Compare these refurbs for me

[goeagles]

Looking at a couple of refurbs. One is a 24" and one is 21.5". I've been checking the refurb section regularly and the 24" seem to pop up once or twice a week for a big discount (30-35%) and only last a few hours usually. However, I've never seen the early 2009 imacs in person. Other than the obvious size difference (24 vs 21.5), how does it compare to the newer screens? Is an LED-backlit screen noticeably different?

My computing needs are pretty basic (though this would be my first mac so I might end up getting into something more advanced) but I do use photoshop a bit. No gaming. Might try out some basic video editing (just home video stuff of the kids being idiots). I'm not terribly concerned about hard drive capacity, as I can add that externally and I doubt I'd ever need to go beyond 8GB of RAM. And I don't know the difference between the two graphic cards but I suspect they'd both meet my needs.

So it seems to come down to a bigger/older screen [edit: and a slightly(??) slower processer] vs smaller/newer screen...

Anyway, here are the links (specs below in case the link dies). Keep in mind they're the prices linked are in CDN dollars...

http://store.apple.com/ca/product/FB419LL/A?mco=MTEyMDAwNTU
Refurbished iMac 24-inch 2.93GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
24-inch glossy widescreen display
4GB memory
640GB hard drive
8x SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 with 256MB memory
Built-in iSight camera

http://store.apple.com/ca/product/FC413LL/A?mco=MTU0Mzg0NTQ
Refurbished iMac 21.5-inch 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
21.5-inch LED-backlit glossy widescreen display
4GB memory
1TB hard drive
8x SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
ATI Radeon HD 4670 graphics with 256MB memory
Built-in iSight camera

Both are $1349 CDN.

 

[fhall1]

I bought the same specs model 24" refurb almost a year ago....I'm completely happy with it. One plus was that I already had a 24" LCD monitor, so this paired with it for a nice dual monitor setup. I don't have any experience with the 21.5" iMac so can't really compare the two.

Remember, the 24" is a 4:3 aspect ratio, giving you a higher resolution (more vertical pixels) than the 16:9 ratio of the 21.5". I doubt the CPU speed bump of the 21.5" would be noticable in everyday use.

 

[flatfoot]

The 24" is a 16:10 ratio.

 

[TMRaven]

8:5 actually.

I'd actually get the 21.5 inch model. The cpu is slightly faster--although you'll probably never notice it; the gpu is a nice upgrade and the screen has nearly as much pixels: 1920x1200 on 24 inch vs 1920x1080 on 21.5 inch.

I also think the newer design of the latest iMacs look better than the previous design as well (glass going all the way to the edge of the chassis as apposed to having a small aluminum bezel and rounded corners for the lower part of the glass.

 

[Ravich]

Seems like you've got 3 things to take into consideration:

-Display. Self explanatory 24'' 4:3 vs 21.5'' 16:10

-Graphics card. I'm assuming that the 21.5'' video card is better. I dont know anything specific

-RAM capacity. I believe the 21.5'' and 27'' models were upped from an 8GB cap to 16GB.