Apple Computer stores – iMac prices versus iMac refurbished prices
I mentioned in my last post about how some people are thinking on the lines of creating a Hackintosh order to either save money or to have a really fast machine, if Apple actually decide to discontinue the Mac Pro line. Another way to save money on your Mac computer hardware is to have a look in the refurbished Apple laptops and also the iMac refurbished offers available in the Apple Computer stores. The iMac prices are actually quite good if you compare them to equivalent computers in terms of specifications. To get a good comparison and be able to make an informed decision, when it comes to buying your next computer, then you should at least be comparing apples with apples. In fact to get a proper comparison, it is actually a good idea to price it out over three or five years, so that you can take into account the cost of ownership. Don’t forget also that when you use an Apple iMac refurbished computer you do also get the use of the excellent Mac OS X and the iLife suite that comes with your new Apple Computer. You certainly don’t get that with the Windows computer, Linux or even with Android. I know that people who have seen me do some things with my computer and asked me how I did it, because they were impressed, were disappointed because they weren’t able to do the same on their PC.
No mix and match of offers
Some of us are fortunate to be in the situation of either being in education or being married to somebody in education. The Apple iMac Education computer is a cut down version of the Apple iMac computers, Not really the best for the general Mac user, best to look in the iMac store. There is a discount though on the Apple iMac price. If this is the case then you can get a good discount, which turns out to be about the same magnitude of discount that you would get if you went to the Apple computer stores refurbished area. So even though I would have been out to get my iMac, which is the best all in one desktop computer available, through the refurbished or through my own account, I was able to take advantage of the educational discount offered to teachers. There was no difference at all except for the fact that I might have had to wait to get the iMac refurbished model that I wanted. Really you have to go with whatever is in the Apple refurbished store and often it can be the best thing to do, to wait until you see what you want in there. It is a good way to buy a refurbished Apple iMac. I certainly would be very happy with a refurbished iMac computer.
Apple iMac prices – You pays your money you takes your choice
As is usual with the iMac prices there are some choices that you can make regards which model you want to get. This gives you a range of iMac prices which will fit with your cash flow considerations, one way or another. My previous iMac was the 24 inch model and I really didn’t want to get the smaller 21 inch iMac this time. So basically what I did was to go for the 27 inch iMac and again within that make choices to suit the size of my wallet.
Having a 27 inch iMac and connecting Thunderbolt devices
One of the good things about the 27 inch iMac is the fact that you get the two Thunderbolt ports. Now you may think that having two Thunderbolt ports is extremely silly, because there are not many thunderbolts devices available yet. The beauty of the two Thunderbolt ports is the fact that you can also connect extra monitors to these ports which also work as mini DVI connectors. I quite like the idea of having a pair of 24 inch monitors, one for either side of the 27 inch iMac. Now wouldn’t that be super in terms of the amount of screen space I would have available. For the moment, I am still making do with an old 19 inch monitor which I used to use with my Mac mini G4. In fact, if I was to get the pair of 24 inch monitors, then I would perhaps have to think about getting a bigger office desk. Something that would perhaps be nice though, is to get a 24 inch monitor that is possible to set in the portrait mode. This could be very useful for when looking at certain types of work, that could be with an image that I am editing using Pixelmator 2. That could also be if I were using the Apple iWork applications such as Pages. I think I could be talking myself into getting these new monitors at some point in time. This information about how to get good discounts on Apple computers should be in an Apple Wiki.
Apple Computer iMac choices
Would you consider one of the refurbished iMacs? Or would you rather have the normal Apple Store iMac? You could go to the iMac Apple Store and then look for the bargains after that.
