iMac 27 - Which Model to buy?

[SirApple]

Hi everyone,

To begin with I hope that it is ok for me to post a thread like this.

I am considering what iMac to purchase and I have read a lot in this forum from other threads and I am still quite indecisive. I am currently leaning towards the iMac 27, i5 3.8GHz, RAM 8gb, 2TB Fusion and the 580 AMD and will add some extra RAM after. It seems as many of you all are suggesting to go for a SSD instead of the Fusion but I am still not 100% convinced that the price makes it worth to go for the SSD. I will use my computer mostly for work (some quite heavy excel documents), a bit of gaming and then just everyday use.

However, I found a used iMac 27 (Late 2015) i7, 4.0GHz, RAM 16gb, 256 GB SSD, 4GB AMD M395X for about the same price.

What do you all think? I appreciate all the feedback that I can get!

 

[J.Gallardo]

I’m also buying a 27”iMac... so I’ve been thinking about same as you.
First of all: past gen. iMacs are relatively expensive, I believe. I keep searching in “refurbished” section at Apple, and even with discount you get a far inferior machine compared to “new” 2017 iMacs at same price.
So, I wouldn’t get the used one you found. As you say, for same price you will have a much better GPU (with 8GB ram), a better screen (and that’s important in a 27”) , new ports conexions... and only low would be i5 instead i7; but you’ll get same performance with your tipical use. For example, in games cpu difference will be almost imperceptible, but you’ll notice GPU difference!
About SSD or Fusion... I won’t give my opinion here, as there is another (or more) threads where it’s being endlessly discussed (and I gave my opinion there).
Hope my opinion serves you somehow ;-)

 

[fastlanephil]

I would first investigate wether the newer i5 or the older i7 would be better for Excel as it looks to be your most important application. The Intel info link below seems to suggest the i5.

The 2 TB Fusion drive might be more practical for you depending on your storage needs. Take how much hard drive space you require right now and at least double that or more for your future needs.

https://www.intel.com/content/www/u...cg&gclsrc=ds&dclid=CPv3wMD2r9cCFU9ifgodOSUN_w

 

[SirApple]

I’m also buying a 27”iMac... so I’ve been thinking about same as you.
First of all: past gen. iMacs are relatively expensive, I believe. I keep searching in “refurbished” section at Apple, and even with discount you get a far inferior machine compared to “new” 2017 iMacs at same price.
So, I wouldn’t get the used one you found. As you say, for same price you will have a much better GPU (with 8GB ram), a better screen (and that’s important in a 27”) , new ports conexions... and only low would be i5 instead i7; but you’ll get same performance with your tipical use. For example, in games cpu difference will be almost imperceptible, but you’ll notice GPU difference!
About SSD or Fusion... I won’t give my opinion here, as there is another (or more) threads where it’s being endlessly discussed (and I gave my opinion there).
Hope my opinion serves you somehow ;-)

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and insights

I guess my thoughts around it was if the the value of the i7 and the SSD in the old machine surpassed a completely new one without either of the two and instead an improved GPU, but I would say that you make a lot of valid point why I instead should go for the new machine. It's so tricky
[doublepost=1510304307][/doublepost]

I would first investigate wether the newer i5 or the older i7 would be better for Excel as it looks to be your most important application. The Intel info link below seems to suggest the i5.

The 2 TB Fusion drive might be more practical for you depending on your storage needs. Take how much hard drive space you require right now and at least double that or more for your future needs.

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/processors/core.html?cid=sem43700027470828737&intel_term=+i7&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=CORP US Core Brand - i7 - Awareness - BMM (S)&utm_term=+i7&utm_content=corp_brand_i7_bmm&gclid=CKj5tMD2r9cCFULlfgod7m4Mcg&gclsrc=ds&dclid=CPv3wMD2r9cCFU9ifgodOSUN_w

Thank you fastlanephil for your insights

In terms of the storage needs then I feel like if I would go for the SSD then I would most likely go for the 512GB and that will be far from enough, even today almost, so therefore I am considering going for the setup that I wrote with the 2TB fusion and then at a later point buy an external drive, maybe an SSD and use as a boot hard drive as some people in the forum is suggesting to get a bit more speed.

 

[sartrekid]

The 2TB version iMacs are good machines. I owned a 2TB Fusion i7 2015 with a 395 and 24GB RAM. I now use a 2017 maxed out iMac and am totally in love with it. I would go with the 2017 model as the GPU is such a significant upgrade to the 2015 ones.

 

[Persian-apple]

