I am thinking about going iMac

prne10

prne10

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 26, 2005
Messages
217
I have about 2,500 and I am thinking about ditching my PC and going iMac for a few reasons.

1. I don't game as much
2. I feel like I would be more productive on a mac
3. I have a macbook and love it.

The problem is:

1. I feel like I can get way more bang for my buck with a PC
2. I feel trapped not being able to custom build

I kinda want an iMac to sync with my macbook and iphone, but I am not sure about it all.

Anyone go through similar thought process?
 
Why an iMac of you have a macbook? can't you just hook up an external monitor on your macbook?
 
Cyant said:
Why an iMac of you have a macbook? can't you just hook up an external monitor on your macbook?
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Because my macbook will be for class notes. I want a new desktop, but I probably don't even need one tbh.
 
"Lame and unsleek?" I seriously hope those arent purchasing criteria for you! :p

You're certainly right about getting a lot more bang for your buck with PCs. I love all my iDevices, but having spent a lot of time working on both Macs and PCs, I have to say the winner when it comes to both productivity and value is the Win7 box I built for a lot cheaper than any comparable Mac.

If yoy really like to custom build, Hackintosh is a REALLY good suggestion.

(sent from my iPad lol)
 
Personally I'd skip the iMac and just get the 13" MBP + the 24" Apple LCD.
 
OP, you can just buy a Gigabyte EP45-UD3P and go hackintosh, all of your other hardware is kosher already.
 
Your two problems are the same we all have when going with something like the iMac. To me, it's not an issue. Take gaming out of the question and all of a sudden a system lasts a LOT longer without the pressure to upgrade. I don't miss building my systems as much as I thought I would. You will get more bang for the buck building a PC...but that's life. Like it or not a lot of R&D and money goes to design and build quality on the Mac systems. Crack open a new iMac and you'll see just how well engineered it is..far above any other computer manufacturer.

Everything is a compromise....
 
Love my iMac. Haven't looked back and since I turned my desktop into a Linux box.
 
I would personally do the "MacBook+Monitor/Keyboard/Mouse" thing.

Get a DualHead2Go DP edition, hookup two monitors, and just get a stand to set your MacBook in when your at home.

This might, possibly, be the exact setup I use at work nowadays, and I love it. Not only do I have dual 22" 1080p's, a wireless keyboard/mouse and all the toys, I also have everything on a single box, which simplifies backup and connectivity issues.

And I unplug the laptop, and it becomes a laptop again.

DualHead2Go = $200-230ish
Dual 22" = $300-700 depending on how you want to go
Wireless Keyboard / Mouse = $150 - $200 depending
Little Stand = $30
 
A 27" iMac will last you YEARS. Especially if you get an i5 upgrade, etc. Without gaming, everything else isn't so demanding.
 
aznx said:
A 27" iMac will last you YEARS. Especially if you get an i5 upgrade, etc. Without gaming, everything else isn't so demanding.
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Unless you do video encoding like I do. But the upgraded i7 will help with that.
 
NetJunkie said:
You will get more bang for the buck building a PC...but that's life.
Click to expand...
Macs do resell very well, though. There is always at least some marginal demand for older models so resale values are ordinarily quite good, particularly for machines that are well-maintained, with original packaging and with AppleCare.
 
Personally, I'd suggest getting a MBP and an external monitor. I have a 2007 MBP that's going strong in that setup. Plus, I travel a lot so being able to take my 'desktop' with me is a huge plus. Add Parallels and Bootcamp to the mix, and my MBP is all I need. It's my desktop, gaming computer, and productivity machine in one nice size laptop. All for around $2500 too.
 
Zinn said:
"Lame and unsleek?" I seriously hope those arent purchasing criteria for you! :p

You're certainly right about getting a lot more bang for your buck with PCs. I love all my iDevices, but having spent a lot of time working on both Macs and PCs, I have to say the winner when it comes to both productivity and value is the Win7 box I built for a lot cheaper than any comparable Mac.

If yoy really like to custom build, Hackintosh is a REALLY good suggestion.

(sent from my iPad lol)
Click to expand...


aesthetic appearance is important to me. I am going to be going to law school soon, and I need a clean and neat workspace so that I am more productive. I feel that a sleek desktop solution will help keep me organized, and I feel OS X is better overall in that category. I can use MS Office on a mac, too.

I don't really care as much about building my own system, so I probably will just go iMac.

Everyone has good suggestions, though. Thanks all!
 
Did you consider a Mac Mini with any of your existing displays? I know you have a wad of cash to spend on this, but perhaps that would leave you with a budget to have both?

Both, meaning an OS X based desktop computer, and a separate Windows box.
 
prne10 said:
aesthetic appearance is important to me. I am going to be going to law school soon, and I need a clean and neat workspace so that I am more productive. I feel that a sleek desktop solution will help keep me organized, and I feel OS X is better overall in that category. I can use MS Office on a mac, too.

