Bought an iMac? But wish you bought a ...........?

[bookbuyer]

After going through months of mental preparation, I'm 'this close' [holding thumb and index finger really close] to clicking that "Purchase M3 iMac" button on the Apple Store website 😁

Before I click that button, I wanted to ask all of you, in my most favorite Mac Forum, if you indeed bought yourself the new M3 iMac, but wish you would have bought the Mini, or Studio, instead?

Your thoughts, please?

 

[IngerMan]

No regrets at all. I purchased 2 months ago a Blue M3/16GB/512SSD.

I still have a 2018 MM i7/32GB/512SSD on a 38” Dell 4K in the basement office. It still a worthy computer minus the super weak GPU. I have a external eGPU I can hook up to it if I need to. I will keep it till it is no longer usable for what ever reason.

Prior to the MM was a 2015 27” iMac with the dreaded Fusion Drive, that is why I sold it after 3 years of use.

What I really like about the M3 iMac is the obvious beautiful screen, but the sound system to me is spectacular, the mic and video for teams meetings is top notch. The gaming on this thing is excellent. I finished Resident evil Village and now in the middle of Resident Evil 4 remake. The few cables I have compared to the MM makes for a very clean desk. I have one plug going to the outlet. It’s the fastest computer I have owned.

I would/did consider a New Mac Studio Max over a MM because of the 32GB Ram standard and more ports, faster computer.

The basic 4K screens out there are good but they don’t compare to the 4.5 iMac., or a 5K.

If I did team up with Mac Studio then it would need paired with Studio display, that would be one sweet setup but $3,600 + roughly compared to $1,900 for my setup. Studio to Studio Means great internal speakers and mic/video, less clutter.

The negatives I found with the MM probably true for Mac Studio is everything does not always work with non apple accessories/devices. Or did work until the next software update. I know, I lived it

Regardless these are all personal preferences, and all 3 of those computers are really good computers.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

For the cost of an iMac, you'd be hard-pressed to put together a better Mac system with separate components. The two "limitations" of the iMac are: 24" screen, and non-Pro processor. If those suit your needs, iMac is a good choice. If they don't, it's not.

 

[Indigovalley]

I am switching from Dell PC desktop to an iMac (16GB 512 GB) and for me, although I know it would be cheaper to get a Mac Mini, I prefer the all in one style of the iMac with that beautiful built-in 24" screen. I just know this is the "fit" for me and it has the processing power for what I need. I would love to have a state of the art Mac Studio but I personally wouldn't need that much computing power and the cost is much higher than the iMac. So I don't think I will regret getting an iMac. But I also did a lot of research first so I could make the right decision.

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

Bought the M1 iMac and wished I had bought a 16” MBP…so I did about 6 months later and sold the iMac.

A lot of little things I disliked about the iMac and included Apple accessories. Tried variations configurations with IPP+iMac and MBA+iMac but got tired of it all so I got rid of everything for the 16” MBP.

 

[picpicmac]

Bought an iMac? But wish you bought a ...........?​

... V-8.

 

[JamesMay82]

I bought the studio and display and wish I bought the iMac. its great but overkill for my use case and watching recent m3 iMacs reviews they are very good. I'd go for 24 gig and 2TB if I could do it again. I prefer the all in one look

 

[Jackbequickly]

I bought the new iMac M3 and love it! Did more than 6 hours of Photoshop yesterday working with 30-40 MB images and the iMac never hesitated. Awesome machine!

 

[kagharaht]

Everyone has different needs and desires.

... V-8.

Haha....those ads...everyone was doing it at work and it drove me crazy lol

 

[Huginnmuninn]

After going through months of mental preparation, I'm 'this close' [holding thumb and index finger really close] to clicking that "Purchase M3 iMac" button on the Apple Store website 😁

Before I click that button, I wanted to ask all of you, in my most favorite Mac Forum, if you indeed bought yourself the new M3 iMac, but wish you would have bought the Mini, or Studio, instead?

Your thoughts, please?

