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How much of a hit will I take if I buy an iMac

B

b0redom

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 4, 2007
127
0
Hi All,
I need a new iMac pretty soon. My C2D is great and all, but I really need one for some virtualisation, and also SC2 :).

If I buy a Core i7 now, and then decide I want to upgrade when the refresh comes, who sort of hit will I end up taking on it? How much do these things devalue over the course of say 6 months?

Cheers....

b0redom
 
What would the refresh offer that you cant get now on the i7? They probably wont do too much to the i7.....but what do I know?
 
I have a Windows PC that's over 2 years old that plays SC2 at max settings, 1920x1200 resolution, with fully acceptable framerates in large battles with 100s of units dying and all that. Point being, SC2 is not a demanding game. Blizzard tends to release games that run at max settings on any decent computer from the last few years. You never need cutting edge with them.

If you have a Core2 Duo with a 512MB dedicated video card, you won't even benefit from (much less need) a new computer to play SC2, much less a newer one than is available right now.

Disclaimer: Since Macs tend to run games slower, you might need newer hardware than I was talking about if you're going to play SC2 in OSX. But if you boot-camp to Windows, you should be fine without upgrading.
 
I've downsized from having an iMac for work and a PC with a high end dual core + GTX 280 for games. I know an iMac isn't going to compare with the gaming PC, but I guess the update is at least going to close the gap somewhat.

USB 3 / Firewire 1200 would also be good as I use a number of external drives for VMs/Time Machine/Bootcamp.
 
Well i was in the beta and got a chance to play it on the imac I just bought in the description... Running natively on mac osx at 2560x1440 I was able to run it flawlessly on high settings.
 
Cool, but the question remains. How much am I looking at loosing if I sell it on? 10%? 15%? more?
 
Apple charges a 10% restocking fee, so you'd be out around $200. If you buy it at another store where typically restocking fees are 15%, you'd lose $300.

There are some ways you can sweet talk the customer service reps and get the fees waived (or if the unit you have turns out to be defective) but I wouldn't rely it.

Also, this is in addition to all the hassles and headaches of returning, buying another one, moving your files, etc.
 
Gregintosh said:
Apple charges a 10% restocking fee, so you'd be out around $200. If you buy it at another store where typically restocking fees are 15%, you'd lose $300.

There are some ways you can sweet talk the customer service reps and get the fees waived (or if the unit you have turns out to be defective) but I wouldn't rely it.

Also, this is in addition to all the hassles and headaches of returning, buying another one, moving your files, etc.
Click to expand...

i dont think you can return a imac after 6 months just because you want a new one...
 
b0redom said:
Cool, but the question remains. How much am I looking at loosing if I sell it on? 10%? 15%? more?
Click to expand...

I doubt this was referring to returning the imac to apple, rather reselling on craigslist, ebay etc... for the upper end 27" I don't think you're going to lose much beyond the loss of what the used units are going for already. Find out what the used 27" imacs are selling at right now and take off maybe $100? I'd say that would give you a fair estimate on what the cost to you will be.
 
I bought a 20" iMac when the aluminum model first came out around summer 07', it was the $1499 model. I sold it in October of 08' to get a Macbook and sold it for around $1100-1150 with Applecare.
 
300D said:
Value, newer technology, better performance. You know, stuff thats of poor value in a year old design.
Click to expand...

GPU is the only thing they can really update and that update won't be huge unless Apple does something unexpected. The update is so close though so waiting should be a better choice as we never know what Apple does
 
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