I'm planning on buying the 27" imac i7. But I'm holding off my purchase in case of an upgrade. But now the back-to-school action is running and I'm wondering if it's worth waiting for the upgrade (which will probably happen after back-to-school) or just getting the free ipod touch? I've read numerous on this forum that the upgrade for the i7 won't be worth the wait so...
Yes and no. I participated in the B2S offer years ago when I was in college and ended up selling the iPod I got on eBay to help further reduce the cost of my computer.
As for the ordering, from past experience, I strongly suggest you either buy the iMac either at an Apple Store near your school (if that's where you're going to be using it) or if you're just planning on leaving it home, order away. It took about 3 weeks for me to get my iBook as it was shipped from China. I would have been happier (and less stressed because I actually delayed my 1000 mile drive to college an extra 1.5 days because I was waiting on my iBook to arrive) if I'd just have gone to the local Apple Store and picked it up same-day.
In regards to it being worth the wait or not, here's some things to keep in mind, and I hope you took a few minutes to read over the several threads on the front page of the forum:
1. The biggest issue that most of the enthusiasts/posters have about the current iMac is that the video card, which is NOT upgradable, is around 24 months old. It's a laptop (Mobility) video card, so don't confuse it with the desktop equivalent. This is a requirement because of the tight design of the iMac and its need for heat dissipation. GPU technology is evolving just as fast, or arguably faster, than CPU technology right now, and buying a 24-month old card in a brand new computer is sinful. Compare it to buying a Gateway or an eMachines computer with a Celeron or a Pentium-D chip.
2. I agree with the majority of people on the forum that the i7 Intel is probably going to be the biggest "upgrade" for a while, aside from point #1 above. We'll probably see little things like extra clock speed, or perhaps the phasing out of the Core2Duo chip and moving to the i5 chip as the entry level iMac. So, your point above seems to be relatively accurate that there won't be any major CPU upgrade for some time, since Intel just changed architectures.
3. Apple hasn't hinted at really being a fan of Blu-Ray drives or anything like that, but the SuperDrive currently offered is pretty archaic by today's standards. We've had mainstream DVD-RW drives for around 8 years now. Several people that lurk around here would also like to see a Solid State Drive (SSD) for the main hard drive in the iMac. This would feature some pretty good power efficiency but the cost is extremely expensive per gigabyte of storage compared to a typical spinning-disk-and-platter hard drive. The SSD performs considerably faster but at a steep cost.
Unless you're planning on buying this computer solely for the purpose of playing Diablo 3, StarCraft 2, or other super-detailed resource-heavy games, the current "top of the line" iMac i7 will probably do you right for years to come. If you are really concerned about the video card, just wait a little longer. We're past the "average" release time for new iMac products, but it appears that Apple typically updates iMacs in the Fall with minor updates happening sporadically through the year. For more info on buying them, take a peek at the top right corner in the 'Buyer's Guide' section.
Enjoy.
