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The "I just ordered/bought/got my new/refurb iMac" thread [merged]
- Thread starter sackboy
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True. I am only arguing the necessity to put emphasis on waiting or buying now.
In three years, I will wait to see what the new iMac or MacPro has to offer, but I won't be chewing my nails and checkin MacRumors every Tuesday and devising equations and theories to see when an update comes.
I would bet cold hard cash that most that are waiting aren't going to be maximizing the abilities or even getting a 2GB GPU.
Spoken words by people with no patience or people who just purchased an iMac. I have patience and can wait. If you can't then don't take my advice. I just want certain things for my 2000.00 USB 3.0 and Flash memory are important to me. Have any of you used a Mac with a SSD compared to a spinning HD. It's way faster. When I'm loading Civilization or something similar I want it now, The 27 inch iMac I returned to best buy in 30 days could barely run Civilization with high res settings. That matters to me and will be tested on my own Geek Bench when the new ones come out. Btw do none of you remember that geek bench just posted results of a 27 inch iMac and a MBP, duh that means both machines were built. David Pogue should be sued by apple as he really created a situation with Apples customers. He has people using no common sense. just wait till July. I know that there is always something new coming out but I would rather stretch my investment in a computer to the max. Who has to have one right now? You're all on here posting. Buy a Mac mini if you gotta have one right now and hook it up to your HD tv with the hdmi until the new ones come out.
This is probably true. For this crowd it's just the psychological barrier of paying 2012 $ for 2011 components.
I probably wouldn't be as focused on it myself, were it not for the fact that I bought my 2007 iMac 35 days before the refresh in 2008, and would have loved the performance on the Nvidias. Finding out they constantly caused kernel panics made me feel only somewhat better.
The Geekbench scores shows a less than 10% increase. The GPU is where the real upgrade will come. USB 3.0 is worth the wait if you need it.
Civilization boots just fine on the 27" with HDD. Even faster with an SSD installed. I run it at the highest settings with absolutely no lag whatsoever. You may need to upgrade your GPU to the 2GB version. Civ isn't really a GPU intensive game as it stands. It gets heavy near the end of the modern or future eras, but RAM is what that game needs more than anything.
Recommending a user buy another machine for $600 that is going to be updated soon so they can buy a new one in a month or two is kinda weird.
That's the biggest and best reason to wait. Especially when you look at the MacPro, but unfortunately, it's almost a given that Apple considered their current spec bump an update, so users are going to be waiting at least another 6 months or more for an update for that.
Now, I've never had that happen so I can't speak on it myself.
Until I caved, this was my problem too. I generally use my Macs for 5 years or so. This one is only intended to last me the next 6-24 months before it goes to eBay, so the 6770m should be acceptable for now.
Oh, and the free shipping on this one was impressive; it arrived less than 48 hours after placing the initial order. I wasn't expecting it until tomorrow.
Don't buy the argument about paying 2012 prices for in 2011 specs/techfirstly apple is already late in implementing Ivy. People are still buying ps3's Xbox and that's been out for a while. Spple is building a set of people that will be broke in a few years as they always trying to keep up or don't buy when they need. Live for today and not tomorrow is my motto.
There will always be something new coming out. Anyone looking to buy a base iMac waiting on base retina iMac is only going to be disappointed its not going to happen. Sorry folks. Wasn't long ago 2009 in fact people were paying top money to apple for NEW C2d Imac with current design but didn't see anyone saying they were paying for outdated specs then.
There will always be something new coming out. Anyone looking to buy a base iMac waiting on base retina iMac is only going to be disappointed its not going to happen. Sorry folks. Wasn't long ago 2009 in fact people were paying top money to apple for NEW C2d Imac with current design but didn't see anyone saying they were paying for outdated specs then.
Huh? The game consoles are known to be refreshed every 5+ years. They cost much less now than when they came out. And replacements aren't coming until late next year. Not sure how this supports your point.
Only you can answer that. It depends on if you have a working solution at present. Or if you can make do with out a computer. I'm waiting until ML is released around the 24th July and then I'm gonna look for a refurb. Even though you don't need the latest and greatest why pay over the odds for old tech.
