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Which iMac model should I get?

D

dgemus

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 13, 2008
10
0
Hi All!

First time on these forums. Everyone seems super helpful. Was hoping someone could answer a question for me.

I'm a Canadian looking at buying my first iMac this weekend. Looking over the various models..I was hoping someone could tell me if the basic one would be fine for me? You can find them at this link -

http://store.apple.com/ca/browse/home/shop_mac/family/imac?mco=MjI4NDk4

I dont' plan on doing any heavy gaming or video editing...just basic office stuff, pictures etc... I understand I can easily upgrade the Ram....but will the other features be ok for me? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Dan
 
dgemus said:
Hi All!

First time on these forums. Everyone seems super helpful. Was hoping someone could answer a question for me.

I'm a Canadian looking at buying my first iMac this weekend. Looking over the various models..I was hoping someone could tell me if the basic one would be fine for me? You can find them at this link -

http://store.apple.com/ca/browse/home/shop_mac/family/imac?mco=MjI4NDk4

I dont' plan on doing any heavy gaming or video editing...just basic office stuff, pictures etc... I understand I can easily upgrade the Ram....but will the other features be ok for me? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Dan
Click to expand...

I recently bought a 20inch 2.0ghz imac with 3gb of ram in it and its very fast I use photoshop and other big programs with no problems at all and its faster than my old macbookpro (2,4ghz)

I also bought the wireless mouse and keyboard at the same time (cheaper that way) and they both look and work great
 
Your biggest issue it seems will be screen size since you are not doing anything "hardcore." If you feel the 20" is not enough, then get the base 24 model as it seems you do not need the upper end. I personally love the extra screen space.

If 20" is enough, I suggest getting the upper model of it to ensure it last, in particular because it has a much better graphics card. The 256 Radeon Pro is more than enough for what you want to do now, and will last longer and perform better than 2400 XT. Also, it comes with a bigger hard drive and has a 2 gigs of RAM, which is enough for what you want to do as well. Should you want to upgrade to 4 gigs, just buy it from OWC, much cheaper.

Hope this helped.
 
Will there be a noticably big difference with the graphics cards?

Base has ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT with 128MB memory

And the next model up has ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB memory
 
graphics cards matter when you play games. otherwise any card is able of handling video output.
 
Hi there Dan,

It really does depend on what you are planning on doing with it. As you say that your planning on using it for basic office stuff and photos etc. Then you might get away with the low end 20" model.

However if you do like the occasional game the extra RAM in the ATI will help - so in that case go for one of the mid range models (either 20" or 24" depending on what you want).

It might be worth thinking about what you might want to do with it in the future though. I personally like to build in a bit of future proofing with my purchases.. but it really comes down to what you're planning to do with it and what your budget is.

As others have said - whichever one you pick - get the standard RAM config and upgrade it later, as the 3rd party memory is much cheaper than RAM from Apple.
 
I'd say buy the base model-it's a great machine! Save the money and buy more RAM, or just get an external HD if you're that worried about the storage space. However, if you're not much of a power user, I would not worry about it and not buy an external until you need one. By then, they will be cheaper anyway, so you'd actually be saving money.
 
Thanks so much for the help you guys! It's such a big decision lol It's quite a bit extra but does it pay itself off in the end. THAT's the question! lol
 
Richard.John said:
The screen on the 24 is clearly superior to the 20. If you can afford the 24, go for it, you wont be disappointed.
Click to expand...

Edandlindz28 said:
The 24" screen is awesome. I love mine, had it for two days now.:)
Click to expand...

I really hate when people say things like this. I have the 20" screen and it's the best screen I've ever used. Plus, when people say "get the 24 inch screen" blindly without wondering if the OP can afford or even fit that screen in their room, it just seems silly. Just because you can splurge on a big screen doesn't mean you have to put down a perfectly good screen and tell someone to spend several hundred dollars more that they either don't have or don't have to spend.
 
jpmittins said:
I really hate when people say things like this. I have the 20" screen and it's the best screen I've ever used. Plus, when people say "get the 24 inch screen" blindly without wondering if the OP can afford or even fit that screen in their room, it just seems silly. Just because you can splurge on a big screen doesn't mean you have to put down a perfectly good screen and tell someone to spend several hundred dollars more that they either don't have or don't have to spend.
Click to expand...


I have bought both and I can assure you that the 24" is superior. Now, that isn't to say the 20" is bad but just not as good as the larger model. It looks washed out straight from the box and needs calibration in my opinion. The viewing angles are not as good either. If you can AFFORD it, get it. If not the 20" is still good enough and mated to the best home computer in the world, so it's a win win situation.
 
Richard.John said:
I have bought both and I can assure you that the 24" is superior. Now, that isn't to say the 20" is bad but just not as good as the larger model. It looks washed out straight from the box and needs calibration in my opinion. The viewing angles are not as good either. If you can AFFORD it, get it. If not the 20" is still good enough and mated to the best home computer in the world, so it's a win win situation.
Click to expand...

Use your budget to determine which on to buy.

All the iMac models are more than acceptable when it comes to the monitor.

I own the 24". My brother owns the 20". Side by side in the Apple store you can tell a difference. However seeing them by themselves, there is no real difference.

Both monitors work well for 90% of the users. However, if you are a professional/advanced amateur in the 10% who need to truest color for photo/video use, NEITHER the 24" nor the 20" is good enough. In those cases you need a 23" ACD or better for true color.

