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iMac Advice
Smilingoat
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Recently i have been thinking about getting an iMac (about a month after the next update.)
my reasoning is:
I rarely play computer games any more: with the release of crysis/spore/wow expansions and various other games not inspiring any excitment what so ever i have decided that i am just not a hard core gamer anymore, the two games im most looking forward to is the Xbox360/PS3 version of Mass Effect 2 or The Sims 3.
I have extra money: in alaska we get $2000 for sitting on our asses, that means i could buy a pretty much decked out one without hurting my pocket book (i dont count on the money as it changes every year, but it should be about $2000 this year)
I move a lot (this is the big one): i move from west coast to east coast about 4 times a year, i need something that travels better than my PC, but i am not a fan of laptops... at all.
I like the styling: this is a small point, but valid none the less. im willing to spend $2500 on a sofa if it goes well with my house, so why shouldnt the fact that these look nice count? ive looked at the HP, Viao, and Gateway/Dell one's to but they all feel cheap. which makes me feel that the extra $200ish dollars is worth it.
So i am at the last steps to buying one of the iMacs. actually will be buying it in about 4 monhts (after the new one is announced/released) and i just need to have the opinion of some people that have recently jumped into the apple camp. when i look online i find too many MS and Apple fanboys that its hard to make a decisions based off of what they say. i am mostly here to ask if there is a major flaw to these $2200 machines that i am missing.
keep in mind that i mostly use my computer to surf the internet and a few video games. i like to have a powerful computer for that. i also use it for video/music files and my Zune. i would put Windows 7 and of course OSX.6 on it.
i just hear so much about how shitty and how good these systems are, what is the bad part about it, and what is the good part about the software? i know i wont be getting the most powerful computer for my money, but for my portability i think it will be pretty good (again i hate laptops) but i need to know if there is something really bad about them that most people would be unaware of. is there a good reason so many people seem to hate them so much?
my reasoning is:
I rarely play computer games any more: with the release of crysis/spore/wow expansions and various other games not inspiring any excitment what so ever i have decided that i am just not a hard core gamer anymore, the two games im most looking forward to is the Xbox360/PS3 version of Mass Effect 2 or The Sims 3.
I have extra money: in alaska we get $2000 for sitting on our asses, that means i could buy a pretty much decked out one without hurting my pocket book (i dont count on the money as it changes every year, but it should be about $2000 this year)
I move a lot (this is the big one): i move from west coast to east coast about 4 times a year, i need something that travels better than my PC, but i am not a fan of laptops... at all.
I like the styling: this is a small point, but valid none the less. im willing to spend $2500 on a sofa if it goes well with my house, so why shouldnt the fact that these look nice count? ive looked at the HP, Viao, and Gateway/Dell one's to but they all feel cheap. which makes me feel that the extra $200ish dollars is worth it.
So i am at the last steps to buying one of the iMacs. actually will be buying it in about 4 monhts (after the new one is announced/released) and i just need to have the opinion of some people that have recently jumped into the apple camp. when i look online i find too many MS and Apple fanboys that its hard to make a decisions based off of what they say. i am mostly here to ask if there is a major flaw to these $2200 machines that i am missing.
keep in mind that i mostly use my computer to surf the internet and a few video games. i like to have a powerful computer for that. i also use it for video/music files and my Zune. i would put Windows 7 and of course OSX.6 on it.
i just hear so much about how shitty and how good these systems are, what is the bad part about it, and what is the good part about the software? i know i wont be getting the most powerful computer for my money, but for my portability i think it will be pretty good (again i hate laptops) but i need to know if there is something really bad about them that most people would be unaware of. is there a good reason so many people seem to hate them so much?
whos havin butt-seks
Smilingoat on
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Posts
I like the iMacs; they're great computers. I have a PowerMac (dual g5) that I'm planning on replacing with an iMac sometime this year (most likely), because I really don't need all the added "benefits" of the MacPro.
Maybe I'm getting old, but most of what I've been doing on computers I've been able to do on computers that were much older than what I have now -- than what most people have now. I don't think the limitation is the hardware as much as it used to be.
My answer? i hated macs up until about a year ago. got one at work, and it's beautiful
not the most powerful machine in the world (though 2k would get you a great one)
but BY FAR the most beautiful, easy to use and portable one.
I don't like the keyboard or mouse. The mouse is absurdly slow and the tracking is lazy. They are also both poorly constructed. The iMac unit itself however seems quite sturdy. I like OSX but compatibility issues turn me off from it. I also don't like how much the unit costs for the hardware you get. Even if you account for the monitor and whatnot you ultimately get some inferior parts for what you pay.
In short; save your free alaska money.
Shogun Streams Vidya
Great computer.. The 2.00gz duel 20" is really good. Especially for the money. All i would suggest is make sure that you get a RAM upgrade to top it up to 4 gig. The standard graphics card the 20 and the 24" will be fine for every day use and final cut pro etc.
Only downside is the glass screen. I have to say I'm still not a fan of it as it shows up colours wrongly and it glares like hell but I can deal with that by just putting my blind down. Unfortunately I have it aimed at a window and cant move it in my room.
Get one fo'sure ! go the 20" with the second to best graphics card
The thing that changed my opinion is the trackpad. On the laptops I've used previously these have always seemed useless when compared with a mouse, especially when scrolling. The Apple gestures change this imo, and I think they're the only PC manufacturer that have made the trackpad more useful than the mouse.
I'm not trying to talk you into buying a notebook if you don't want one, just offering advice based on my own experience.
anyway, im still a bit on the fence about it, but some of what has been said has eased some of the worry. its a lot of money for what you get though, i have a pretty nice 1 year old computer (was $1500 and is still quite a bit more powerful than what i would be getting for $2000 if i got an iMac today)
but with the compact size and the so called "apple tax" this is expected. hopefully the next version of the iMac, which i hear should be released before september, will give it an extra boost for the same amount of money.
also, is it a bad idea to get a Refurbished iMac, i would be getting the 3 year warranty anyway, so i figured this might be a way to save a bit of the money, plus they tend to only have 2GB ram, which just means i'll be able to save money there too, as i can upgrade to 4gb for cheaper. same goes for the hard drive...
I don't think an airline would allow you to bring an iMac in box as carry-on, they are way bigger than the allowed size. Do you really want to check your iMac as baggage 4 times a year?
A lot of people I know have refurbs, and they work fine. As far as I can tell, the only real difference is that they don't come packaged in fancy retail packaging.
Buy one or two monitors, an Apple wireless keyboard, a nice mouse, and a MacBook or MacBook Pro. A laptop will be infinitely easier to travel with, and then when you settle into your home you just plug it into the monitor/keyboard/mouse, close the lid, and act like it's a desktop PC. If you are allowed to leave stuff on the east/west coast while you're on the other, you can buy a monitor for each, but if not the laptop is small enough that you shouldn't have any trouble carting the monitor on the plane. You don't ever have to use it as a laptop, and you can pretty much just pretend that it doesn't have a built-in monitor and keyboard. From a hardware perspective the iMac and MacBook are practically identical anyway.