02-28-2018, 03:17 PM
Bernie,
Personally, I think your wife is being foolish by making an external optical drive a dealmaker. Yups. I said. It's foolish. I'll even go further and say it's shortsighted.
I know I'd be more understanding if you told us why your wife considers an external optical drive a dealbreaker. To me, it makes no sense at all since it's forcing you to purchase a machine for her that is already nearly 7 years old and on the verge of being EOL'd by Apple. And, dollar-wise, you're not that far away from buying a much newer, more capable model.
For the extra bucks, I'd go with the external optical drive on the cheap and take the newer, more capable mac. Case in point... I'm using a 2014 iMac 27" with an external _firewire_ optical drive connected via an adapter. It's just dandy. The drive sits on the desk next to the iMac, out of the way and stays off until I actually need it. Been using it for years with multiple macs. No issues at all.
I could've gone with an older model iMac two years ago but, at the time, dollar-wise, it didn't make any sense. No regrets at all.
Robert
Personally, I think your wife is being foolish by making an external optical drive a dealmaker. Yups. I said. It's foolish. I'll even go further and say it's shortsighted.
I know I'd be more understanding if you told us why your wife considers an external optical drive a dealbreaker. To me, it makes no sense at all since it's forcing you to purchase a machine for her that is already nearly 7 years old and on the verge of being EOL'd by Apple. And, dollar-wise, you're not that far away from buying a much newer, more capable model.
For the extra bucks, I'd go with the external optical drive on the cheap and take the newer, more capable mac. Case in point... I'm using a 2014 iMac 27" with an external _firewire_ optical drive connected via an adapter. It's just dandy. The drive sits on the desk next to the iMac, out of the way and stays off until I actually need it. Been using it for years with multiple macs. No issues at all.
I could've gone with an older model iMac two years ago but, at the time, dollar-wise, it didn't make any sense. No regrets at all.
Robert