[Closed] Buying an iMac ~ Thoughts/advice?

Not sure howthe home computer scheme works, but you may be better to find your self a student and get a decent educational discount.

My personal option with the imac is to get a bigger screen before a bigger processor. And remember it is cheaper to get additional memory after purchasing.

For the sake of 10% extra cost I'd go i7 - but and i5 will do nicely too.

Its like bike to work, but over 3yrs. Saves about £300 too. Its the 27" that i'm looking at. The scheme won't allow you to alter the spec seemingly 😕

Yeah, don't get your RAM from Apple, just take the cheapest option and buy it from Crucial.

Get the 27" if you can...

i5 will be ample. Buy Crucial/Kingston RAM and stick as much in as you can afford after you get it. Get an external HDD for a time machine backup. Enjoy.

If it's a salary sacrifice scheme it's usually a pretty good way to buy especially if you can get a Mac as they hold their value very well.

Normally I'd say get as powerful a processor as you can afford, but quite honestly, since going to the new Sandy Bridge processors, even the i5 is miles faster than the last generation. The i7 is probably 15-20% faster outright, but in the real world you're not really going to notice that extra speed unless you're constantly editing 1080HD video to be honest.

Buy the cheaper version, save the money, then up the RAM to 8GB through Crucial.

Just sent the paper work off for a Mac Book Pro and iPad 2 on the scheme on the way to pick the kids up. Works out cheaper than persuading my Student to order on my behalf.

Drac, it's the same scheme 🙂
I already looked at an sussed out the ram. £40 from crucial for 8gb or £160 from apple....hmmm...tough one!! 😆

Current pc is q6600, 4gb so i5 should still be an upgrade

I'm getting mine at the weekend. Mrs PP gets a bit of a discount through work, which is handy.
I could have got a bit more off buying online, but I'm off to the Apple store in Basingstoke becasue I can walk out with one and not have to worry about delivery, and they'll set it up for me before I leave.
Also, I've been saving up for 7-8 months for it, so I want to have a bit of fun collecting it! 🙂

I was going to get the cheapest 21in, but after looking long and hard I know if I do I'll always have the nagging regret that I should have got the 27in, so that's what I'm getting.

It's pointless upgrading them before purchase because Apple want a mint for extra ram which can be bought very cheaply and there's instructions on the Apple site on how to fit it (Remove 2 screws and plug it in!)
Same with software. I want Aperture, which is about £160 at purchase but about £50 from the app store.... Same for Word/Excel or iWork I believe.

Drac, it's the same scheme

Guessed so, lets connect.

As has been said, go for a 27" if you can. We had 2 delivered at work last week. They're fantastic things. Everyone has now got screen envy.

Processors are the same spec as a brand new Pro we got 12 months ago. You can't go wrong really

The next decision you have is magic mouse or magic trackpad 😉

I went for mouse.

Mouse or trackpad.... Erm... both!?!

Is that little touchpad thing like the one you get on a laptop?

Yup, but bigger. Coupled with something like [url= http://www.boastr.de/ ]BetterTouchTool[/url] it is the awesome. Especially with the increased use of gestures in Lion.

Hmm. The 27" is enormous - the smaller is still pretty big.

Whenever I've bought or recommended the base model has always looked the best value. Then upgrade the RAM from Crucial.

Is that little touchpad thing like the one you get on a laptop?

Sort of but with pinch functions, kinds of what like what you get on an iPhone. 😆

I've been looking at the base model refurb - they are about 850.
Still more expensive than a PeeCee but much prettier

Base 27" (with extra RAM from Crucial) is the sweet spot IMO. i7 upgrade isn't worth the cash unless you're doing time-critical video encodes or similar. You can keep the 4GB RAM that it comes with, order an 8GB kit (2x4GB) and there's space for it alongside to make 12GB.

