Advice on getting an iMac.

[jack92]

Hi, i'm going to be getting my first mac at Christmas; and would appreciate any advice I can get. I've been reading macrumors and other lesser sites, not worth the mention .

Okay, well i'm going to get the 27" iMac but i'm wondering whether it'd be worth getting the Quad core option?

Configuration

* 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5
* 4GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB
* 1TB Serial ATA Drive
* 8x double-layer SuperDrive
* ATI Radeon HD 5750 1GB GDDR5 SDRAM

* Apple Wireless Keyboard (British) & User's Guide (English)
* Magic Mouse + Magic Trackpad
* Apple Battery Charger
* Apple Remote
* Country Kit

I'll be using the machine to assist me on my computing course in college, and then potentially Software Development at University. So i'd want it to last me atleast 5 years, running Parrallels and Photoshop among others, fast and efficiently.

Also I was wondering if Samsung Printers Laser Mono and Portable Blu-ray Super Multi Drive would work with the mac? Will it need any specialist software? Also will they work whilst on Parrallels?

Many thanks

 

[Hellhammer]

If you're getting the 27", just pay the little extra for quad since it's more "future-proof". You may want to upgrade the RAM from after market though.

The printer should work (has drivers for 10.6) but Blu-Ray on Mac is more complicated but yes, they will both work.

 

[jinx5000]

the i7 would make photoshop respond a bit faster as it has hyperthreading and any other video or image rendering or encoding will be quicker.

other than that the i5 will be more than enough. as far as resale value... if ur gonna keep this for 5 years, who cares about resale because this machine will be obsolete by then. as long as you're not selling this in the next year or 2 resale doesn't really matter

 

[Teqnilogik]

I'd say pay the little extra and get an i5 at least in it. It will extend it's useful life longer and give you better performance on apps that utilize multiple cores.

Blu Ray won't work in Mac OS X because there is no native Blu Ray playback software and Apple hasn't added HDCP compatibility to the Macs video drivers. Parallels won't work either because it's drivers are not HDCP compatible either. HDCP is a DRM scheme to ensure the video from the Blu Ray is sent to the monitor securely to prevent copying. Though HDCPwas recently broken so you might see some options pop up for Mac in the future. For now though, you'll need to use Windows in Boot Camp to watch Blu Ray movies. If you just want to be able to read and write to Blu Ray discs this should work with Mac if you use burning software such as Toast.

 

[Hellhammer]

Blu Ray won't work in Mac OS X because there is no native Blu Ray playback software and Apple hasn't added HDCP compatibility to the Macs video drivers. Parallels won't work either because it's drivers are not HDCP compatible either. HDCP is a DRM scheme to ensure the video from the Blu Ray is sent to the monitor securely to prevent copying. Though HDCPwas recently broken so you might see some options pop up for Mac in the future. For now though, you'll need to use Windows in Boot Camp to watch Blu Ray movies. If you just want to be able to read and write to Blu Ray discs this should work with Mac if you use burning software such as Toast.

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