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Which iMac Model Are You Buying?
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goodlittlesquid
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Can anyone answer why the high-end 21.5" is upgradable to i7 processor, but the low-end 27" is not? How does that make sense? Am I missing something? 
Can anyone answer why the high-end 21.5" is upgradable to i7 processor, but the low-end 27" is not? How does that make sense? Am I missing something?
Marketing.
G
goodlittlesquid
Guest
Can anyone answer why the high-end 21.5" is upgradable to i7 processor, but the low-end 27" is not? How does that make sense? Am I missing something?
Apple always does that. Take a look at any of their product lineups, only the higher end model is configurable. I think its another way to increase margins. I'm annoyed because I want a 2GB video card, and to upgrade to that I need to pay an extra $200 for a processor bump that I don't need!
I ended up getting a refurb. with apple care. I think I did was getting a better deal (i hope) then what I would have been able to get. my budget was $2000
I picked up a 27" 3.1 ghz quad core i5,
4gb ram,
1tb hd (7200 rpm) AMD Radeon HD 6970M graphics with 1GB memory . which was $1599 added apple care and it came out to $1921.82
8gb of ram would have been nice but maybe i'll get "upgraded" as I've read some people have had with their refurb purchases. This is my first refurb and iMac which will compliment my older mbp.
so was that a pretty decent deal?
It seems most who have picked up refurbs have been pretty happy.
I picked up a 27" 3.1 ghz quad core i5,
4gb ram,
1tb hd (7200 rpm) AMD Radeon HD 6970M graphics with 1GB memory . which was $1599 added apple care and it came out to $1921.82
8gb of ram would have been nice but maybe i'll get "upgraded" as I've read some people have had with their refurb purchases. This is my first refurb and iMac which will compliment my older mbp.
so was that a pretty decent deal?
It seems most who have picked up refurbs have been pretty happy.
27" 2011
Just ordered a refurb 27" 2.7 i5 - $1440 with tax.
Will upgrade it to 32GB RAM myself...
Just ordered a refurb 27" 2.7 i5 - $1440 with tax.
Will upgrade it to 32GB RAM myself...
I'll get the high-end 27" and get the 680mx GPU option. Not sure if the 250 for the fusion drive are worth it..
I'm going for a semi-loaded 27".
Sticking w/ the i5, but adding a 3TB fusion and likely AppleCare. Any hunches on how much AppleCare would cost with this new release?
Sticking w/ the i5, but adding a 3TB fusion and likely AppleCare. Any hunches on how much AppleCare would cost with this new release?
I was expecting the latest iMac's to be the same as the previous gen with regards to having access and user replaceable ram. I have limited space and I was going to get the 21 inch model until I noticed the ram wasn't accessible and the HD in it is only a 5400 rpm.
So I'll probably go for the 27 inch entry level and get 16 GB of ram from elsewhere and install it myself giving me a total of 24 GB.
I'm going to need to do a bit of extension work on my desk and move a shelf to be able to accommodate the 27 inch though
So I'll probably go for the 27 inch entry level and get 16 GB of ram from elsewhere and install it myself giving me a total of 24 GB.
I'm going to need to do a bit of extension work on my desk and move a shelf to be able to accommodate the 27 inch though
This is me, except I'm going 1 TB Fusion and will probably wait until the 1 yr deadline to buy the Applecare.
27", i5, 680m
I will upgrade the RAM myself to 16GB within the first year, and perhaps to 32GB in a few years as prices come down and the machine starts to feel long in the tooth
On the storage side, I'm very undecided. I want to see the price difference between the 768 SSD (doesn't look like they are offering 512) and the 1TB Fusion. If the pure SSD solution is sub $500 extra, I'll probably go that route. It's architecturally superior with less points of failure. A bad HDD killed my 2007 iMac before these came out, so I'm very interested in reducing that risk factor.
I intend for this to be my primary personal computer for the next 5+ years. My 2007 lasted 5 years and 3 months before the HDD issue. Poor thing.
I will upgrade the RAM myself to 16GB within the first year, and perhaps to 32GB in a few years as prices come down and the machine starts to feel long in the tooth
On the storage side, I'm very undecided. I want to see the price difference between the 768 SSD (doesn't look like they are offering 512) and the 1TB Fusion. If the pure SSD solution is sub $500 extra, I'll probably go that route. It's architecturally superior with less points of failure. A bad HDD killed my 2007 iMac before these came out, so I'm very interested in reducing that risk factor.
I intend for this to be my primary personal computer for the next 5+ years. My 2007 lasted 5 years and 3 months before the HDD issue. Poor thing.
I'm going to check the bottom most option for everything for the 27inch.What are people's opinions on i5 vs i7? I'm thinking I'd rather get the low end i5 and put the extra money towards storage vs getting the faster processor and have to skimp on drive space. I don't think I need the giant video card. The most processor intensive thing I do is handbrake encoding, anyone have experience comparing an i5 vs a hyper threading i7 with this application? My 2010 C2D Mac mini is slow as balls. Basically encodes in realtime.
I'm looking at the 27" base model with 1TB Fusion drive and probably chuck in an extra 16GB of Ram after.
If I can scrape together the extra cash I might think about moving up to the i5 3.2 model instead. Not sure the wife would be happy though.
Either way its going to be a nice upgrade from my current 2007 Black MacBook.
If I can scrape together the extra cash I might think about moving up to the i5 3.2 model instead. Not sure the wife would be happy though.
Either way its going to be a nice upgrade from my current 2007 Black MacBook.
