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How close is too close for the 27 inch iMac?

B

brucku

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 19, 2003
193
20
I'm sitting at my desk trying to figure out my next upgrade.

I don't need a portable 15 MBP anymore (currently have have it connected to a 20 inch cinema display) - I'm going to put the 20 inch where the 15 is, and connected it to a 27 as a second display.

The only problem I see is - that the 27 may be too close to my eyes. I was wondering if you guys could comment on how far you sit from your 27's and if you adjusted and love it, or had to modify your setup. Here are my distances.

The front of the 27's screen will be 18 inches from the edge of my desk. When I sit normal/close my eye balls are 22 inches away. When I lean back (which I do often) my eyeballs are 33 inches from the screen.

Thoughts? I really don't want to get the 21.5 because it limits me on Max ram, Video card, Processor and option of SSD.


Thanks!
 
Sounds about right to me. My iMac's screen is 15 inches away from the edge of my desk, and my eyes are usually 2 feet away from screen. Sometimes I lean in and sometimes I lean back. Have never had a problem with it. I always keep my brightness at 5 blips, though.
 
Too close only will mean a lot of head movement;
The display resolution in very high in mac27, that sometimes getting close is the best way to ready, specially when "large text" options are not there;
I find myself leaning close for reading itunes stores;

Of course you can zoom in, so the choice is between neck exercise and finger exercise, really. :)
 
The screen should be a minimum of an arm's length away from your body. But what really matters is the lighting. If you have no desk lamp and the room is dark, sitting at the computer for too long can hurt your eyes more even if you sit far away enough.
 
I went through the same thought process as you before finally deciding to get my 27" iMac as well because balancing distance with the iMac's high PPI was important.

Anyway, I just wanted to comment on one thing in your post and that's the max ram bit. Just to remind you, both the 21.5" and 27" support up to 16GB RAM.
 
Just a thought, I own the 21.5 and am pissed I didn't go for the 27". I had a 17" and thought 21.5 would be decent but now I've got LCD envy :mad:
 
Icaras said:
I went through the same thought process as you before finally deciding to get my 27" iMac as well because balancing distance with the iMac's high PPI was important.

Anyway, I just wanted to comment on one thing in your post and that's the max ram bit. Just to remind you, both the 21.5" and 27" support up to 16GB RAM.
Click to expand...

I'm on Apple's site right now. The compare chart states that the 21.5 model maxes out at 8GB.

It seems that the 21.5 machines can handle 16GB of ram but Apple is lying about this in their specs? Weird. Thanks for pointing it out
 
Last edited:
brucku said:
I'm on Apple's site right now. The compare chart states that the 21.5 model maxes out at 8GB.

It seems that the 21.5 machines can handle 16GB of ram but Apple is lying about this in their specs? Weird. Thanks for pointing it out
Click to expand...

No problem. I'm at the compare chart as we speak and I think I see why you're confused. Apple only allows you to configure up to 8GB for the 21.5" but certainly take that with a grain of salt, as that's definitely not the max.

If you go to the iMac specs page (http://www.apple.com/imac/specs.html), under memory at the right hand side, it states:

4GB (two 2GB SO-DIMMs) of 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM; four SO-DIMM slots support up to 16GB
Click to expand...

You'll notice no mention of the 27" in particular, so yea, don't worry, you can definitely go up to 16GB on the 21.5" as well. :)
 
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