Best value buying advice please

[plymman]

I'm looking to ditch my 2ghz c2d Pc in favour of a Mac and have been trying to decide for months. Now the new refresh is out it leaves me with new questions! I will use it for photo and a bit of video editing, general browsing and a bit of gaming. I'm left with these choices, what is the best value?

27" 3.2 i3 with 512mb 5670 for £1399
27" 2.8 i5 with 1gb 5750. for £1649

Or the previous returns

27" 2.66 i5 with 512mb 4850 for £1269
27" 2.8 i7 with 512mb 4850 for £1399

To me the i5 refurb seems to be the sweet spot but is the i7 worth the extra and how inferior is the graphics card compared to the latest refresh? I'm sure I'll see enough perfomance out of any of the cpu's but want this to last as long as possible.

 

[spinnerlys]

For your purposes any of these Macs will do just fine.

I would either get the new i5 or the refurb i7 personally, but even the i3 is more than sufficient for your uses.

The graphics card is okay on the refurb, but the new one is definitely better, but if you only play casually and not on the highest settings, both GPUs are okay.

 

[TheBritishBloke]

I'd go for the i7 refurb, much better value for your money. Apparently you only get about a 15% performance increase with the new graphics card, and the Quad Core will definitely help you, if not now, it will definitely future-proof you when GCD fully comes in.

 

[tears2040]

I'd go for the i7 refurb, much better value for your money. Apparently you only get about a 15% performance increase with the new graphics card, and the Quad Core will definitely help you, if not now, it will definitely future-proof you when GCD fully comes in.

+1


I agree with the i7 Refurbished model

 

[scienide09]

I also suggest the 27" i7 refurb. I got mine just after the refresh. I even chose it over buying new + back-to-school iPod deal.

You'll need to decide for yourself, but like others here, I'd say that the refurb is best value for money.

 

[plymman]

I'm inclined to agree, my only worry is whether 1tb will be enough for the future or whether i should just take the plunge and spec a new one with 2tb..............

 

[ecks618]

I'm inclined to agree, my only worry is whether 1tb will be enough for the future or whether i should just take the plunge and spec a new one with 2tb..............

I personally wouldn't go for a 2TB just because you don't want such a huge amount of information to sit on one drive that is vulnerable to failure. I personally went with a 1TB and got 2 additional external 1TB Seagate docking HDDs (1 for backup, 1 for additional space) and its working out great for me.

Just a personal opinion but I always get paranoid with high capacity hard drives, I have nightmares that 2TB HDDs fail.

 

[plymman]

I get your point but have a 1tb external drive as a backup device. I currently have about 650Gb on my PC but think 1TB might not be enough once i allow some for boot camp and some VM's.

 

[englishman]

I'd go for the 2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 at £1800. But maybe that's outside your budget. If you can get a discount say educashun that brings it down a bit to 1700 with a "free" Touch, then sell the Touch and you have a 1600 gem.

 

[plymman]

englishman i think you hit the nail on the head, my wife's a teacher so can get the education deal. If I'm going to drop £1400 on a refurb but can get the refresh for so little extra then its really a no brainer. Thanks for the tip off!

 

[englishman]

englishman i think you hit the nail on the head, my wife's a teacher so can get the education deal. If I'm going to drop £1400 on a refurb but can get the refresh for so little extra then its really a no brainer. Thanks for the tip off!

You are welcome. That's what these forums are for!

I just think for a few squid extra you'll have the best. They have just been refreshed too.

Hard working teachers deserve the best.

 

[Cavepainter]

Definitely go with the i7 if you said you want it to last as long as possible. If finances are tight, then grab the refurb. I think the refurb i7 2.8s are a great deal right now. The i7 is quite significantly faster than the i5 and is a great deal for only a bit more cash- great bang for the buck. I wanted a 2TB drive as well, but the apple store had 1tb i7s in stock, ready to go, so I went with that one- needed a computer immediately for freelance. I was also nervous about having a huge amount of work on a single huge drive.... a bit smaller drive will save you a chunk of change and help motivate you to burn some archive DVDs once in a while!

The i7 imac is a great computer if you get a good one. Very very fast machine. Definitely gives the new entry-level Mac Pro a run for its money- and I already cant imagine working without a large 27 screen....

Man, if you can get the education discount- spend a bit more on a faster system and go for it!

 

[tears2040]

Looks good

 

[plymman]

New 2tb i7 ordered. Let's hope I don't live to regret it, it's the most pricy computer I've ever bought and the first one I haven't had to build!

 

[englishman]

Be sure to post your experiences.