The only reason to wait is if you think they'll be selling the i7 at the current price of the i5. But since this is Apple we're talking about we went ahead and replaced our Core 2 Duo 2009 27" with a 2011 i5 3.1Ghz.
If they do get an upgrade, big deal. The leap from C2D to i5 is greater than from i5 to i7.
If they do get an upgrade, big deal. The leap from C2D to i5 is greater than from i5 to i7.
That's a big jump indeed. And Ivy Bridge's 10% just isn't enough of a increase over the current model. I was coming from a PowerMac G5 and just couldn't bare to cut another rough on it.
And as we all know, there will be another model in a year that will have everything this upcoming model will have AND be even faster.
I just got the 2011 27" 3.4GHz Core i7 iMac with 4GB RAM and a 1TB HDD. It's refurbished, so I paid $1,869 for it instead of $2,199.
I feel like I got a great deal. I ordered a 16GB RAM kit from Corsair for another $120, this thing is going to last me a while, whatever updates they make to the iMac line in the coming months.
I upgraded from a 2010 MBP and a 2010 Mac mini - I no longer need a laptop, and the Mac mini was underpowered as a desktop, so I consolidated. I'm very happy with the switch up.
I feel like I got a great deal. I ordered a 16GB RAM kit from Corsair for another $120, this thing is going to last me a while, whatever updates they make to the iMac line in the coming months.
I upgraded from a 2010 MBP and a 2010 Mac mini - I no longer need a laptop, and the Mac mini was underpowered as a desktop, so I consolidated. I'm very happy with the switch up.
Waiting on Apple to release the new iMac has me feeling like a 6 year old on christmas morning waiting for the ok to go open presents.
Maybe its just in my head but it seems my MBP 1,1 is slowing more and more every day. That's right, I'm gonna go from a MBP 2.16 core duo to the highest end iMac once released.... and I'll use that for 5+ years then.
On a side note, I was watching the how to video on replacing the hard drive on an iMac and it seemed a bit involved. Anyone send their iMac into OWC to have them replace the drive? I'd like to slap a SSD in the system right off the bat. I'd love to hear feedback on your experience with sending your system in, good or bad.
Maybe its just in my head but it seems my MBP 1,1 is slowing more and more every day. That's right, I'm gonna go from a MBP 2.16 core duo to the highest end iMac once released.... and I'll use that for 5+ years then.
On a side note, I was watching the how to video on replacing the hard drive on an iMac and it seemed a bit involved. Anyone send their iMac into OWC to have them replace the drive? I'd like to slap a SSD in the system right off the bat. I'd love to hear feedback on your experience with sending your system in, good or bad.
I pulled the trigger on a refurb 21.5" 1TB/mid range GPU model figuring the 14 day return window covers me if there's any completely insane "2012 iMac came out the day after delivery!" scenarios. I don't think I'm going to mind if a new one comes out anyway. I won't be using it as my primary display, so Retina would be overkill. I have a custom built PC for gaming, so a newer GPU isn't that important. All I need my new iMac to do is be significantly more powerful than my old C2D 2008 iMac, which it obviously is!
If the low end/small iMacs contain SSD+HDD and a better GPU for less than I've paid then I might shake my fists a little.. But I doubt that's going to happen!
If the low end/small iMacs contain SSD+HDD and a better GPU for less than I've paid then I might shake my fists a little.. But I doubt that's going to happen!
I'm waiting until the July ML release- if the new iMac is still not out by then, I plan on buying a refurbished 2011 iMac. Waiting until the Fall for a refresh is just too long... I plan to utilize some CAD software packages ASAP for my current job!!
I bit it and don't have any regrets
I had a Mac pro 1.1 that was upgraded to a 2.1 via a quad 2.33Ghz and a 4870, w/14GB of mem and (2) 28inch HDMI monitors. My concern was the lack of an upgrade path moving forward as it appears that it was not going to support ML or beyond. I fretted over the announcements, watched the mac pro non upgrade and thought about waiting for the next version... Instead I bought a refurb'd 27' 3.4Ghz with an ssd, a second TB monitor and a Pegasus 6x2 raid and upgraded to 24GB of ram, GPU had 2GB.
