New M1 24" or Refurb i9 27" for same price?

[T Coma]

So while my until-now-bulletproof 2011 i5 iMac is still just fine for many daily tasks, it is limited to High Sierra and thus a fair amount of software. I've also been getting into creative video work as a hobby and this CPU / GPU is woefully slow. I had been bouncing back between a "loaded" m1 imac and a mac mini, until I saw a pretty good argument - including practical testing - by Jerry Schulze on one of his youtube videos. I know they don't have the magical new chip, but there are 27" imacs in the refurb store for about the same price with some respectable specs, plus a bigger retina display and more built in ports, not to mention upgradable RAM.

The display size was the one thing that was really holding me back from the new iMac purchase, although most reviewers seem to say that they expected the downsize to bother them, but it turns out not to.

With the exception of power efficiency and the relatively undefinable "future proofing" concept, is there a reason a 24" m1 beats a 2020 27" i9 imac?

 

[pmiles]

If you buy INTEL, you are no longer buying into the Mac ecosystem. It's EOL hardware plain and simple. The reason to buy one is if you have a need for running Windows' based stuff on it. If you have no such need, I wouldn't buy one.

I don't know anyone who really buys a desktop computer based on power efficiency... are you concerned about how much power your refrigerator uses?

There is no such thing as future proofing with a machine that has soldered RAM and storage on board. What you buy is it. There is no upgrade path internally... just external. Odds are pretty good that you will replace it in less than 5 years just so that you can continue to keep up with Apple.

As for display size, I can tell you this, working on a smaller display at work compared to a larger one at home was very bothersome. I hated the monitor at work. I instantaneously hated the monitor at work. All of my previous jobs had larger monitors... all of them. To have it reduced to what one would consider a laptop display was excruciating to say the least. In fact, it's one of the reasons why I left that job.

If the M1 display is smaller than you would like, get a Mac mini instead and find a display that you like.

And just for the record, no machine is ever fast enough at video editing... you will always be waiting on something to process. It comes down to your tolerance level. Some people enjoy a cup of coffee while waiting for a rendering to complete... others complain that 15 seconds is far too long for a microwave to heat coffee.

 

[scottrngr]

I would agree with buying the M1 mini and monitor you like.

 

[Wando64]

I don't know anyone who really buys a desktop computer based on power efficiency... are you concerned about how much power your refrigerator uses?

Apologies for this being off-topic, but as you ask…

I don’t know anyone that is not concerned about the power efficiency of anything and everything they have in their house. But then again, regrettably, I should not be surprised that some people are not.
All of that said, if you need a tractor to do your job in the farm, you will put up with a tractor’s emissions.
But if you only need a car to commute to the office, why on earth would you buy a tractor? (Or a Hummer?)

 

[jasnw]

I'd be inclined to get the refurb iMac: ports, memory upgrade, more screen real-estate. Right now we don't really know what the post-Mx desktop lineup is going to look like. The 24" iMac is a consumer appliance, and the M1 Mini isn't much better. I'm limping along on a 2011 27" iMac, and if it were to give up the ghost tomorrow I think I'd look for a reasonable refurb to hold me over for a couple of years to see where Apple is headed. A ROADMAP WOULD BE NICE - HEAR ME TIM!?!?!?

 

[wilberforce]

I have both a 2020 iMac and a M1 Pro MBP.
Seriously, there is nothing on the M1 Pro MBP that makes me wish I had an M1 iMac instead of the 2020 Intel iMac. A regular M1 (i.e. not a M1 Pro or Max or Ultra) would actually be a downgrade.
If you want a 5K 27" screen, the refurb 2020 iMacs are a great deal.
btw, the i9 is not much better than the i7. The best combo for video is an i7 with the awesome 5700XT GPU, or the i7 with the 5500XT GPU for best value.

 

[BeatCrazy]

M1, without a doubt.

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

Since you've kept your iMac for so long, chances are you'll do the same with the new one. In that case, clearly the M1, because you'll will likely relative quickly run into the same problem you have with your current Mac, if you go Intel. Also, it will be markedly faster than the current machine you have now, which seems to do just fine for you even now. Personally I would never recommend an Intel Mac to anyone, unless they specifically need it for some specific and crucial software, simply due to long term support.

Alternatives, get a Mac mini and a display (You can even use your 2011 iMac as a display!), or wait a year and see if we get a 27" iMac M2.

 

[carl varley]

I came from a similar position to the original poster (T coma). iMac i5 2500 2011 32gb which I used as my main production machine. To be honest it really was a great machine (so good I bought another cheap for a dual screen setup), the M1 mini I swapped it out for feels only marginally better for day to day use although is snapper and faster all round. Of course exporting video and exporting anything else for that matter is much quicker, most of my work in design, photo manipulation and creating web content remains about the same as both machines are faster than me in these cases.

Lots of commentators mention that the intel ecosystem is end of life whilst this is correct, your computer, current os and your software will not stop working just when apple make that model end of life. I still use High Sierra now for 32 bit compatibility and was using snow leopard for years (and still need to sometimes) so that none of my production apps at that time stopped working (Quark and some other older software).

I now use the M1 mini with a 27inch 4k monitor and often use one of the iMacs as a second monitor via screen sharing over Ethernet with a cheap HDMI dummy in the Mac mini. I am really happy with the Mini but will be upgrading to a Studio Max or M2 mini pro if one comes out this year. For context the software I use on the mini is Affinity Suit, Adobe Suite, Krita, Pinegrow and iMovie all work really well on the base M1 Mini.

 

[Bodhitree]

For buying a personal computer, I have found the M1 iMac to be a very good all-around machine. It’s fast enough to do the vast majority of things well, it has an excellent screen, camera, speakers and microphones, it does well for Zoom and Facetime, it’s quiet and it looks good in the home. With the ram upgrade it’s able to handle a surprising number of pro tasks.

The thing that would stop me from buying an Intel mac is software obsolescence. We just don’t know how long Apple’s support for Intel macs will last, but judging from the last transition it won’t be as long as they might have gotten without a transition. I’d say three years beyond the date they sell the last new Intel mac, and then that’s it for macOS updates.

It all depends how long you plan to be using the machine. I buy macs because I use them for a good 7-10 years, so long software support is important to me.

 

[rpmurray]

I recently took a 27 inch 2011 iMac with an SSD out of mothballs and installed OCLP 0.4.4 on it and have been happily chugging along in Monterey. It was reading that they now have graphic acceleration in OCLP for the original non-metal GPUs that got me to try it. Then again, I don't do video work on it.