I don't really care as much about building my own system, so I probably will just go iMac.

Everyone has good suggestions, though. Thanks all!
Click to expand...

I understand where you're coming from, appearance is important to me too. I say go for it and get the iMac... But I will say, Office for Mac pretty much sucks, give iWork a try.
 
prne10 said:
aesthetic appearance is important to me. I am going to be going to law school soon, and I need a clean and neat workspace so that I am more productive. I feel that a sleek desktop solution will help keep me organized, and I feel OS X is better overall in that category. I can use MS Office on a mac, too.

I don't really care as much about building my own system, so I probably will just go iMac.

Everyone has good suggestions, though. Thanks all!
Click to expand...

This one is easy. Get the iMac. I literally took my 27" iMac out of the box, connected 1 cable (power) and I was up and running. Built in wifi, speakers, bluetooth keyboard and mouse all contribute to the most clean and clutter free work environment you'll ever use.
 
The display in the 27" iMac is one of the absolute best on the market, and it justifies the iMac's price. However, if you don't need such a large IPS display and want to save a few bucks then you can always get an external display for your Macbook. The iMac will last you for many many years but if you don't really need a desktop then you can save a few bucks by using your notebook for both.
 
I recently ditched my i7, 30" Dell, 5870 GPU etc etc.. sold the lot on eBay and bought an iMAc 27". It's the best thing I've ever done frankly. If you would have told me a few years ago all my laptops and desktops would be Apples I would have laughed at you but with the move to Intel, Bootcamp and the great hardware apple are using you really can't go wrong.

There are two caveats though:

1. If you have a lot of music and AVIs you are limited to Firewire 800 and overpriced external drives (if, like me you use the computer to stream to other devices and find USB2.0 painfully slow). I kept a crummy old athlon mobo and built a file serve with gigabit ethernet and Raid 5 1.8tb in total to work around that problem. The iMac does the work, the file server is just a big dumb storage machine now.

2. If you play games the Mac's 4850 mobility may not cut it for many games, especially at 2560x1440. I only game on the 360 and PS3 these days so I didn't care but if you want to do things like run Crysis and other bleeding edge games the Mac will struggle.

If you are not a gamer and don't need 2tb of storage (or aren't willing to pay $600 for a Firewire 800 external raid 1 enclosure like me) you really can't go wrong.

And finally the previous posts are correct.. the 27" LED display is freaking gorgeous. Shame about the crappy keyboard and mouse you get though.. as good an idea as the mouse is it's the most uncomfortable mouse I've ever used. Keep your mouse and keyboard, best advice I can give.

1000
 
1000 said:
I recently ditched my i7, 30" Dell, 5870 GPU etc etc.. sold the lot on eBay and bought an iMAc 27". It's the best thing I've ever done frankly. If you would have told me a few years ago all my laptops and desktops would be Apples I would have laughed at you but with the move to Intel, Bootcamp and the great hardware apple are using you really can't go wrong.

There are two caveats though:

1. If you have a lot of music and AVIs you are limited to Firewire 800 and overpriced external drives (if, like me you use the computer to stream to other devices and find USB2.0 painfully slow). I kept a crummy old athlon mobo and built a file serve with gigabit ethernet and Raid 5 1.8tb in total to work around that problem. The iMac does the work, the file server is just a big dumb storage machine now.

2. If you play games the Mac's 4850 mobility may not cut it for many games, especially at 2560x1440. I only game on the 360 and PS3 these days so I didn't care but if you want to do things like run Crysis and other bleeding edge games the Mac will struggle.

If you are not a gamer and don't need 2tb of storage (or aren't willing to pay $600 for a Firewire 800 external raid 1 enclosure like me) you really can't go wrong.

And finally the previous posts are correct.. the 27" LED display is freaking gorgeous. Shame about the crappy keyboard and mouse you get though.. as good an idea as the mouse is it's the most uncomfortable mouse I've ever used. Keep your mouse and keyboard, best advice I can give.

1000
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Make sure to get the wired Apple keyboard. The wireless version sucks but the wired one is great, I even have one for my gaming PC. The Magic Mouse isn't bad, first Apple mouse I have actually liked. Treat it like a mobile Macbook Pro trackpad and use the gestures and its pretty cool. I use both that and a Steelseries Xai with my iMac, depending on what I want to do.
 
You know what's funny? The ONLY piece of hardware in my hackintosh not detected by snow leopard was the wired apple keyboard. Strange indeed.
 
Absolutely the WIRELESS keyboard is absolute shite. The space bar in short which means that if you type by feel your fingers are set in the wrong spot and you mis-type constantly. No numeric keypad, lack of other keys, odd arrow keys.. it's pile of junk. The Apple wired keyboard is really quite good.

1000
 
Really good advice guys.

I recently visited an apple store to check it out some more, and I am really getting close to pulling the trigger.

I like the idea of making my old box (the one I am using now, into a file server.
 
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