Again, if a 20" is big enough, you will be happy with the quality.
 
Thanks for all the help everyone! Went and bought a 20" base model today...it's MORE than enough for me AND even this screen is huge LOL Can't imagine having gone with the 24" for my desk...I would have had to sit in the opposite room lol

Thanks for the help everyone!
 
dgemus said:
Thanks for all the help everyone! Went and bought a 20" base model today...it's MORE than enough for me AND even this screen is huge LOL Can't imagine having gone with the 24" for my desk...I would have had to sit in the opposite room lol

Thanks for the help everyone!
Click to expand...

Congrats !

Also it can be a little bit strange and frustrating at first if you have been used to a windows pc. But stick with it , the learning curve is very steep and in no time you will love os10 and find it a lot easier to use than windows.
 
Thanks for the words of encouragement! lol

The first couple hours have been tough...just trying to get stuff from my old pc to the new iMac...now just finishing up my iTunes lists. The new system will definitely take some getting used to....whole different keyboard etc.. etc... the funny thing is..you don't realise how different until you try and do very simple things...like copy and paste by right clicking....that doesn't work LOLOL finding the "my computer" icon to find all my drives....wait that doesn't exist either LOL all little silly things that will all come together the more I use it I guess...thank god we have these forums..i'll probably be putting them to great use.

FYI - First thing I did was watch movie trailers from the Apple site....the picture on this screen is absolutely outstanding....and to think, I have the lowest end model....wow. I'm dumbfounded!

Now the part i'm not looking forward to....transfering my email from Windows Live to Mac Mail....no idea how i'm gonna do that....way to many emails to forward to myself...
 
re: dgemus - looking for Win Explorer :p I bet I'll be doing that before too much longer, too!

I'm in the process of deciding on which iMac to buy, too - but I'm going to wait until after Oct 14 at least to see what upgrades they have. At that point, I might look to buy the 24" that's available now, at a lower price.

That being said, the 20" is much more affordable right now.

I would like to watch DVDs from my iMac, and my sofa is about 12-14 feet away. Is the 20" big enough to see clearly at that distance?

Also, I think I read somewhere here that there is a difference in the way the display works between the 20" and the 24". Can someone explain that to me?

Thanks!
 
sravana said:
re: dgemus - looking for Win Explorer :p I bet I'll be doing that before too much longer, too!

I'm in the process of deciding on which iMac to buy, too - but I'm going to wait until after Oct 14 at least to see what upgrades they have. At that point, I might look to buy the 24" that's available now, at a lower price.

That being said, the 20" is much more affordable right now.

I would like to watch DVDs from my iMac, and my sofa is about 12-14 feet away. Is the 20" big enough to see clearly at that distance?

Also, I think I read somewhere here that there is a difference in the way the display works between the 20" and the 24". Can someone explain that to me?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I'm not positive, but I believe the 20" has a TN panel, while the 24" has an S-IPS panel. The difference is the latter is better for some things, while the former I believe is preferred by gamers. I love the screen on my 20", so I think you'll be fine as long as you don't worry about it and start to imagine problems. About the sofa, I think that's a little far; what I do is I move my iMac onto a chair and pull it as far from the wall as possible, which is about six feet from me. Then it's fine. Other than that, they 20" is great.
 
dgemus said:
I dont' plan on doing any heavy gaming or video editing...just basic office stuff, pictures etc... I understand I can easily upgrade the Ram....but will the other features be ok for me? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Dan
Click to expand...

Given what you plan on using it for, the base model should be sufficient.
 
sravana said:
re: dgemus -
I'm in the process of deciding on which iMac to buy, too - but I'm going to wait until after Oct 14 at least to see what upgrades they have. At that point, I might look to buy the 24" that's available now, at a lower price.


Thanks!
Click to expand...

Are apple planning to launch new imacs soon?? i have a 2007 20" imac & love it to death, i need to buy another one for home so was thinkin of going for the 24" imac 2.8 but will apple launch new imacs in october14?? if so i rather wait??

cheers..
 
jpmittins said:
I'm not positive, but I believe the 20" has a TN panel, while the 24" has an S-IPS panel. The difference is the latter is better for some things, while the former I believe is preferred by gamers. I love the screen on my 20", so I think you'll be fine as long as you don't worry about it and start to imagine problems. About the sofa, I think that's a little far; what I do is I move my iMac onto a chair and pull it as far from the wall as possible, which is about six feet from me. Then it's fine. Other than that, they 20" is great.
Click to expand...
Thank you, jpmittens!
I meant to reply to you right away, but then I lost this thread and couldn't find it again. Forums can be tricky that way!

Thanks for the info - I'm still undecided as to which way to go, and waiting for the financial meltdown to shake out. I could pull a 20" to the edge of my desk closest to the sofa, and be within 8-9 feet or so, so that's probably an option. That being said, I do covet the 24"!

insane79 said:
Are apple planning to launch new imacs soon?? i have a 2007 20" imac & love it to death, i need to buy another one for home so was thinkin of going for the 24" imac 2.8 but will apple launch new imacs in october14?? if so i rather wait??

cheers..
Click to expand...
Hi insane79,
There are rumors all over the place for some kind of event on the 14th, which is very likely to involved the laptops. I'm*hoping* that they will include an iMac update at that time, the sooner the better! If you can hold off until then (heck, it's just a couple of weeks away!) you might have more info as to what they are doing re: iMacs.
 
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