2021 24" M1 vs 2017 27" i7

[jtcameron]

Evening all,

I could do with some advice on purchasing a refurbished iMac for work!

Cut a long story short, my 21.5" 2017 1TB Fusion iMac at work is being replaced as it was damaged whilst my classroom was being refurbished (couldn't have happened at a better time). For context, I'm a music teacher so I primarily use Sibelius, Logic, PowerPoint and Chrome solidly for about 7 hours a day.

I've got about £900 to play with so, my options are:

• 27" 5k Retina i7 4.2Ghz, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD - Mid 2017 (£999) - Link
• 24" M1 8GB RAM 512GB SSD - 2021 (£989) - Link

There's £10 in it! Which should I get? My classroom has 17 2017 iMacs, the same as being replaced so part of me thinks the 27" would be better and I also like it because it has a bigger RAM but then is the newer machine going to out perform it regardless? I have the 24" at home but the 16GB RAM version so I worry 8GB of RAM won't be enough, yet again pushing me towards the 27".

Any help is appreciated!

Thanks,
Jam

 

[Fishrrman]

If the 2021 iMac 24" had 16gb of RAM, I'd say "choose that one".
But I'm sensing that 8gb is "not going to be enough", and you can't upgrade it later on.

So... between these two... I'd pick the 2017.

If you can find a 2021 with 16gb, that changes things...

 

[MacsRgr8]

Wow... surprises me that a 5 year old iMac would be worth the same as a refurbished one which is configurable as new today!
I have the M1 24" (maxed out), and also still have the 2017 iMac 27" (maxed out).

The 2017 is a great iMac, and Boot Camp works on it etc.

The 24" iMac has that smaller screen... and yeah, if you are used to 27" it does feel like a step back.

But, I won't invest almost £ 1K on a 5 year old Mac. I assume macOS Ventura is going to be the last major macOS update for it.

I do think that the linked iMac 24" is the one with only 2 Thunderbolt ports and 7 GPU Cores....? In the picture it looks to have 4 connectors... It also says 8 GPU cores, but no GigaBit Ethernet?

Might be worthwhile checking that, If it really has 8 GPU cores, 2 x Thunderbolt + 2 x USB 3 and Gigabit Ethernet, then I think that iMac is a great deal!

 

[Yebubbleman]

I'd hold out for an M1 iMac model (hopefully the four-port variant) with 16GB of RAM. It'll likely be faster than the 2017 and it will most definitely last you for longer before Apple drops OS support for it. The 2017 iMacs are literally the oldest iMac models that are supported for Ventura and it's looking ever more likely that Apple will get to the inevitable "it must be a T2 or an Apple Silicon Mac in order to run the next macOS release" requirement sooner than later.

 

[Gudi]

I've got about £900 to play with so, my options are:

• 27" 5k Retina i7 4.2Ghz, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD - Mid 2017 (£999) - Link
• 24" M1 8GB RAM 512GB SSD - 2021 (£989) - Link

Any help is appreciated!

Let's compare a 2017 Audi A6 with a diesel engine versus a 2021 Audi e-tron for the same price. Keep in mind the A6 has twice as many cup holders!

Which one would you buy?

Now the computer industry is a little different, one year of innovation equals five years in the automotive industry. But the principle is the same! You don't want to drive an oldtimer, unless you're the president of the classic car club.

I hope that helps.