Part 1: Buying experience
I've been using my 2011 iMac 27" for about 2 weeks now. I wanted a hotrod computer, but also be shrewd and savvy using available discounts. Since the stock config iMac's didn't match up to what I wanted, I needed to do a CTO. I live about an hours drive from the NH border where there is zero sales tax but no in store CTO. The three main points I used were, ship to friends house in NH, use edu store, and save 5% via Discover Card.
The Core i7 and SSD were important add-ons to me. The i7 adds hyperthreading which appears like a glaring omission on the part of Apple given the speed benefits.
Core i7 3.4ghz
4gb RAM
256GB SSD/1TB 7200rpm HD
1GB VRAM
wireless kb, magic mouse.
Total through the edu store was $2619 and that included the $100 Mac App Store card. That's a savings of $181 through regular Apple Store and that would not qualify for $100 mac store card.
Besides using the EDU store, I had it shipped to a friends house in New Hampshire saving 6.25% sales tax or $164.
Furthermore, I used a DiscoverCard promotion whereby if I link to the Apple store via the ShopDiscover portal, I get 5% cashback on the purchase price which amounts to a savings of $131.
All in all, if I had went the normal route of getting a CTO straightup, it would have amounted to $2800 for the computer, plus $164 sales tax for a grand total of $2964.
My total ends up being $2488 which represents a decent $476 savings going the traditional route.
I added an Apple Magic Trackpad and 16GB of Samsung memory.
4GB 1333MHz PC3-10600 DDR3 Laptop SDRAM
In addition, I splurged for the apple rechargeable batteries and remote control. I am very satisfied with my purchase. The only area's I debated internally were an upgrade to 2TB HD at an additional $135 given the proprietary connector and 2GB VRAM at an extra $90.
I questioned the 2gb VRAM upgrade extensively since video hardware is ever improving, but since I don't plan on running multiple monitors, I could not justify any single application that could use more than 1GB VRAM.
One big disappointment is the target display port. I tried hooking up my Mac mini using a display port cable and it didn't work. Found out that to use target display on this model, other device has to be thunderbolt enabled, thus only the new macbook pro's would be able to use the target display port in.
Still a very solid machine, and I love having a large 2560x1440 screen. A few years back I was using an ACD 30" and ACD 23" monitor. I like everything about the screen except the glossy cover.
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