an slow down the app which brings the speed gain of a newer computer compared to a old one with older software to zero or worse
 
You'll never be able to keep up with computer technology unless your willing to buy a new computer every 6 months to a year. I badly needed a new computer since my 5 yr old hp was ready for the graveyard, so I got the core i7 imac.

I know it won't be the top of the line imac at this time next year, but I'm sure it will be a very good computer for me for at least 2-2.5 years until I'm ready for a upgrade.
 
Hmm, interesting. I will have to take a look at some of the settings when I get home. All I know is that I have an i7 iMac here in the office with 8GB of RAM and it flies in almost every conceivable way compared to my C2D

In Photoshop CS5 go to Preferences - Performance and look at the % RAM allocated to use for Photoshop. Also, look at the cache tile size. The default setting for CS5 is ridiculously low, 128K, you want 1024 or 1028K (10x the default setting). Changes take place after you quit and reopen. Those two plus history states can make a huge difference in performance.

If your C2D is slower than it should be go to the Disk Utility, First Aid and Repair Permissions. I have having speed problems and Apple told me to try that and it made a big difference as some things were fighting itself and slowing down.

The i7 may be faster but it depends on what tasks can use multiple cores. Some can take advantage of it and some don't. But faster isn't always critical. If something takes 5 vs 3 seconds then it might be 40% faster but 2 secs is nothing. If the difference is 2 minutes vs 40 seconds that makes a difference. If I can get up and do something else then the computer is taking up my time. Anyway there is always faster tomorrow - that's how they get you to keep buying :eek:
 
I guess what it comes down to is this: I don't need a new machine at this time. I would really like to have the additional screen real-estate and the ability to use the imac as an external monitor for laptop use... the sooner, the more enjoyment. Given these thoughts, and the "rumored upgrades" be it in February or Summer - would a jump to sandybridge, a jump to 6XXX series GPUs and light peak warrant waiting?
 
GaresTaylan said:
I guess what it comes down to is this: I don't need a new machine at this time. I would really like to have the additional screen real-estate and the ability to use the imac as an external monitor for laptop use... the sooner, the more enjoyment. Given these thoughts, and the "rumored upgrades" be it in February or Summer - would a jump to sandybridge, a jump to 6XXX series GPUs and light peak warrant waiting?
Click to expand...

I would wait for Lion
 
GaresTaylan said:
I think this is what I will try and do. Since the last refresh wasnt that large I'm thinking the next one likely will be. Here's to hoping I can hold out. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Sell your iMac while it still has high value, or give it to a loved one (like mom and dad, my parents really like the iPad I got them) when something new comes out.

I think Lion will bring about some kind of hardware change for the Macs
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back