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Help on Purchasing an iMac

F

faffoo

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 22, 2008
293
46
Glasgow, UK
Hi,

I am soon to be switching from a PC to a Mac. I decided early on that i wanted a iMac. Bu then comes all of the questions. I thought I would see what other people would buy. I am leening towards the 208GHz 24" model with no upgrades. But here are a few questions:
First of all is it worth the extra £200 for a 24" model?
Second, is it worth the extra £90 for the best graphics card? (baring in mind i am not going to do anything hugely graphics intence on it)
Third, should I be upgrading the memory from the standard 2GB?
And last should i purchase Apple Care?
 
faffoo said:
Hi,

I am soon to be switching from a PC to a Mac. I decided early on that i wanted a iMac. Bu then comes all of the questions. I thought I would see what other people would buy. I am leening towards the 208GHz 24" model with no upgrades. But here are a few questions:
First of all is it worth the extra £200 for a 24" model?
Second, is it worth the extra £90 for the best graphics card? (baring in mind i am not going to do anything hugely graphics intence on it)
Third, should I be upgrading the memory from the standard 2GB?
And last should i purchase Apple Care?
Click to expand...

Your looking at the 24" but asking if it's worth the 'extra' for the 24"? - IMO the 24" has the best screen between it and the 20". The 20" still has the subpar screen. Also from lots of googling, searching through discussion boards (in case people want my proof) on both Apple Discussions and here, I've seen more 20" with gradient issues than 24". So IMO yes the 24" is worth it. When it's sitting in your house as opposed to the Apple Store, you'll just kinda sit back and jaw drop drool at it too.

By all means I would upgrade the graphics card... just in case you want to do something. 90 bucks is not a lot and many people have said it's a very NICE upgrade from the ATI like in mine (the 2600) even though I'm happy with it.

DO NOT buy memory from Apple. It's overprice. However, it has dropped ALOT like 500 bucks since it's only 200 now to go from 2g-4g. But either way, 2g will run pretty much anything you want without hiccup.

Apple Care I would wait. You have 1yr until you have to buy it if you want it. If you decide to buy it, go for other places and not Apple. Buy Apple care on eBay, or other resellers as it is cheaper and is the exact same thing Apple sells. Save your bucks now, your covered for 1yr for repairs and like 90days for phone support. Again, if you do decide to buy, make sure you buy within a year of getting your mac AND look around for reseller prices. Once you buy, register it within that year and your good to go.
 
Thanks

Thanks alot.

I had my mind set on the 24" model but was just wondering if it is really worth it.

Final question buy the way and probably a daft one to, is it worth the money to buy a mac.

Thanks
 
umm, £90 != $90. i'm not sure of the current exchange rate but it is at least £1 = $1.5 if not more! so it is a pretty big chunk to upgrade the video card, and if you aren't looking to do 3-D gaming, i wouldn't bother with the graphics upgrade.
 
24" is definitely worth it.

Graphics card udpate is probably not worth it for you.

One update worth considering is making sure you have enough hard drive space for the next 3-4 yrs (however long you think you'll own the imac). b/c unlike normal PC towers, you won't be able to just go in and add in another hard drive... sure you could use an external, but then its a pain and they are more prone to failure too
 
mzd said:
umm, £90 != $90. i'm not sure of the current exchange rate but it is at least £1 = $1.5 if not more! so it is a pretty big chunk to upgrade the video card, and if you aren't looking to do 3-D gaming, i wouldn't bother with the graphics upgrade.
Click to expand...

I was more referring to our (US) 90 bucks to his equivilent 90 pounds. We can't compare pounds to dollars when offering suggestions. It's like Indians and rupies. Example a coke in India cost say (for examples sake) 1000 rupies and we go HOLY ***** but to them it's not a lot. (YES I know the number isn't right but I was just trying to make a point). For a US person to spend 90 bucks and someone over there to spend 90 pounds is probably roughly the same, I could be wrong, but the basic mentality would be the same.

Is it worth it to buy a Mac? That's up to you. Your asking that question in a potentially Mac biased community. I switched in Aug/Sept of last year and I felt deep down it was MORE THAN WORTH IT! I'm much happier. I still use windows mainly because I make my money with windows but for my personal computing, I'm 200% happier I made the switch.

If your referring to a Apple branded as opposed to a Hackintosh, the cost IMO out weighs the headache of setting it up and maintaining a hackintosh.
 
kkat69 said:
I was more referring to our (US) 90 bucks to his equivilent 90 pounds. We can't compare pounds to dollars when offering suggestions. It's like Indians and rupies. Example a coke in India cost say (for examples sake) 1000 rupies and we go HOLY ***** but to them it's not a lot. (YES I know the number isn't right but I was just trying to make a point). For a US person to spend 90 bucks and someone over there to spend 90 pounds is probably roughly the same, I could be wrong, but the basic mentality would be the same.
Click to expand...

good point.
 
I guess it's worth asking; Your signature implies this Mac is a couple months away from purchase. Is that true?

Assuming it isn't...

I would opt for the 24" screen. It is a H-IPS panel instead of the TN used in the 20". This means more accurate colors and better viewing angles, not to mention a good bit more screen real estate. But, if cost or space are concerns, simply bump up the contrast on the 20" screen and chances are you won't notice a big difference.

However, the 24" model does allow you the option to upgrade the graphics chip. Right now this is a tossup. Barefeats has run benchmarks on these two graphics processors, and the 8800 GS is twice as fast for games (http://www.barefeats.com/imp01.html), while the 2600 Pro is twice as fast for iMovie and iDVD (http://www.barefeats.com/imp03.html), as well as 22% faster for CoreImage performance.

You have to consider that on paper the 8800 is a much more capable GPU than the 2600 and the performance disparity probably has to do with non-refined drivers more than anything. We don't know this to be the case, but the 2600 has received software updates from Apple in the past; it's very possible they will do the same for the 8800.

I would recommend upgrading the RAM at your leisure. It will make your iMac run smoother, but you may not need ti immediately. Be sure to buy from any retailer but Apple. They charge much too much for RAM.

AppleCare is great to have, but you can wait to buy it. I'd recommend shopping around for a good price on it and buying it down the road. Just be sure not to forget that you must buy and activate it within 364 days of your original purchase date.
 
Yes

I guess it's worth asking; Your signature implies this Mac is a couple months away from purchase. Is that true?
Click to expand...
This is true. I am in the middle of saving at the moment. I am going to buy it at christmas.
 
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