Would you buy a refurb 27-inch iMac 3.2GHz Quad-core Intel Core i5 with Retina 5K display?

The RAM’s user upgradeable and it has a 1TB Fusion drive.

The sensible part of me is saying to hold off as there could be a refresh in Oct, the less sensible side is pointing to the £250 off and saying that its been out since Oct 2015 and prob won’t get much of a refresh anyway

I use it mostly for music, web, mail, logic and a small amount of domestic video/photo stuff

It would all depend on price !

I am typing this on my 2009 Mac Mini which runs fine for everything I do (email, web, personal and work documents, photos, backup for phones/tablets, media steaming either direct to tv via HDMI or via Apple TV). My point is even old Apple kit works fine for that.

8GM RAM and 750GB 7200rpm HDD – recently put 3 SSD’s in wife (500)/friends (250) laptops and they are excellent but 750 was too pricey when I upgraded my machine in 2012

It’s a remarkably powerful computer. To be honest, with the usage you describe, are you sure an iPad wouldn’t be at least as good?

Rachel

It’s £1350 at the moment. I liked the idea of the mac mini but the new ones are not upgradeable anymore so fancied going for an iMac (never had one before). a Comparable mini is just under £900 in the spec I want.

I’ve got iPads n wot not and this is to replace a 2011 mbp that I want to give to my eldest as she starts secondary this year.

I was going for the 27inch because I like big screen. I also use guitar pro on it and the extra screen size over the current 22″ monitor that’s plugged into the mbp will be welcome.
I’d also be using it to backup everything in photo/icloud to give me a local backup and then everything is backed up to a drive in TM as a further good measure.

Looking on the store a brand new 27″ 5k (fabulous screen and yes 27 is the way to go imo) with 8gb ram (enough) and a 1TB Fusion drive is £1529

If thats the price differential (£180) I would just buy a brand new machine and/or wait to see what new models are released in the autumn (processor updates likely). If you know any students / teachers they can get 10% off I think.

The iMac is a fabulous machine and if there isn’t a proper Mini upgrade this year my next computer will be an iMac like the one’s you are looking at.

It’s a lush machine and unlikely to get much of a bump in October, as Intel are behind with their chips – (Linky).

I’d also wonder when $:£ rates will bump prices.

Doooo iiiiiiiitttttt!

my missus mac exploded this morning as the battery failed and when i say exploded i mean the UNibody looks like a car crash its a write off, as long as you look out for the swollen battery signs etc its not a problem.

Id buy another it lasted 6 years

Unless you’re processing a lot of 4k video, you don’t need a top spec machine, any iMac will be fine.

Drlex is a bit out of date, the latest 5k iMacs with the p3 screen have sky lake chips.

Anyway, great machine (I have one) but don’t cheap out with a fusion drive* get a proper SSD.

*on the latest 5ks it’s not 128 flash it’s much less, so more cache misses.

I have an imac, 21″
Its not exactly small, but I wish id gone for the 27.
Mine is a 1tb hdd, its a little slow to boot up, I should have went for the ssd.
Can’t offer any more advice than that, but its still a superb machine.

I bought my Mbp with the intention of immediately upgrading from a 500gb HD to a ssd and adding more mem. Trouble is, with the newer iMacs, you can only add mem and the drives are not as accessible. IA’s right – the 1tb fusion is only 32gb ssd so I’m now looking for a refurbished 2tb as that has a 128ssd.

In the refurb shop it’s an extra couple of hundred more but you get 2tb fusion drive, slightly better gfx card and a slightly quicker processor. Still saving £280 over buying new so not sure why I’d buy new at the mo.

I’d be buying it with the intention of sticking either 32 or 64gb ram in it.

It looks like they may skip the next gen processor and instead offer upgraded gfx if they were to update this year. Based on past form I’d be suprised if iMac is updated this year. I think it’ll be the pro and mini.

I didn’t realise the ssd component was so hopeless, nuts really given how cheap a 250 is now.

Not sure what you need 32 or 64 ram for, perhaps the video editing stuff. My Mini rarely uses the 8 I have in it.

Just to make sure it’s quick and if I spin up a VM really.

I’ve no need for it really. The 8gb in my mbp is plenty. The 16gb in my mbpr only gets ticked when I’ve got a VM running too.

I wondered whether 64gb ram with the rather hopeless 1tb fusion would compensate for the 32gb ssd part of it.

agree it’s nuts (even for Apple) given how cheap ssd’s are. Can’t believe they still spec hdd’s

Also my understanding (worth checking) is that with usb3 an ssd in an external caddy is nearly as fast. Does spoil the ultra clean form factor of the iMac. Anyway the 5k is fabulous machine and I wonder whetehr at some stage fhey might go even bigger than 27, the screens are like tv’s you soon get used to the size and would go bigger !

Do it. Paid 2.5k for our iMac in 2012 – i7, fusion HDD, 8Gb, 27″ screen

Ours is used for pretty much the OP’s requirements. Only upgrade was recently – Mountain Lion straight to El Capitan.

It’s excellent – I’d pay 1300 quid for something like this. Do it!

ETA: 700Gb of the 1TB drive is used up (mainly music, photos and vids). Time to start planning storage upgrades.

Maybe, back in the day…

Moore’s law is over. It’s all small increments until the next big breakthrough molecular science. Barter them down to a grand and you’ve won a watch.

Barter them down to a grand

A man who has never shopped with Apple 🙂

Just to address some wrongness above:

Extra ram doesn’t help slow disk io/random access in any meaningful way.

It’s PCIE ssds in the iMac, not sata, they’re about 4 times faster than a sata drive in usb3. I know, I have both. 2 gig a second vs 4-500Mb, and that’s just bulk transfer. They’re also more expensive, but yes apple charge a fair chunk….but then there’s no competition for the 5K iMac.

Ha ha. Never read that right. Ok, steal an iwatch and call it a win!

@IA thanks for that sata vs pcie info, didn’t know that, agreed on ram point

Would you buy a refurb 27-inch iMac 3.2GHz Quad-core Intel Core i5 with Retina 5K display?

No, I would not.

Yes. They are awesome. Mine is the type thatrequire a reflow though. But I’d have another of the ones that don’t melt their fing solder.

Anyone want to buy a retina screen? Perhaps you smashed yours?

Good grief – I don’t think I’ll be putting 64gb ram in after all

http://uk.crucial.com/gbr/en/imac-%28retina-5k%2C-27-inch%2C-late-2015%29-imac17%2C1/CT8017545

Perhaps just an additional 16 bringing it to 24gb total.

Is AppleCare worth buying?

I’ve ordered the Mac but am holding off AppleCare to see if the first 360days of ownership give me a reason to think it’s worth it. I’ve not bothered in the past…

Would you buy a refurb 27-inch iMac 3.2GHz Quad-core Intel Core i5 with Retina 5K display?

Yep, I have one and it’s a great machine.

Turn the resolution up to get some more real estate on the screen if you can see it and no need for another screen then.

64 cost indeed 😉

Applecare I have never bothered, I did get it for my daughter but as she was a student she got 10% off the machine and 80-90% off Applecare so £20 seemed a no brainer.

If you buy from Apple they are quite good with fixes / replacements, eg we got a new Apple TV after 18 months as cable connection was a bit wobbly. There is also the question of the 2yr warranty they are obliged to provide under EU law or buy from John Lewis