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Going refurb !

T

Thyro

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 30, 2011
4
0
Cannot wait any longer ! I finally made the decision of going refurb ! Here are my two choices for mailing, music/video/photo library editing, web browsing, office in a normal use:

iMac 27 i3 3.2

iMac 27 quad-core i5 2.8

Is the 250$ difference really worth it? Will I see a major upgrade ? What about future proof (3-5 years?)

Thx.
 
Thyro said:
Cannot wait any longer ! I finally made the decision of going refurb ! Here are my two choices for mailing, music/video/photo library editing, web browsing, office in a normal use:

iMac 27 i3 3.2

iMac 27 quad-core i5 2.8

Is the 250$ difference really worth it? Will I see a major upgrade ? What about future proof (3-5 years?)

Thx.
Click to expand...

You cannot future proof technology, it is impossible...well almost, $$$ can do anything if you want in the future I suppose. If you are REALLY worried about having a machine that will be on the leading edge two years from now, then wait, otherwise, for video and photo editing IMHO the quad core is worth the extra $250.
 
Not sure why you cant wait.

I mean how long has it been since your last new mac?

and you cant wait another few weeks?
 
Thyro said:
Cannot wait any longer ! I finally made the decision of going refurb ! Here are my two choices for mailing, music/video/photo library editing, web browsing, office in a normal use:

iMac 27 i3 3.2

iMac 27 quad-core i5 2.8

Is the 250$ difference really worth it? Will I see a major upgrade ? What about future proof (3-5 years?)

Thx.
Click to expand...

Based on the huge gains of the MacBook Pro refresh, it might be best to wait a few weeks. Though future proofing is essentially impossible with computers, the best way to slow it down is not to buy outdated technology.

The entry level 2011 iMac will most likely be a lot more powerful than the $250 upgrade above. And worst case scenario, if you don't need all that power, the refurbs you are interested in will be even cheaper. Hold out for just a few more weeks. I know it is hard but we are all in the same boat as you.
 
Nearly 10 years !

I almost need to pull the crank to make it work ! SO SLOW !!!

iMac 700 mhz PPC G4, 384Mb !!!!!!!

That's why !

I'm not sure I really need sandy bridge and thunderbolt.

I can buy refurb and save some $$$.
 
Thyro said:
Nearly 10 years !

I almost need to pull the crank to make it work ! SO SLOW !!!

iMac 700 mhz PPC G4, 384Mb !!!!!!!

That's why !

I'm not sure I really need sandy bridge and thunderbolt.

I can buy refurb and save some $$$.
Click to expand...
If you keep your Macs a looong time, then Thunderbolt may be important. It could be used as a dividing line of support in the future like Apple did with FW and Leopard. It will also allow you to access the latest tech for the next 5 or 6 years until something else comes along.
 
Thyro said:
What about future proof (3-5 years?)
Click to expand...
It would be $500 down the
toilet.gif
 
Thyro said:
Nearly 10 years !

I almost need to pull the crank to make it work ! SO SLOW !!!

iMac 700 mhz PPC G4, 384Mb !!!!!!!

That's why !

I'm not sure I really need sandy bridge and thunderbolt.

I can buy refurb and save some $$$.
Click to expand...

The other thing to look at is that the current model you're buying will go down in price once the new models come out saving you even more money then you are today.
 
The first time you back up your internal hdd via fw800 and it takes 7 hours ( a rough guess) it would be 2 hours via tb.

(with a two drive raid0 hdd t-bolt external you could copy 3x faster) (ballpark numbers)

Now if you don't go past 50 or 60 percent full on your 1tb hdd and if it does not crash in 1 year 1 month it is not as big a problem. remember access to an iMac hdd is hard to do and your refurb may have a 10 month old hdd in it that had a lot of wear and tear.

So if you go refurb with an iMac think hdd as a problem more then a lot of other macs. FW800 is freaking slow if you are moving lots of photos on and off the hdd you will soon find out.
 
If you are wanting to wait that long between upgrades, I would strongly recommend waiting for Thunderbolt and Sandy Bridge. That's what I am doing, but my computer isn't nearly as old as yours.
 
Behemecoatyl said:
Wrong. A refurb is not a used computer.
Click to expand...


I have purchased more then 75 refurbs from apple.

Macmini's
macbooks
macbookpros
and imacs.

The hdds are not unused more then 90 percent of them have hundreds of hours of use before you get the machine many of the hdds have created dates or manufactured dates of 10 months or more.

Now refurbs can be funny they can be 100 percent new. They can be a year or more old. They have a warranty just like a new machine and they are very reliable. My failure rate for refurbs is less then 5% my failure rate for new apple gear is less then 5%.

The problem with an iMac hdd failure is speed loss. Lets say you have a perfect backup and you now boot with it it will run slower then the internal. So if you need the replacement hdd it is 1 day at best. If it breaks on a monday at 4pm you may get an appointment the next day and they can replace it in a few hours.
I can almost guarantee you if you buy a 2009 refurb iMac the hdd has had a lot of use. Unless the hdd was the reason for the return.

Checking the age of oem hdds is not easy to do in an iMac. Go ahead and give it a try.


Also check the hours your hdd has run powered in the same iMac.

One way to check the hours your hdd has been powered on is smart utility. I use it to get an idea how old the hdd is. mac 2009 imac was purchased new feb 2010. As of today I have 8605 powered on hours to that hdd. When I got the machine direct from china I had the better gpu as an option. The hdd had 27 powered on hours. Go ahead and download a free trial of smart utility you get 30 drive scans. you will find that most refurbs have old hdds with hundreds if not thousands of hours on them link for download trial is here:


http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/system_disk_utilities/smartutility.html
 
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