$2,000 Budget. What iMac config do you buy?

[AlexGraphicD]

^^ Don't ssd's have the same if not more failure rates as hdd's, contrary to the popular belief that ssd's are more reliable?
That's what I read in a thread discussion in this forum anyways.

 

[tubeexperience]

Worth is a personal value judgement. Personally I would never have a Mac without an SSD if at all possible. You get the read/write speed benefit all the time....and no HD to mechanically fail as all HD will do eventually.

You have to remember that you are stuck with whichever graphics that you ordered your iMac with.

HDD/SSD can be upgraded and SSDs are getting much cheaper. 1TB SSD can now be purchased on sale for $165.

 

[AlexGraphicD]

HDD/SSD can be upgraded and SSDs are getting much cheaper. 1TB SSD can now be purchased on sale for $165.

$165???!!! Wow that's a hell of a lot cheaper than the outraging price of $900....

Although the non Apple ssd's are not PCI based right..??

 

[tubeexperience]

$165???!!! Wow that's a hell of a lot cheaper than the outraging price of $900....

Although the non Apple ssd's are not PCI based right..??

Apple SSDs are proprietary.

There are non-Apple PCIe SSDs out there, but they are incompatible with Apple's PCs.

 

[definitive]

Having owned a $2.5k iMac myself, I am going to say that it's not worth it, especially if the only thing you're going to be using it for is basic photo editing. Reason I say this is because you don't get that much for $2k. Old GPU, 8GB RAM, non-SSD drive... The repair costs are going to be through the roof if anything breaks due to a lot of the stuff being proprietary.

I'm currently waiting for NVidia to release drivers for the new Pascal cards, at which point I'll probably end up building a hackintosh for around $1.5k. The screen won't be a 5k, but the hardware is going to be running circles around all of the current iMac's.

 

[hfg]

1TB SSD can now be purchased on sale for $165.

Could you provide a link please where we can purchase the 1TB SSD for $165 ... that's a pretty good deal, especially for a iMac PCI SSD. You could order the 1TB Fusion and then swap out the small SSD for a 1TB SSD and still have the hard disk available.

 

[tubeexperience]

Could you provide a link please where we can purchase the 1TB SSD for $165 ... that's a pretty good deal, especially for a iMac PCI SSD. You could order the 1TB Fusion and then swap out the small SSD for a 1TB SSD and still have the hard disk available.

That's the SanDisk Ultra II 960GB.

It's a SATA SSD so you are going to have to swap out the hard drive.

 

[hfg]

That's the SanDisk Ultra II 960GB.

It's a SATA SSD so you are going to have to swap out the hard drive.

I see ... that's too bad. But, I still don't see the SSD you mention for anywhere near $165 with a google search, do you have a link?

 

[tubeexperience]

I see ... that's too bad. But, I still don't see the SSD you mention for anywhere near $165 with a google search, do you have a link?

Looks like it's no longer on sale.

 

[Tiberius2000]

Looks like it's no longer on sale.

B&H is having a sale; you can get the base 3.3/8GB ram/2TB Fus/395 for 2099 with no tax and free expedited shipping.

That is less than the refurbished or education pricing. No customization but about $350 cheaper once you count tax.

Then again, it could also be a sign of clearing inventory for a new iMac in October.

 

[orioncrystalice]

I wish this were true.

27" 5K with the 1 tb Fusion Drive. When I finally upgrade from my mid-2011 there's no way I'm going with another 21.5". I'll order the RAM maxed out with my own cash.

 

[maflynn]

Then again, it could also be a sign of clearing inventory for a new iMac in October.

That might be a bit premature, at this point. We're still in July (barely) and October is far enough away to clear out your inventory. I think they just want to move some product in what is normally a slow month