[elithrar]

> That still leaves out upgrades. Whereas for the custom build it's just a matter of yanking out the failed part and putting in a new one at cost

I can sell a $3000 iMac for $2000 two years down the track; making the upgrade "cost" $1000. It'd cost me roughly the same to buy a GTX 770 (AUD$500), a new i7 Haswell and a 128GB SSD, which are effectively the major upgrades between my 2011 iMac and the (predicted specifications) of the 2013 refresh. And then I have to hope that someone else has tested those parts before I have!

[blinkingled]

I was commenting on your speculation that it might make more financial sense in the US - to give you an example GTX 770 is USD 399 and the top of the line stock iMac is $1999 before tax and I can only upgrade it to GTX 685 which runs me $150. So yeah in the US I think it is not as clear cut as it is in your case.