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iMac w/ Laptop... Good choice or waste of $?

G

Genden

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 8, 2008
19
0
I am thinking about picking up the higher 20' iMac model soon, however, I already have a very capable MacBook that I bought in July 2007. I want to hear from the people who own both, what are the advantages of owning both a MacBook and iMac respectively? I am a college student that is planning on either going to Law School or Grad School so I will see myself using a lot of computers and word processing in the future. I also like to dabble in WoW and other Blizzard games, however, I can live my life without them heh :) Anyways, is this a good buy or a waste of time? Thank you all in advance, much love and respect,

Genden
 
Genden said:
I am thinking about picking up the higher 20' iMac model soon, however, I already have a very capable MacBook that I bought in July 2007. I want to hear from the people who own both, what are the advantages of owning both a MacBook and iMac respectively? I am a college student that is planning on either going to Law School or Grad School so I will see myself using a lot of computers and word processing in the future. I also like to dabble in WoW and other Blizzard games, however, I can live my life without them heh :) Anyways, is this a good buy or a waste of time? Thank you all in advance, much love and respect,
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You have mobility with the laptop. The iMac provides a larger screen and higher performance. If you also opt to open a .Mac account (soon to be called MobileMe) you gain BackToMyMac among other things.

http://www.apple.com/br/dotmac/backtomymac.html

With it you can access your iMac from anywhere that the MacBook has internet access. You can control your iMac remotely and copy files from it to your MacBook over the internet. You can also tap the larger storage capacity (both internal and external) of the iMac's drives this way.
 
gehrbox said:
You have mobility with the laptop. The iMac provides a larger screen and higher performance. If you also opt to open a .Mac account (soon to be called MobileMe) you gain BackToMyMac among other things.

http://www.apple.com/br/dotmac/backtomymac.html

With it you can access your iMac from anywhere that the MacBook has internet access. You can control your iMac remotely and copy files from it to your MacBook over the internet. You can also tap the larger storage capacity (both internal and external) of the iMac's drives this way.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the response! I actually already have access to 3 .Mac addresses, thanks for the info.
 
gehrbox said:
You have mobility with the laptop. The iMac provides a larger screen and higher performance. If you also opt to open a .Mac account (soon to be called MobileMe) you gain BackToMyMac among other things.

http://www.apple.com/br/dotmac/backtomymac.html

With it you can access your iMac from anywhere that the MacBook has internet access. You can control your iMac remotely and copy files from it to your MacBook over the internet. You can also tap the larger storage capacity (both internal and external) of the iMac's drives this way.
Click to expand...

Are they not taking out back to my mac when mobileme comes out?
 
buy it. I have both and as a student it works amazingly. I only use my MB for school and my iMac is for both school and personal (but mostly personal). Also the faster proccesser and grafics card in the iMac will allow you to game better and if u have to ...gulp...... run windows on it to game more effectively(that will be easier with a more powerful machine)
 
Yes, do it. Don't listen to those that may say it's too much or whatever. Having a machine to work on while on the go while your personal files and back ups are save at home is great.

I have an old G5 tower and a 17" MBP and I would have it no other way. Even when I was tempting selling the tower to get a 23" display for the book I stopped myself before I made the mistake. Having close to 2.5TB of storage at my finger tips and not with a mess of cables in the book is convenient for me, and may be for you too.
 
Spend some money on and external monitor, drive, keyboard and mouse will give you all the desktop luxuries without the price of a complete desktop.

Though if you really want the GPU, you are sort of stuck unless you want to sell the MacBook and trade up to the MacBook Pro.
 
Sun Baked said:
Spend some money on and external monitor, drive, keyboard and mouse will give you all the desktop luxuries without the price of a complete desktop.

Though if you really want the GPU, you are sort of stuck unless you want to sell the MacBook and trade up to the MacBook Pro.
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I think that would be the only exception even though I couldn't bring myself to doing it.

Get the 17" MBP and a Dell monitor and external drive if you really just want one machine (laptop) powerful enough to get you through college.
 
Thanks for all of your replies, they have been very helpful. Especially with gas and food prices these days, its very hard to make a monetary decision without being upright and assertive towards the product and its use and qualities at hand. I have still not made a decision... I understand and accept the fact that in these days, we pretty much live in a world of indecision, especially us young folk :) I think thats part of the reason why Apple offers an enticing deal to students with the iPod rebate. So, as of now, I'm looking at the external factors of the purchase of an iMac and they seem to be sufficiently cost effective. The MobileMe is another interesting feature, however, since it has not even been released yet, I'm still a little skeptical about it (I blame skepticism on the economy). However, Apple seems to WoW (<-- any MacN00bz here? lolZ) me with all the new products they unveil, much like they did before Time Capsule and the new iMac's came out. Back to topic, I don't think I'd want to trade in my MacBook for a MacBook Pro, for the sole reason that I already own a laptop. The monitor, keyboard, mouse, blah, blah, blah option sounds pretty and cost efficient, but in the end it still leaves me with the same computer I'm relaying this message to you right now (not to mention a pretty ****** graphics card). I hate to be a sheep (what can I say, I'm American) but my drawing towards the iMac is driven in some way by the aesthetic quality. Anyways, thanks again for the responses, very much appreciated,

Genden
 
Genden said:
I hate to be a sheep (what can I say, I'm American) but my drawing towards the iMac is driven in some way by the aesthetic quality.
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Gotta say that if I had the choice between a Mac clone that looked like a PC with same specs as a 24" iMac but was half price I think I'd still buy the genuine Mac.
 
