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iMac in nice home office?

K

ks-man

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 25, 2007
742
15
My wife and I will be moving into a new home in the next few months. One of the rooms will be an office with pretty expensive furniture. We're trying to decide whether to get an iMac or a Mac Pro with a 30" screen (or 2 30" screens) for the office.

Ignoring everything about performance and price and sticking simply to aesthetics, does anybody have an iMac in an office with high end furniture? Do people think it looks professional in that type of surrounding? I could see us spending upwards of $10k-20k for a desk and buying other expensive furniture to go with that.

Personally I think the iMac would look really great even surrounded by expensive furniture, but my wife is a little more concerned just b/c the iMac is more of an entry level computer so may look cheap in the surroundings. I don't want to give off the impression that we are snobs, far from it, we just want to make sure that our home office comes together nicely if we are willing to spend the money.

If anyone has pictures to post that would be wonderful.

Thanks for the helps and the thoughts.
 
Yeah, the iMac will probably work. The only issue would be if you want to add additional components, such as hard drives and so on. In a Mac pro those are nicely contained inside the device and tucked under your desk. With the iMac there often isn't really a place for them.

A mac pro with wireless keyboard/mouse could be a nice setup in a high-end office.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A102 Safari/419.3)

Depends largely on room size and me personally would be iMac's if you planning on 2 30" screens.

Just grab 2 24" iMac's and you'll love it. Remember if both aren't being used, presuming 1 for you other for wife or kids?? Then you always have a spare, athetics look good with 2.

Enjoy the spending spree!!
 
I'd love to be in a position where I could pick a computer based purely on aesthetics...
 
iMac's are not cheap, entry level computers. If you want one of those, go to Walmart. My wife was the one who really wanted the iMac in our office and it looks great. Before that, I had my old macbook hooked up to an external monitor, keyboard and mouse. I must admit, she was right. It's very professional looking. The thing that she likes about it most is that "there's no more computer sitting on the floor and no more wires everywhere". If you're ever worried about having a bunch of external hard drives laying around, because you can't really expand an iMac, then setup a storage server in a closet or basement.

Now, I can't bring her into an Apple store because every time she sees the Apple monitors, she wants me to buy one so it matches the iMac, lol! She hates the fact that I have a black gateway monitor sitting next to my iMac. Oh well, I guess there are worse things for a wife to complain about.
 
arkitect said:
Maybe the question shouldn't be "will it look good?", but rather will it be a capable machine? ;)

What kind of work will you be using it for?
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More than likely nothing too intensive based on the the criteria they are basing the purchase on. So for them thats what matters.

To the OP the iMac IMO is very much aesthetically pleasing while being very competent computer for home use. By no means "entry level". Nothing that Apple makes feels or looks entry level from an atheistic standpoint. Regarding placing it in a high-end office I think the iMac would be best over a Mac Pro simply because you have fewer parts (with a wireless keyboard/mouse less cables) and it has a nice minimal/modern look. To me its the perfect computer for a modern high-end office. I should know I have the iMac with wireless keyboard/mouse in my office. I'd say its pretty nice. ;)

Its funny because one of my favorite shows on TV is called "Dwell" on HGTVHD. They show high-end modern living spaces and how people came to their designs. In every home they show if there is a computer its a Mac.
 
iMac Aluminum 24" w/ Wireless KB and Mouse + WiFi would be a BEAUTIFUL ultra minimalist, virtually cordless design. Oh, if we only had wireless electricity. Damn you electrons! With your need for physical conductivity. Don't you know it's the 21st century?
 
Thanks for all the responses, I really appreciate it.

I also posted the question in the Mac Pro section to try and get the most unbiased responses,

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/443416/

it seems that the responses are split pretty evenly between the two. Some people like the lack of clutter of the iMac (assuming I won't need external drives) while others love the look of a 30" screen.

I really like my idea of a 30" widescreen iMac but I just don't see Apple doing it anytime soon. I think I like the 30" screen but don't know if I need the Mac Pro. I likely will be getting Time Capsule so the extra drives of the MP aren't that appealing to me.

When it comes closer my wife and I will have to go to the :apple: store and really see the difference between the 24" iMac and the 30" widescreen. The screen is what will be showing most anyway.
 
I agree with the others. The iMac looks great as a professional looking office machine. Very little wires and very little clutter.

