My brother is a teacher. He wants to get a 21.5″ iMac.

There are three base models that you can then customise.

http://store.apple.com/uk-edu/buy-mac/imac

He is not a power user but does need a fair bit of storage, the cheapest one seems to be a much lower spec than the middling one so I am thinking that is a good recommendation. Any opinions?

I also looked at the refurb store but there are no iMacs on there and I am not sure whether the prices would better the educational discount by that much any way. Do they add computers on a daily or weekly basis? I seem to remember reading there was a certain day they added them.

Have a look at MacRumors buying guide link

The general view seems to be to avoid the cheapest model. I would suggest 8gb RAM. External storage is cheap £50 for 1TB.

Edit: Middle one will do the job link, if he has the. Urgent the next most interesting model is the base 27

If he knows a student / teacher he can get 10% off if they buy on his behalf

Sorry just re-read your post. As a teacher I would buy new. The refurb discount is usually similar and the machines aren’t new. He should also get the Apple care which is hugely discounted for academics, something like 75% off

As a teacher, with the discounts available, he should go for the maximum spec he can afford with the discounts.

It might be worth thinking about a Mac Mini. I’ve recently bought the middle model and have it hooked up to an (excellent) Dell U2515H monitor. Neither the MacMini or 21.5 iMac can have user upgradable memory (unlike the 27s). Agree on 8GB minimum.

Performance of the Mini isn’t much worse (the Dell monitor is excellent), for a few hundred quid less. You do have to run a script to get OSX not to treat the monitor as a TV – straightforward though.

It’s my first experience with OSX. Can’t say I’m preferring it to Windows yet. If he uses Office for work then Office 2011 for Mac is bloody horrible; at least Outlook 2013 is available now, as is OneDrive Business (beta, but stable).

Macs last for years so best to get the absolute best spec you can stretch yourself to afford as you’ll easily get your money’s worth out of it. My 8yr old basic Macbook is still going strong. It cost me £800 8rys ago. I’m sort of wishing I went for the more expensive and larger screen sized Macbook pro, but it was an extra £400 at the time so a big hit then, but with the benefit of hindsight would have been money well spent.

Thanks, I think realistically the middle one is already pushing the budget so that is probably the limit.

A Mac Mini was considered but the whole package aspect appeals and the monitor he had is not that great. Also as soon as it involves things like..

You do have to run a script to get OSX not to treat the monitor as a TV

then it will be a no go for him!

With regards to Apple care the three year package is £97.20. Is that cheaper? It looks like a good idea in a way as it will be a change for him and I don’t live locally so might be a good way for him to get help rather than frustrated.

OP, yes I think the middle model is the one to go for especially as you say that’s max budget

From memory my daughter got Applecare for her MacBook Pro for about £30 as the educational discount is significant for that. I would double check the pricing. I have personally never purchased it as I “self insure”. The Applecare is more about the extended warranty. It does take a little while to get used to Mac and there are lots of great features you really need to be shown.

FYI I have a 2009 Mini still going strong running all latest OSX software (upgraded to 8gb ram and hdd), I don’t have to run anything special to get it to work with the TV as the monitor. That’s actually its normal setup as its mostly used for watching movies/streaming etc. A new mid spec Mini with keyboard and mouse is £668 retail so with a new monitor costing say £200 (although for a bigger size say 27) you are within striking distance of the iMac which is an “all in one” solution.

When I bought my iMac a few years ago you automatically got an extended hardware warranty (to 3 years) when buying through the edu store.

Agreed the base spec iMac is pretty poor, it’s a low-end laptop chipset. Middle 21″ is better VFM.

We have a 2010 21.5″ and a 2015 27″ iMac, absolutely stunning machines – the screens are the best I’ve ever used.