Update in October 2016, receiving November 2016. Bump in processor speed, possibly new graphics chip instead of a just a bump, updated ports that make no real world difference. Buy now.
Yeah, I live here in Knoxville, TN. And the manager let me use a Bestbuy 10% movers coupon while it was $200 off for the holidays. Couldn't believe i could use it. Because they changed there policy a while back. But stole that thing for that price. So, it can still be done.
The RAM is a >60 second upgrade you can do at any time. And RAM prices will keep dropping over time. You can get better prices than OWC as well. Upgrading the internal drives is a huge, huge PITA as it is like surgery. The flash only model is pretty much not upgradable and with the Fusion drive model you can upgrade the HDD portion of the drive as all of the mounting hardware is there to put in something else (like an SSD). But it's a gazillion times easier to just use a thunderbolt (or USB3) SSD when the time comes to add more storage without a performance hit.
Given that Apple just updated the line, this past fall, I'd say you're good to go, in buying it now. As mentioned we'll probably not see any refresh in May, that's just not what apple does, at least recent history indicates that.
Last May update for the iMac was last year, 2015. It was a cheaper configuration for the iMac 27" Retina and no "real" update, but still, it was an update
easy to upgrade to SSD.I never really got why they moved from the removeable backside that the white G5 and early intel iMacs sported. Well, better cooling is one reason but could still probably still be solved in a decent way. The mid-2011 seems to be the last iMac which you could replace the hard drive in any reasonable way (I personally added an ssd in less than 30 minutes to my 2011). 30 minutes to add a new drive can seem excessive but one needs to keep in mind it's an aio. The 2012 and on iMacs seems to be a PITA to install a new drive intoWhat you say is true, however, I'm with the OP on this one. Why on earth would you buy an AIO computer and then start adding external peripherals? For me it defeats the whole point of having an AIO. I was lucky in that my iMac is a mid-2011 model so 'relatively'
However, I do suspect that given Apple's current policy of making their products almost non-upgradeable by the consumer it may well be my last. Windows 10 is a cracking good OS so I may simply go back to building the machine I want rather than what the manufacturer wants to sell me.
