Which refurbed iMac?!

[alex2578]

Hi all,

I'm thinking of buying a refurbed iMac from the Apple store and was all set on getting the latest 27" i5 3.2Ghz but got distracted by some of the older (late 2012) i7's.

Would there be a noticeable performance difference? This will mainly be used for video editing and 3D CAD work.

As a comparison, these are the two I'm considering (bizarrely, the older NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX seems to get better reviews than the more up-to-date GT 755M)

Refurbished 27-inch iMac 3.2GHz quad-core Intel Core i5:
Originally released September 2013
8GB memory
1TB hard drive
NVIDIA GeForce GT 755M graphics processor with 1GB of GDDR5 memory
http://store.apple.com/uk/product/FE088B/A/refurbished-27-inch-imac-32ghz-quad-core-Intel-Core-i5

Refurbished 27-inch iMac 3.4GHz quad-core Intel Core i7:
Originally released October 2012

8GB memory

1TB hard drive

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX with 1GB
http://store.apple.com/uk/product/G0MS4B/A/refurbished-27-inch-imac-34ghz-quad-core-Intel-Core-i7

Any advice would be gratefully received!

 

[mad3inch1na]

Hi all,

I'm thinking of buying a refurbed iMac from the Apple store and was all set on getting the latest 27" i5 3.2Ghz but got distracted by some of the older (late 2012) i7's.

Would there be a noticeable performance difference? This will mainly be used for video editing and 3D CAD work.

As a comparison, these are the two I'm considering (bizarrely, the older NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX seems to get better reviews than the more up-to-date GT 755M)

Refurbished 27-inch iMac 3.2GHz quad-core Intel Core i5:
Originally released September 2013
8GB memory
1TB hard drive
NVIDIA GeForce GT 755M graphics processor with 1GB of GDDR5 memory
http://store.apple.com/uk/product/FE088B/A/refurbished-27-inch-imac-32ghz-quad-core-Intel-Core-i5

Refurbished 27-inch iMac 3.4GHz quad-core Intel Core i7:
Originally released October 2012

8GB memory

1TB hard drive

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX with 1GB
http://store.apple.com/uk/product/G0MS4B/A/refurbished-27-inch-imac-34ghz-quad-core-Intel-Core-i7

Any advice would be gratefully received!

If you can afford it, the fusion drive is the number one upgrade you can get. It costs £1,600 for this model, but it is worth it. The hard drive is not upgradeable, and there is a large premium for getting a functional external SSD. In the long run, you will most likely regret not getting one.

http://store.apple.com/uk/product/G0MS5B/A/refurbished-27-inch-imac-34ghz-quad-core-Intel-Core-i7

 

[alex2578]

Thanks for that, it looks incredibly tempting, just a question of budget. Is it safe to say the older i7 is going to be a better machine than the newer i5?

 

[mad3inch1na]

Thanks for that, it looks incredibly tempting, just a question of budget. Is it safe to say the older i7 is going to be a better machine than the newer i5?

Just pulling from the Geekbench multi-core 64-bit benchmarks here, but the i7 2012 is about 15% faster than the 2013 i5. The gtx 680mx is slightly faster than the 775m.

 

[alex2578]

Brilliant - many thanks for all the help! (Difficult getting my head around the idea that a two year old machine is going to be better than a new offering today!)

 

[mad3inch1na]

Brilliant - many thanks for all the help! (Difficult getting my head around the idea that a two year old machine is going to be better than a new offering today!)

Yeah, the main difference is that the components will use more power (and thus more heat). It should still be a quiet machine, but if you are really concerned about consuming a few more watts, it will add a few dollars per year. The 2013 iMac also has 1Gb Wifi vs the 450Mb Wifi, so it does have better connectivity, but most people I know use ethernet for their desktops anyways. The SSD for the fusion drive is also PCIE instead of SATA, so it will perform better. The 2013 model you were looking at doesn't have one at all, so in this case the 2012 model will perform better.

Other than that, the externals are exactly the same. So unless somebody goes in and checks the model, you won't be able to tell the difference. And it will definitely perform better than the 2013 model you are looking at. The 2012 model is a really good deal for what you get.

Matt

 

[thetechfixer]

Newer is better is not always the case, go with the i7

 

[alex2578]

Just hit the "buy" button on the i7 and, so far, no buyers remorse It seems like a beast of a machine for the money!

Many thanks for all the advice!