2017 iMac review - 27" base model with SSD + built in VESA mount

[chuck21401]

After thinking about it forever and debating various configurations, I ordered a 27" iMac (3.4ghz, 8gb ram, 256gb Flash, Radeon Pro 570, keyboard with numeric keypad, magic trackpad) with the built in VESA Mount Adapter on the Apple website about three weeks ago. I was finally able to pick it up from the Apple store and install it on Monday.

I'm glad that I ordered the model with the VESA Mount Adapter even though I had to pay full price. It's so nice to have more space on my desktop and the monitor is at a much better position for viewing for hours on end. I've always liked iMac but found the screen to be too low to the ground using the built in stand. In terms of a mount, I went with the wall mount arm from Amazon.

I figured that the graphics card and processor in the base model would be fine for what I'm doing; mostly surfing the web, managing photo albums and maybe some light video editing. I've also set up VMWare for telecommuting to work and that seems to work even better than my old Windows 7 machine when switching between home and work desktops. After reading all of the threads on this forum I decided to order the 256 flash drive instead of the fusion drive. I added AppleCare but hopefully I won't need it.

I'm also pleased with how all of my Apple devices seem to be getting along. It's great to be able to transfer things between my iPhone, iPad, MacBook Pro and now the iMac using air drop and handoff. I've set up some speakers using airplay to stream music to an older airport express using a Griffen Twenty to power a pair of B&W mini theatre speakers.

I still can't get over all of the wires that I've eliminated. My last desktop computer was an older Alienware Windows machine, it too probably 20 different cables and wires to connect everything. Not going back! lol.

 

[rsdavis1234]

I went with an Apple recertified base 2017 iMac 27” 3.4 GHz Quad i5 with 1 TB Fusion drive and 8 GB RAM in Dec 2017 as well. I paid less than $1400 new at Apple Recertified store. I did not get VESA mount but found a third party $20 VESA adapter for iMac stand that allows one to mount iMac to TV VESA mount arm in my studio apartment.

I am going to connect an external 1 TB Thunderbolt 3 NVMe SSD ($298) to it and boot Mac OS X from that which should be a better performing drive than the Fusion Drive. I will reformat Fusion Drive and use it for programming and data files. I will just affix the drive to back of iMac. What is nice about this is if the external drive fails I just replace it with another external drive vs taking it to Apple store and having display taken off and replaced. You can not use Bootcamp and dual boot Windows and Mac OS X from Thunderbolt but just get VMWare Fusion and run Windows from a Virtual Machine under Mac OS X if you want to do that. With 40 GB RAM and PCIe 3 SSD speeds it should be a great experience. I will let you know if that is true when I go with external SSD.

Link to Thunderbolt 3 PCIe 1.0 TB SSD:
https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TB3ENVPRC10/

I added 32 GB RAM (< $300) after buying iMac since one can easily do this yourself for a total of 40 GB. Significantly cheaper than Apple’s price for RAM. Lowest cost but respectable Apple computing system I could come up with for software development. I am not processing video or audio so not sure how decent this setup would be for doing that.

Still under $2K for entire system with Apple Care standard warranty. Apple recertified units are just like having new. No defects on item. So far no issues with any Apple recertified product I have ever bought. I only buy recertified Apple products from Apple. Not sure of quality of recertified or refurbished units from third parties.