05-01-2012, 03:25 PM

Hi folks. Hope I'm posting this in the right place.

Looking for some help/advice on buying a desktop iMac for home. I've worked on macs for best part of 15 years without really knowing that much about what makes them tick, so to speak.

I work on a 24" mac at work (a publishers) and love that machine almost as much as my firstborn! However, I've finally managed to hide enough money from my missus and kids to treat myself to a mac for the house.

My Quandry?

Do I go for a refurb 24" or a new 27"? It's the difference in price that is causing me a problem. As a canny Scotsman I like to keep hold of my money and spend it wisely - I've seen a couple of 24" macs on ebay and some refurb stores but they seem a bit pricey - the one i'm looking at just now is the 2008 24" model thats been upgraded to 4GB Ram and 1TB hard drive for around £700. Is that a good price? or can I get better for my money?

the other option is to either buy new or refurb through the apple store but thats obviously a bit more expensive... the way i was thinking is that if i went with an older 24" I could use the surplus cash to buy some good adobe software for it.

Any help/ advice is very appreciated.

05-01-2012, 03:28 PM

Definitely look at the Apple refurb store before buying new because you will save money on a machine that is as good as new with the same warranty and so on.

Now, the general advice when buying computers is to buy the MOST you can afford right now. That means, the fastest CPU and so on..RAM can be upgraded on the iMac's later on, so no biggie there.

Buying a machine from 2008 today means that within one or two OS release cycles you might be obsolete or some new application might run poorly on there.

I would suggest buying the current generation iMac's from the Apple refurb store..

05-01-2012, 03:40 PM

Definitely go for the Apple refurb. My last 2 iMacs were puchased from the Apple refurb store. They were in perfect condition and included a full 1 year warranty. Plus, you have 1 year to purchase Apple Care for your machine (which I think is a good idea on the iMac).

I've found that most times I can get more machine for less or equal money on the refurbished site than buying a used iMac.

05-01-2012, 06:12 PM

Apple refurbs are an awesome deal. I'll probably pick up my next Mac that way.

05-01-2012, 06:33 PM

Originally Posted by Leonardo72

Do I go for a refurb 24" or a new 27"?

If you REALLY like the 27"...get a refurbished 27"!

- Nick

05-01-2012, 08:40 PM

Thanks for your help folks... Pretty much has confirmed what I thought.

Nick - sound advice. Think I'll take it

05-02-2012, 09:26 AM

Originally Posted by Raz0rEdge

Well if you are that easily influenced, then let me try this..

....get me a 17" MBP too....

Well, to borrow a line from a well known ad...

"I'd like to buy the world a mac..."

if only I had enough cash!

05-02-2012, 09:27 AM

Originally Posted by Leonardo72

Thanks for your help folks... Pretty much has confirmed what I thought.

Nick - sound advice. Think I'll take it

Well if you are that easily influenced, then let me try this..

....get me a 17" MBP too....

05-02-2012, 10:29 AM

hmm ...don't know why Razors post I quoted has ended up above the original post... little help