Waffling in 21" iMac....

[lowonthe456]

So I'm getting funds together to buy a Mac. I had been debating either a 13" mbp or iMac.

Lately I've been leaning on going iMac as I gave an iPhone 4 so I won't really need the portability. But after reading about the quality issues with the iMac I'm rethinking. Maybe a mini with cinema display...or 13" MBP with a larger monitor down the road. It likely won't happen til after the holidays so I wonder if the next iMac refresh might fix these issues..


Thoughts? Suggestions?

 

[tac22]

Well the imacs were just refreshed, at the earliest you generally won't see a refresh until the spring, probably late spring.

if you get a 24 inch cinema display for $800 and $700 mac mini that comes out to being $1500 of course, and personally i think at this point its definitely worth getting computer with a newer processor. Even the low end core i3 is like twice as good as the COD the mini has.

Plus if your not buying right away i think they are going to stop selling the 24 inch cinema display when they finally ship the 27 inch one. and thats back up to $1000 bucks i think

I just ordered a 27 inch iMac, i think its worth it, even the 21.5 inch one would be worth it. and yes are are taking a chance at it being defective, but i think its gonna be either defective or its not. Its not like its gonna die on your in 2 years when your warranty is up. if somethings wrong right away bring it back...

 

[alust2013]

I would rule the mini+CD out. That's more expensive, with significantly lower performance than an iMac. Now, as far as iMac vs. MBP, it all just depends on your needs. The iMac will be much more powerful, but the MBP isn't a slacker. If you want to do a lot of handbrake or other processor intensive stuff, you will want the iMac, but even if you do some moderate processing, the MBP will still work great.

 

[lowonthe456]

I basically agree with all suggestions here. For me the plusses on the mini is that I can start acquiring pieces (kb, mouse, monitor) starting now. It would actually speed the process up a little.

As for processing power, I mainly run Ableton Live, Safari, iCal, Mail and stuff like that. I can freeze tracks in Ableton to save overhead and would put in about 8gb ram to get where I want to go. The gf has a 2010 mini and it works fine (tho needs ram)...so my only concern over processor is wondering when the c2d's will no lobnger be supported in OSX updates.

I have always had Mac laptops, going back to my 1998 Powerbook G3...so I started out wanting a lappy. I know I can add a monitor down the road and while it will almost never leave the house, it may leave the desk...the only issue with that is I do have an iphone....so surfing downstairs is typically done there. Plus I havent had much luck with Apple's batteries lasting more than a year or so....

 

[tac22]

well since apple is still selling COD devises, though by early 2011 i'm pretty sure they have to upgrade all hardware to the new processors. so my guess is it will be supported for a while, year wise 6-8, operating systems 2-3. that being said maybe the new processors vs the old COD won't be the cut off point, maybe they will have a different one, just a 2.4 COD in 3-4 years to me is painful to think about

That being said for what your running it would be fine.

But buying the 21.5 inch imac will still be cheaper and twice as powerful, and will come with the mouse and keyboard which i forgot to add will be $70+$70 for another 140, so $1640 and in that range your ready to get a 27 inch imac.

I say get a 21.5 inch, maybe buy it at a store, and open it up with a store rep while your their and inspect it then, most of the problems happening are either visual or apparent when your first turn it on.

 

[alust2013]

well since apple is still selling COD devises, though by early 2011 i'm pretty sure they have to upgrade all hardware to the new processors. so my guess is it will be supported for a while, year wise 6-8, operating systems 2-3. that being said maybe the new processors vs the old COD won't be the cut off point, maybe they will have a different one, just a 2.4 COD in 3-4 years to me is painful to think about
.

Why would they cut off the OS? It's nothing like the shift they made from PPC to Intel. There is nothing about the new processors that would make a difference to the OS vs. the older ones. They still support the old 32-bit Core Duos with the latest releases of the OS, and the jump from Core Duo to Core 2 Duo was the biggest they have made since the Intel transition (32-bit to 64-bit). The only difference between the C2Ds and the iX processors is performance and a newer microarchitecture.

 

[lowonthe456]

true, i guess I want to not have to deal with multiple returns, etc

 

[tac22]

Yea i understand about the cut off things. thats why i said they might have a different cutoff. and maybe they won't have one at all, but eventually they will up there minimum requirement or something and they could use something like the switch to Core ix series as a cut off. either way, it would be a while before the current mac mini can't get updates.