My wife wasn't too happy when I purchased the iMac but after she saw it on my desk, she changed here tune.
 
ks-man said:
My wife and I will be moving into a new home in the next few months. One of the rooms will be an office with pretty expensive furniture. We're trying to decide whether to get an iMac or a Mac Pro with a 30" screen (or 2 30" screens) for the office.

Ignoring everything about performance and price and sticking simply to aesthetics, does anybody have an iMac in an office with high end furniture? Do people think it looks professional in that type of surrounding? I could see us spending upwards of $10k-20k for a desk and buying other expensive furniture to go with that.

Personally I think the iMac would look really great even surrounded by expensive furniture, but my wife is a little more concerned just b/c the iMac is more of an entry level computer so may look cheap in the surroundings. I don't want to give off the impression that we are snobs, far from it, we just want to make sure that our home office comes together nicely if we are willing to spend the money.

If anyone has pictures to post that would be wonderful.

Thanks for the helps and the thoughts.
Click to expand...

$10k - $20k on a home office sounds pretty snobby to me. I mean seriously, isn't that a bit overkill?
 
brn2ski00 said:
$10k - $20k on a home office sounds pretty snobby to me. I mean seriously, isn't that a bit overkill?
Click to expand...

I don't think so. We're not talking about putting Donald Trump gold lining all throughout the room, just nice (perhaps hand crafted) high end furniture.

We are planning on furnishing our new home nicely so why would we do the office any differently?
 
ks-man said:
I don't think so. We're not talking about putting Donald Trump gold lining all throughout the room, just nice (perhaps hand crafted) high end furniture.

We are planning on furnishing our new home nicely so why would we do the office any differently?
Click to expand...

Lock and Load buddy.
 
The iMac doesn't look cheap at all, and if you go with a wireless mouse and keyboard (if you can stand not having the number pad) it might actually look nicer than the MP because you'll only have ONE wire (the plug) to contend with. Nothing "cheaps" up a nice desk like a bunch of cables running everywhere.
 
IgnatiusTheKing said:
The iMac doesn't look cheap at all, and if you go with a wireless mouse and keyboard (if you can stand not having the number pad) it might actually look nicer than the MP because you'll only have ONE wire (the plug) to contend with. Nothing "cheaps" up a nice desk like a bunch of cables running everywhere.
Click to expand...

Now if only we could sync our iPhones wirelessly, there would be no need to plug anything into an iMac save the power cord.
 
I don't know about snobbery, but I agree that spending that much on a home office is overkill. I can understand if you're building a home office because you're planning to have clients and such. But my goodness, I’d rather take a vacation than splurge like that.
But I’m not spending it so what the heck. It’s just that some people’s priorities are misplaced.

brn2ski00 said:
$10k - $20k on a home office sounds pretty snobby to me. I mean seriously, isn't that a bit overkill?
Click to expand...
 
airjuggernaut said:
have you seen the iMac?
There's no way in hell that thing looks "entry-level cheap"
:|
Click to expand...

+1. My question is what other computer looks *better* than an iMac (putting aside form factor issues, like a mini or MB Air)? If anything a Mac Pro looks more industrial/workhorse. And any PC is going to look pretty bad next to either Mac, unless there's some customized/high end PC box with diamonds or something.

As for performance, surely the iMac is enough, because if you're evaluating aesthetics, then you're definitely not concerned about getting the most power.

If you want to spend a bit, look at Colorware, who will turn an iMac basically any color you want. Saying "high end" furniture is a bit meaningless, because that could mean super modern or very classical/ornate--just don't know. But colorware could, for example, give you a burgundy to match a classic leather sofa or inlayed desktop.
 
Le Big Mac said:
+1. My question is what other computer looks *better* than an iMac (putting aside form factor issues, like a mini or MB Air)? If anything a Mac Pro looks more industrial/workhorse. And any PC is going to look pretty bad next to either Mac, unless there's some customized/high end PC box with diamonds or something.
Click to expand...

I think the debate is between an iMac, or a hidden MacPro with one of Apple's big screen monitors as the only visible element. Of course, if you hide the MacPro you've got to find some way to connect your iPhone/iPod dock so that it's easily accessible (until syncing goes wireless). The iMac is better for this, I think.
 
I think the iMac would look great in almost any room. If performance isn't an issue, think about a Mac Mini paired with an Apple Cinema Display. Very minimalist and aesthetically pleasing in my opinion.
 
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