Best place to buy new iMac

[dakota]

Any suggestions for the best place to purchase new iMac 27?  I bought one a number of months ago, but my older one is starting to give me problems. Another question is what to buy for a router.  I have been using an old Time Capsule ( which right now is telling me it can't back up!) and this is the computer on my main setup where I have the cable modem.  Thanks in advance.

[jchuzi]

A good place to start is https://www.bhphotovideo.com This is a very reliable company. Despite the fact that the physical store is closing for two weeks because of COVID19, online orders are still being processed. In addition, check out refurbs from Apple. My iMac is a refurb and it has been flawless. In fact, refurbs may be more reliable than brand new because they have been thoroughly tested. And, you can save money.

Also, look into http://www.macmall.com and https://www.macsales.com

[sluggo]

Another vote for B&H. I think both of my Mini's came from there.
Refurbs are another good option. I've never had any more trouble from a refurb than I have from brand new. Same warranty in most cases.

[Xairbusdriver]

Another advantage of B & H is normally a local/state tax rebate. Since they don't have facilities in any state other than NY. Of course, it is still your responsibility to report sales taxes from online sources, if your state requires that.

[Raven]

My last 4 macs came from refurbs from Apple. I wouldn't buy them in any other way.

[dakota]

Thank you to all who responded. I have gone online and am weighing everything.  Now I can't get the computer to back up to my Time Capsule.  I discovered it had not backed up in days. Have gone through all possible steps, including resetting password and I get the proverbial message that the TC can not connect to the server. Once I took care of the password, I discovered I had no backups left on the TC! I am going to have to back up to an external firewire so I don't lose everything.

[Xairbusdriver]

Although your purchase location is probably not affected, it is of note that:

[Apple] will be closing all of our retail stores outside of Greater China until March 27.

Source:Apple’s COVID-19 response

[dakota]

I want to reply to those of you who suggested B & H.  Although I did purchase a few other items from them, from what I can see they are engaging in price gouging. I already have one new 27" iMac which I bought a few months ago from Apple.  It is a 3.7 i5 with 8 GB memory and 2 TB storage. I paid $2299.B & H didn't have that exact configuration and offered me the 3.7 i5 with 512 MB for $2395. I looked on their site for the configuration I have on the new one here, and look what I found:

$3,449.00

Save the Tax with the  Card

12 Months Promo Financing Available
1
Add to Cart


3.7 GHz Intel Core i5 Six-Core
Memory (RAM)
8GB



2TB SSD

I don't think I will be ordering from B & H.

[Xairbusdriver]

3.7 i5 with 8GB memory and 2TB storage
              !=
3.7 i5 with 8GB memory and 2TB SSD

We don't know what kind of storage you have in what you bought, since you did not say.

[Paddy]

Dakota, whatever you do, don't buy an iMac with a hard drive. Get an SSD - the biggest you can afford. Hard drives are going the way of the dodo. You can always use an external drive if you need more storage for things like photos or music or video. You cannot upgrade the drive yourself later - or not easily, anyway. That's worth getting right when you order.

Upgrade the RAM yourself when you can - 8GB is kind of minimal these days. With the 27" iMac it's easy to do yourself, and generally cheaper than buying it through Apple.

As for your backup - get a couple of external drives and use one for Time Machine and the other for a cloned backup using SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner. Set it to back up automatically. I have a RAID backup for my iMac now - it's USB-C, plus a TimeMachine backup (on a 4 TB external - Western Digital Black, in a Rosewill USB 3 enclosure). You should be using USB-C going forward, since both new Macs should support it. I have several Samsung T5 external SSDs for my photos; they're wonderful. Fast and very compact. My entire Lightroom library lives on the 2TB one.

I second the recommendation to order from the Apple refurb store. I've either done that or used my kids' university discounts (which are available to parents!) to order all Macs lately. However, at the moment, there are all of two 27" iMacs on offer, so not much in the way of choice! B&H are very good - I used to get all my camera equipment from them when I was living in the US.

I'm assuming this is the one you got earlier?

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/specs/imac-core-i5-3.7-27-inch-aluminum-retina-5k-early-2019-specs.html

If you go for an internal SSD (which I think you should) then you will have to pay a little more to get any capacity. The same model iMac you have, but with a 1TB SSD is $2599 at B&H: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1468645-REG/apple_z0vt_mrr12_03_27_imac_with_retina.html

The exact same one you have is on sale right now at MacSales (another excellent dealer, who I regularly dealt with when living in the US): https://eshop.macsales.com/configure-my-mac/UACM3F7ES2130XI

AND for $2399, you can order a refurb one with a 2GB SSD. That is an amazing deal, given that the list is $3699. One year warranty too. https://eshop.macsales.com/configure-my-mac/UACM3FP7XX230GI (that one would get my vote!)

For a router - we've been very happy with our Asus AC-5300. It's a beast, and we've had zero issues with it. Great range. There is a newer version of it: Asus ROG Rapture GT-AX11000 - but it's rather expensive. (ours wasn't cheap 3 years ago either) There are a lot of good reviews for the more reasonably priced Netgear Nighthawk AC1750 R6700.

[kimmer]

Paddy, thanks for that grand post. I've saved the info as I'll be replacing my old iMac this year. It's quite long in the tooth and starting to show it's age.

[dakota]

Never paid attention to SSD.  However, checking prices on Apple's site for the equivalent on the B &H site,  which I listed above, Apple is still $500 cheaper for the same machine, assuming I stay with the same configuration on everything else.

[Xairbusdriver]

It's always in the details...

[Xairbusdriver]

Sounds like a completely separate thread... it can be moved, if you'd like.

[dakota]

Good idea.  Thanks.