Which configuration of iMac 27" ? Fusion drive or not ? RAM upgrade ?

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What applications will your mother be using?

Is she using current Apple productivity applications with relatively modest system requirements like Safari, Pages, Numbers, and Keynote?

If she's already using professional apps like Adobe Creative Suite, Final Cut Pro, Aperture, and the like for graphics, photography, music, or video creation and editing, then sure, go for a fully-loaded iMac system. Or even consider the new Mac Pro.

Otherwise, 2TB (Fusion or not-your choice) and 16GB RAM are both double the current 'base' system, offer great performance with Mavericks, plenty of storage capacity, and are far more cost-effective.

Based upon personal experience with my own family members, unless you want to be the 'endless free support forever' person, I'd invest in AppleCare for the full 3 years, and a large reliable external backup drive for Time Machine. Those would be far better financial choices than a 32GB RAM upgrade.

You're not being a bad person and 'cheaping out' on a barely-functional low-end system. You're purchasing a fine system with great performance for now and at least the next 3-5 years into the future AND you're preserving your own sanity. What could be a greater gift than that?

1. 27" iMac with 3.4Ghz i7 and NVIDIA GeForce GT 775M with 2GB video memory is just $200 more than 27" iMac with 3.2Ghz i5 and NVIDIA GeForce GT 755M with 1GB video memory. How much is her time worth per hour? If it's for business use, it pays for itself quickly. Same opinion for the 'build-to-order' upgrades in speed and video available on the 27" i7.

2. Fusion drive is a hybrid combining 128GB SSD with either a 1TB or 3TB rotating platter hard drive.

Analysis and review of Fusion drive in a 2012 iMac: http://www.anandtech.com/show/6679/a-month-with-apples-fusion-drive

Conclusions and performance are on pages 5 and 6 of the review.

3. 27" iMac RAM is "user-replacable", quoting from the 2013 'Important Product Information' addendum to the manual:

"Do Not Make Repairs Yourself

Your iMac doesn’t have any user-serviceable parts, except for memory, which is user-replaceable in 27-inch models only. Do not attempt to open your iMac. If your iMac needs service, contact an Apple Authorized Service Provider or Apple for service.

If you open your iMac or install items other than memory in 27-inch models, you risk damaging your equipment. Such damage isn’t covered by the limited warranty on your iMac."

quoted from http://manuals.info.apple.com/MANUALS/1000/MA1662/en_US/imac_late2013_ipig.pdf

OWC video of the 27" RAM upgrade installation: http://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/imac_27inch_late_2012_mem_m/

4. If it's for business, go for the i7 and the video upgrade.

5. I'd do the upgrade myself, purchasing from a reliable vendor of Apple RAM such as crucial.com or macsales.com. I have no experience with the other vendor you mentioned, RAMfinder.com. Factory-installed RAM offers the pricey convenience of having a machine configured by you online and shipped directly to your mother in a few days with no one else needing to be involved. I'd avoid any Apple salesperson who apparently doesn't know the 27" iMac product well enough to give you the truth about user-installable RAM upgrades. OWC (macsales.com) will purchase system-pull original RAM allowing you to recoup a small portion of the cost of the upgrade, though nothing close to the resale price of the RAM.

Message was edited by: kostby

Link to Mac performance comparisons: http://browser.primatelabs.com/mac-benchmarks

It really depends more on what the computer will be used for.

If you are or your mother is into design and or graphics then you for sure want to max the RAM.

If it is affordable I would get everything you can afford. This will make the computer faster than a phone call and will last many years tto come for whoever uses it.

Good Luck with your choice and, WELCOME TO THE DISCUSSIONS.

Don

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