I own a 2017 i5 iMac which I bought in 2018, and I'm about to order a new M3 iMac. I decided that the value of a high quality screen (and lovely design) in a compact proven design was worth the tradeoff of extra cabling and flexibility using a 3rd-party monitor and a mini or a Studio.

I wish the iMac screen were more adjustable, I wish the Magic Keyboard and Trackpad were USB-C (which they will undoubtedly switch to by this time next year), and I'm sure that I'll miss the 2.5" diagonal space on this 27" iMac (the 27" iMac's 5120-by-2880 is actually 31% more pixels than the 24"'s 4480-by-2520!!!)

But a neighbor went from a 27" iMac to a M1 iMac a year ago and he said he loved his, said it's speedy and quiet and he has no regrets.

 

[bookbuyer]

Wow! I am SO pleased so many of you answered. Thank you thank you thank you!! I REALLY appreciate your answers.

I've gone one-by-one and read each answer.

Here's all my thought processes regarding everything involved with getting this new iMac. (I know I'm going to make a really long post, so you are welcome to get bored half way through and stop reading haha

Thought #1.)
Other than the M3 iMac, the only thing I kinda wish for is one of those setups where you have 2 monitors side by side -- someone I know sent me a photo of their "dual monitor" setup and it looked really cool! But I'm thinking that in "real life" I would end up getting annoyed by having 2 monitors in front of me, taking up all that desk space, when I really only need one big monitor.

Thought #2.)
The other thing I kinda think about is how people build a "hackintosh" out of components that are wayyyy better and faster than the mac components (much faster graphics cards, much higher res monitor w/ faster nanosecond response times, bigger SSD (6TB), faster RAM, etc.), but the truth is I'd never truly feel safe using someone else's custom "hacked" OSX kernal.

Thought #3.)
Other than those 2 things..... well, there's one more thing, but probably a non-issue...... I like my old-fashioned USB "Mac Pro" keyboard and big clear acrylic USB Mac Mouse from 1998 -- but I'm sure I can connect those, no problem (as long as there's ports to stick them in. I've never been able to get used to the modern keyboard and mouse, I tried for a whole year, and even with my off-the-chart typing skills, I could still not type out an email or letter without making several mistakes. So if I get the new M3 iMac, I'm definitely hooking up my clunky 1998 mouse and keyboard.

Thought #4.)
On a side note, I have to decide whether to:
a.) Use 'migration assistant' to move my old apps and data to the new iMac,
-or-
b.) Download all the apps, and manually migrate the necessary data.

I think I would cause an abomination by doing a Time Machine backup of my current mid-2010 iMac, and then "restoring" it onto the new M3 iMac.

Thought #5.)
My peripherals (printer, external backup drive, mouse, keyboard, and all my thumbdrives) all use 1990's USB (I think they call that USB-A). I'm hoping the new iMac has enough USB ports, and, that those ports are 'backwards compatible' with USB-A.

Thought #6.)
I'm not one to make big purchases like this; from experience, I've found that the most fun is not necessarily in the actual purchase of the item, but in the dreaming-about and wishing-for these items. That being said, there are more and more websites I am unable to access because the latest browser to work on a mid-2010 iMac is "Firefox 78.15.0esr," and these websites require a later browser (e.g. the chatGPT website.... I click the "log in" button and nothing happens).

 

[picpicmac]

I'm hoping the new iMac has enough USB ports, and, that those ports are 'backwards compatible' with USB-A.

You really need to read the M3 iMac specs on Apple's website. You're going to be buying a dongle or adapter cable.

As for your thoughts:
I) M3 Macs use LpDDR5 memory, the fastest you'll find on mass produced items. Faster memory such as the new LpDDR6 are not yet available (but I suspect Apple will transition to that circa 2025 or 2026) or meant for high end data centers or research.
II) Hackintosh really is not much of an option anymore. The macOS is designed now to be part of a locked-down system.
III) You will find no higher density pixels on a desktop monitor than what Apple uses. Handheld devices like phones and tablets have higher density pixels, but that is because they are held right in front of your face. Typical human vision cannot see individual pixels at normal viewing distances from an M3 iMac.