24in advice

[cdub85]

So my question for ya'll is whether or not to buy a used iMac 24in that i found on craigslist or wait and save up for the 27in i7? The thing is, Its gonna take me a few more months to save up for the 27in, since i'm younger and have to buy it by myself. My main uses will be logic,internet, movies, itunes, some gaming(i have a gaming pc) and basic ilife stuff. never owned a mac before so Im not sure if ill be making a poor choice or not by going with the 24in. any advice would be great.
Thanks, Cole

Heres the 24in I found on craigslist...http://portland.craigslist.org/clc/sys/2210548654.html

 

[biggd]

When I sell PCs and it between new or used I say go new. The best 3 years of a used PC had already been used. After 3 years that's when the problems happen, especially poor harddrive performance.
It's better $ per performance per year to buy new
If you buy new, maybe swap the HDD out in 3 years, and ur good for another 3 years.

 

[panzer06]

So my question for ya'll is whether or not to buy a used iMac 24in that i found on craigslist or wait and save up for the 27in i7? The thing is, Its gonna take me a few more months to save up for the 27in, since i'm younger and have to buy it by myself. My main uses will be logic,internet, movies, itunes, some gaming(i have a gaming pc) and basic ilife stuff. never owned a mac before so Im not sure if ill be making a poor choice or not by going with the 24in. any advice would be great.
Thanks, Cole

Heres the 24in I found on craigslist...http://portland.craigslist.org/clc/sys/2210548654.html

I would not buy any used iMac with the 8800GS GPU.

These are just a few recent threads regarding the problems.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1076509/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/934814/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/970649/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1071318/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1085213/

Other than that used iMacs are ok. My 9,1 3.06 with ATI4850 and 7,1 2.4 with ATI HD2650 are great. The 7,1 iMac display is not as good as the 9,1 or the newer 27" systems but for $659 it was a good deal. Upgrading the hard drives was relatively simple if you have any hardware repair experiences.

Cheers,

 

[robgendreau]

I tend to agree that used at this price level isn't necessarily a good deal; I find that the better deals are with even older computers where the price differentials are greater.

The hard drive in the 24" may yet have lots of life in it, but it's also pretty small by today's standards, especially if you are storing movies (you said that's an interest but I couldn't tell if you meant just streaming or editing or what). Go to ifixit and you can see instructions on replacing a drive in that iMac; it's not hard if you are careful and have experience with fiddly little screws and such. But a new drive adds expense.

For comparison, you can get a 27" iMac refurb from the Apple Store with the same processor but a 1TB drive for about $300 more, and I think it has better video. And you might save some $$ since it will have Snow Leopard and probably the new iLife as well.

Rob

 

[angelwatt]

Duplicate thread, see here.