listen up bro im an owner of the new 2-17 imac (top of the line spec i7 580 16gb(thats not the hoghest but i didnt need more ) 3tb fusion
now listen carefully:
each choice you maie has a drastic change in performance
the cpu: unless you do super intensive stuff the i5 should be FINE but If your main priority is the cpu intensive stuff then 100dollar for a huge bump in cpu is a really great deal agin if you only do some excell related stuff and gaming the cpu will probably not be a problem
the GPU:you said you want to be able to game well radeon pro 580 kills the m395x double vram (lookin at whereo games like cod wwii and assassins creed origins are going (mew cod needs more than 4gb vram on higher settings i guess) youll see thats really important) and the 580 is something between 1060m and a gtx1070 (5.5tflops) while the 395 has to be 3-3.7 tflops its a HUGE difference in game super huge one
and the new i mac has thunderbolt3 so externalgpu could be an option in the future
the hard drive: my imac has the 3tb fusion as people saydont gp with te 1 tb fusion lots of -eople complain about it being too laggy)
comparing my imac to my 2014 rmbp with 500gb ssd the rmbp is a LOT fasterin terms of booting up and to some extent UI and the bootcamp doesnt use fusion it just takes a way a [art pf te HDD causing it too boot significantly slower this reduces the reliablity and the life span of the machine
so why did i go with the fusion : cause it doesnt have any effect on performance if you get the bestcpu and g-u and enough ram slower startups specially on windows are your main concern plus i really neeeded 3tb internall storage but if you dont go with swd more reliable less head wayyyy much faster and you can add external storage but if you need huge games onstalled on internall ssd then go with the 2tb fusion its fine really and specially if youre near and apple store and have an external hdd for possible failure ofthe drive
the ram: go with 8-16 and add more if your going with the fusionget as much ram az you can cause a[ple says these drives perform better with 32gb of ram
hope answered your question amd feel free to message me
[doublepost=1510306161][/doublepost]and im really sorry about the errors i typed too fast

 

[circatee]

Me personally, I'd go with:
iMac 27, i5 3.8GHz, RAM 8gb, 2TB Fusion, AMD 580 8GB

 

[upandown]

The price is definitely worth the SSD. All the way. My friend has a 2015 imac with the fusion. He feels his machine is slow. Pity to spend all the money and feel it's slow. Try and get the 512gb ssd.

If you later need terabytes of space, externally connect a spinning disc or SSD.

 

[enricoclaudio]

I just got a 27" iMac 5K mid-2017, i5 3.5GHz, 8GB RAM (upgraded to 24GB with 16GB Crucial RAM), 512 SSD and Radeon 575 GPU. Additionally got a 1TB External SSD (Glyph Atom RAID) to store my documents. I would recommend you get the base model with the biggest SSD configuration you can afford and 8GB RAM. The fusion drive is just painful slow and it's the only part you can not upgrade or the most complicated to upgrade.

 

[Persian-apple]

the only soow thing is booting up in windows side snd it has almost no effect on performance its not that bad really but depends on how much you need the internal space cause if im installing bootcamp games 7-8 games are gonna feel the entire 500gb ssd and i gotta install games on external drives which is ehhh the best way to kill performance so considering these stuff for me dealing with 30-40seconds of boottime on windows and lower reliablity was a good compromise lots of people still use their 2012 imac with fusion it works just fine
[doublepost=1510327967][/doublepost]not defending fusion but im tryna say its more of a double edged sword than a 100percent Wrong decision and the boottime on os x is Great to be honest and i dont feel it being slow on os x much really

 

[CaneCollegeboy]

One option to consider is finding a certified Apple repair center, find the price for installing a hd and get an sdd online that is compatible.

 

[Persian-apple]

One option to consider is finding a certified Apple repair center, find the price for installing a hd and get an sdd online that is compatible.

You mean getting someone to replace the hdd with ssd for you right?

 

[upandown]

One option to consider is finding a certified Apple repair center, find the price for installing a hd and get an sdd online that is compatible.

believe it or not it's way cheaper to just pay for the SSD up front from Apple.

 

[J.Gallardo]

believe it or not it's way cheaper to just pay for the SSD up front from Apple.

Native Apple internal pci-e SSD has nothing to do with an afterwards installed SSD. Of course, you’ll get a faster disk, compared to platers HDs...
There is no way (yet) to implement an internal pci-e ssd by yourself, as Apple mounts a propietary designed ssd.
PCI-e SSD: ~2000mb/s read-write.
(SATA, I suppose) replacement SSD: ~400mb/s read/write.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

If you can afford to buy new, get the model you mentioned above BUT choose "build-to-order" and get either the 256gb SSD (adds $100) or the 512gb SSD (adds $300).
Then, add EXTERNAL USB3 storage that suits your needs and budget (either SSD or HDD).

The 256gb SSD will be "good enough" to boot the machine, hold your apps, basic accounts*, and have "working space" for the OS as well.
* You want to keep "large libraries" (movies, music, pictures) on an external drive so as not to "clog up" the internal SSD. These are easily "referenced" to the apps that use them, such as Photos and iTunes.

Granted, an iMac with 256gb of storage is 'way less than a 2tb fusion drive, but the iMac with the SSD will keep running "faster, longer" (so long as you keep the SSD from getting overloaded).
And external storage space is pretty cheap.

 

[upandown]

Native Apple internal pci-e SSD has nothing to do with an afterwards installed SSD. Of course, you’ll get a faster disk, compared to platers HDs...
There is no way (yet) to implement an internal pci-e ssd by yourself, as Apple mounts a propietary designed ssd.
PCI-e SSD: ~2000mb/s read-write.
(SATA, I suppose) replacement SSD: ~400mb/s read/write.

Duh

 

[J.Gallardo]

...And with Thunderbolt 3 & USB 3.1 you can use really fast external storage (as fast as an installed SSD... and more).
New connectors are important to future-proof your system. Removing a new HD & paying to install an internal SSD is not like buying a native 1TB SSD mac system. No advantages if you can’t merge your new ssd into a Fusion disk again. Perhaps you can... but that’s looking for problems.