Oh, and unless you really like the Apple mouse, you can swap it for a trackpad FOC. Worth doing IMO, I've never got on with their own mice and it's nice swapping between a regular mouse and trackpad to fend off RSI.

Screen is incredible, it's very quiet, it plays most games just fine, it tears through MP3 and video encodes (even the i5) at a ridiculous rate. Very happy with mine.

Oh, and unless you really like the Apple mouse, you can swap it for a trackpad FOC

That's why I mentioned it, as most do not realise it's an option. Trackpad is £40+ to buy at a later date.

...for the record, I should say IMHO Lion is still in flakey mode, as its still pretty fresh out the oven. 10.7.2 is due out next week apparently, so hopefully everything gets more stable from here on in.

I went into the apple store today and sampled both the magic mouse and the trackpad, I can see the advantage of both.

I came from a Macbook/Powerbook background, so that might have swung me towards the trackpad.

..well that and I found the magic/mighty mouse awful to use.

Lion already? Surely they shooduv saved the King Kat 'til last, no?

What will the next OS series be based on? Seafood?

OS11.0 Fish stick
OS11.1 Shrimp
OS11.2 Prawn
OS11.3 Mussel
OS11.4 Oyster
OS11.5 Crab
OS11.6 Crayfish
OS11.7 Lobster
OS11.8 Squid
OS11.9 OCTOPUS! Yes! Cephalopod Operating System FTW!!!! 😀

[img] [/img]

The magic mouse is an ergonomic nightmare, get the trackpad and a logitech mouse.

Oh, and unless you really like the Apple mouse, you can swap it for a trackpad FOC

I'm going for the trackpad. I like pads on laptops, where most people I work with plug a mouse in. Trackpads are nice! I got a demo in an Apple store recently, there's LOADS of stuff it can do.... It should be pretty easy as it's a combination of trackpad and an iPhone gestures, with a few more for added effect

I'm also going for the full size keyboard with numeric pad. The smaller keyboard doesn't have a delete key. You have to ctrl-backspace instead.
The bigger keyboard is closer to a normal one. It's not wireless, but it does have 2 USB ports, one in each end, which will be handy to me.
I can deal with one wire on my desk I think.... 😉 😀

get the trackpad and a logitech mouse

Nooooo, you don't need both! A mate has both and he can't work out how to use either of them. It's not necessary!
(right click = tap with 2 fingers....)

The main reason I like trackpads on laptops is that you don't have to move your fingers far to reach it, unlike mice. That particular advantage is surely lost with the apple thing?

No they have a trackpad too on their Books.

The main reason I like trackpads on laptops is that you don't have to move your fingers far to reach it, unlike mice. That particular advantage is surely lost with the apple thing?

I see your point, but it's a lot more than a trackpad...... And it would look a bit daft in the middle of such a small keyboard. And i guess its not any further away anyway, just to one side rather than central Gives you the choice too. 🙂

I'm also going for the full size keyboard with numeric pad. The smaller keyboard doesn't have a delete key. You have to ctrl-backspace instead.
The bigger keyboard is closer to a normal one. It's not wireless, but it does have 2 USB ports, one in each end, which will be handy to me.

Yeah, the wireless one quickly ended up in my desk drawer (it gets used sometimes with the ipad) and I dug out my wired one just to save feeling behind the thing to plug in cables. Wireless mice I like, because they tend to move about a lot and you don't want cables snagging. Keyboards tend to sit in the same place all day so it seems pointless to have batteries powering a wireless connection for it.

Do they not do a full size wireless one?

Quite a lot of threads where people had issues with crucial when 27s were launched - not sure if it's still the case. I've always used kinsgton

I bought the recent i5 as an Apple advised that there is very little difference in speed.
If you want faster speed look at buying Flash storage.

Do they not do a full size wireless one?

Pay attention! That's what we've been talking about!!
🙂

Double post

Pay attention! That's what we've been talking about!!

Lol. 😆
Just thought it was a preference thing