I bought a MacBook Pro and 24" display and sold my iMac and MacBook. Same level of performance, in general, and I still have portability.
 
Genden said:
Back to topic, I don't think I'd want to trade in my MacBook for a MacBook Pro, for the sole reason that I already own a laptop. The monitor, keyboard, mouse, blah, blah, blah option sounds pretty and cost efficient, but in the end it still leaves me with the same computer I'm relaying this message to you right now (not to mention a pretty ****** graphics card). I hate to be a sheep (what can I say, I'm American) but my drawing towards the iMac is driven in some way by the aesthetic quality. Anyways, thanks again for the responses, very much appreciated,

Genden
Click to expand...

The MacBook Pro and the iMac are essentially the same computer, would be different if Apple used a desktop chipset in the iMac -- but the iMac has most of the same components and chipset.

One has a shiny big screen and the other is portable -- that is basically the difference between the two.

All depends on how you want your spiffy new GPU, in the portable, or on the desk.

if you really need the compactness of the MacBook and the durability of the case, running the two machines makes sense.

One purchase method means trading up and using the money you have in one laptop to soften the blow, the other is fine if you have some extra cash to spend.
 
Having owned only Apple notebook for the last three years, I picked up an 24" iMac for 20% when the new models came out a few months ago.

Ended up selling it a few weeks later because even though I saved 20%, I couldn't get over the feeling that I had wasted the money as other than the screen and bigger HD, for what I do with computers, the iMac was pretty much the same machine as my notebook.

So when you say you're indecisive, ... I'm right there behind you. :)
 
Bigger screen is the key for me.
I hate to scroll all the time trying to read the whole page.
I used laptops for quite a while and now I only have one if I'm on the go. Whenever I have a desktop in sight I'll always choose it over a laptop.
 
I also have the idea of a Hackintosh in the back of my mind as well. However, I think Apple offers such a great product that I don't feel like ripping them off, but, I don't have the $ for a Mac Pro. Hackintosh anyone?
 
Genden said:
I also have the idea of a Hackintosh in the back of my mind as well. However, I think Apple offers such a great product that I don't feel like ripping them off, but, I don't have the $ for a Mac Pro. Hackintosh anyone?
Click to expand...

It wouldn't be ripping them off; it's not like you would be stealing anything from them, just purchasing legitimate hardware from a different source. All that said, though, it seems that the Hackintosh requires more upkeep and maintenance than a real Mac, which (for the most part) just needs to be updated now and then with once click of the mouse.
 
Sun Baked said:
The MacBook Pro and the iMac are essentially the same computer, would be different if Apple used a desktop chipset in the iMac -- but the iMac has most of the same components and chipset.

One has a shiny big screen and the other is portable -- that is basically the difference between the two.

All depends on how you want your spiffy new GPU, in the portable, or on the desk.

if you really need the compactness of the MacBook and the durability of the case, running the two machines makes sense.

One purchase method means trading up and using the money you have in one laptop to soften the blow, the other is fine if you have some extra cash to spend.
Click to expand...

um no. the iMac has a 3.5 inch drive instead of a 2.5 inch lap top drive allowing for faster transfers and more overall storage. it also has desktop ram instead of lap top ram and the MBP only goes up to 2.6ghz wile the iMac goes to 3.06ghz. plus the iMac has a better GPU than the MBP
 
Fonzijr1964 said:
um no. the iMac has a 3.5 inch drive instead of a 2.5 inch lap top drive allowing for faster transfers and more overall storage. it also has desktop ram instead of lap top ram and the MBP only goes up to 2.6ghz wile the iMac goes to 3.06ghz. plus the iMac has a better GPU than the MBP
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Still the same 200-pin SO-DIMM laptop memory sticks in all the machines.

Still the same laptop CPUs, just running at a faster rate, still basically laptop GPUs.

They are still basically the same laptop based architecture.

The iMac just needs the faster RAM, not desktop RAM.
 
Sun Baked said:
Still the same 200-pin SO-DIMM laptop memory sticks in all the machines.

Still the same laptop CPUs, just running at a faster rate, still basically laptop GPUs.

They are still basically the same laptop based architecture.

The iMac just needs the faster RAM, not desktop RAM.
Click to expand...

You are correct, but the MBP GFX card is noticeably slower than the iMac's and has been shown to be under-clocked to control heat.
 
Sun Baked said:
Still the same 200-pin SO-DIMM laptop memory sticks in all the machines.

Still the same laptop CPUs, just running at a faster rate, still basically laptop GPUs.

They are still basically the same laptop based architecture.

The iMac just needs the faster RAM, not desktop RAM.
Click to expand...

all the macBook pro stuff is slower because of power consumption and heat
 
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