A claim serenity came over me when i did it and I no longer have the anxiety of reading these threads for hours at a time. It runs extremely fast and is a noticeable improvement. Could I have waited for the next gen iMacs, sure... But in my case, I have a minimal investment in the iMac and a major investment in TB. When the next rev comes out then I will weight the options and may perhaps go back to a MP. The TB investment will pay forward. I have to say this is a fast rig and I am glad I did it. Sure, no USB3, but with TB that seems a bit backwards to me now and a retina display wouldn't help me as I couldn't read a smaller font anyway. I don't know that I would notice a 10% CPU bump with Ivy and besides the storage speed is the real hump in my case, however not an issue with TB Pegasus from what I have seen so far. Truly a screaming system and I'm glad I pulled the trigger. Now that is just me and not everyone has a 5 year old box sitting on their desk...
I had a Mac pro 1.1 that was upgraded to a 2.1 via a quad 2.33Ghz and a 4870, w/14GB of mem and (2) 28inch HDMI monitors. My concern was the lack of an upgrade path moving forward as it appears that it was not going to support ML or beyond. I fretted over the announcements, watched the mac pro non upgrade and thought about waiting for the next version... Instead I bought a refurb'd 27' 3.4Ghz with an ssd, a second TB monitor and a Pegasus 6x2 raid and upgraded to 24GB of ram, GPU had 2GB.
A claim serenity came over me when i did it and I no longer have the anxiety of reading these threads for hours at a time. It runs extremely fast and is a noticeable improvement. Could I have waited for the next gen iMacs, sure... But in my case, I have a minimal investment in the iMac and a major investment in TB. When the next rev comes out then I will weight the options and may perhaps go back to a MP. The TB investment will pay forward. I have to say this is a fast rig and I am glad I did it. Sure, no USB3, but with TB that seems a bit backwards to me now and a retina display wouldn't help me as I couldn't read a smaller font anyway. I don't know that I would notice a 10% CPU bump with Ivy and besides the storage speed is the real hump in my case, however not an issue with TB Pegasus from what I have seen so far. Truly a screaming system and I'm glad I pulled the trigger. Now that is just me and not everyone has a 5 year old box sitting on their desk...
I bought a refurbed Mac a week ago. I ordered a 3.4Ghz i7 with 1TB HD, 1GB 6970m and 4GB of Ram for £1500
What I actually got was a 3.4GHz i7 with 2TB HDD, 8GB of RAM and 2GB 6970m. The list price for that is just over £2100 at the moment.
Even if a new iMac comes out tomorrow I don't think I could buy that spec Mac for that price?
im awaiting delivery of an Imac 27" 2TB HD, SSD, 16G Ram...
im a digital illustrator who has been working on a pc for years, this will be my first apple computer, i have a few questions:
should i wait till the release of mountain lion before installing photoshop? or can i go ahead and install photoshop right away and then update to mountain lion, will this cause problems?
when i install photoshop should i install it on the ssd or the regular hard drive?
should i migrate my massive image library from my pc to the ssd or the regular hd?
any help appreciated!
im a digital illustrator who has been working on a pc for years, this will be my first apple computer, i have a few questions:
should i wait till the release of mountain lion before installing photoshop? or can i go ahead and install photoshop right away and then update to mountain lion, will this cause problems?
when i install photoshop should i install it on the ssd or the regular hard drive?
should i migrate my massive image library from my pc to the ssd or the regular hd?
any help appreciated!
No need to wait for ML, it'll survive the update fine. I'd definitely install PS on the SSD and set its scratch disk to the SSD too. I'd put the image library on the HDD, but it depends how massive you're talking.
No need to wait for ML, it'll survive the update fine. I'd definitely install PS on the SSD and set its scratch disk to the SSD too. I'd put the image library on the HDD, but it depends how massive you're talking.
Thanks mixel. Now you mention it, theres no way i can fit my image library on the ssd, as theres almost 1tb of material.*
So your suggestion is to whack cs6 into the ssd, and to put the archive onto the hdd. Which would leave me with about 1tb empty on this 2tb mac.
By the way the pc im on, ive been using for almost 8 years. It has been a reliable work horse, dealing with big image files and has been used almost every single day ive had it. but it really is showing its age now. *I wonder if the imac will last as long.