There's one major reason why you shouldn't buy Apple's new $1,300 iMac

• Apple's new 21.5-inch iMacs come with Intel's 8th-generation processors that could make for great little powerhouses for budding content creators.
• Unfortunately, the new $1,300 21.5-inch iMac still comes with an old-fashioned hard drive that could drag down its performance.
• You're better off spending an extra $200 for an upgraded version of Apple's 21.5-inch iMac if you care about performance. 

Apple recently released a refreshed lineup of 21.5-inch iMacs with Intel's 8th-gen processors that could make great little entry-level powerhouses for budding content creators.

Except the $1,300 21.5-inch iMacs still come standard with an old-style hard drive that could significantly drag down the computer's performance.

I say "could" as I haven't specifically tried the $1,300 21.5-inch iMac, but I know for a fact that old-fashioned hard drives are slower than modern SSD storage drives, and they often act as performance bottlenecks as they can't keep up with the rest of a computer's modern specs. 

To go even further, the hard drives that Apple is using in $1,300 21.5-inch iMacs run at 5,400rpm, which is slow for the already slow hard drive. A 7,200rpm hard drive would have been a better option, as it can deliver data to the rest of a computer parts faster than a 5,400rpm hard drive.

To be fair, old-fashioned hard drive storage is cheaper than SSD storage. And some will argue that old-fashioned storage drives have longer lifespans than SSDs, which can stop working if you often load and delete data from them.

Either way, you can upgrade the ancient and slow hard drive on the $1,300 21.5-inch iMacs to Apple's Fusion Drive for $100, or a faster 256GB SSD for an extra $200 from the Apple Store. But for $100 to $200 extra, you might as well go for the $1,500 21.5-inch iMac that comes with Apple's Fusion Drive, as well as a faster Intel processor and better graphics chip for more performance.

Apple's Fusion Drive is a hybrid storage drive that includes a relatively small amount of SSD storage for often-used files coupled with a larger old-fashioned hard drive for less frequently used files. Apple says "Fusion Drive automatically and dynamically moves frequently used files to Flash storage for quicker access, while infrequently used items move to the high-capacity hard disk. As a result, you enjoy shorter startup times and—as the system learns how you work—faster application launches and quicker file access."

With all this said, Apple's 21.5-inch iMacs with old-fashioned hard drives will be fine for lightweight computer users who — for lack of a better phrase — don't really care about their computer's performance. Those computer users should look at the $1,100 21.5-inch iMac.

Otherwise, it's worth spending a little extra to upgrade.

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