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Confused?!?! Maxed out iMac or "base" iMac and MBA as combo?

M

MacPat333

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 16, 2012
140
0
Dubai
Hey guys,

I am in some kind of "dilemma", if you wanna call it this way.

Since May this year I am waiting for the new iMac, wife's approval already received for the iMac and I was very happy when it finally got announced.

Now I am still waiting until December and actually for sure one more months as Dubai is not gonna see any shipments until Jan. or maybe even Feb. 2013!

Now, the 27" iMac will be $ 1999.00, I would upgrade the processor to i7, the hard drive would be the Fusion Drive as I want a SSD, but the 768GB SSD will be way too expensive! And the last thing I would upgrade would be the 2GB graphics carsd. The RAM would be upgraded later to 32GB by myself.

I reckon the total price for the above will be $1999.00 + $ 300.00 (i7) + $ 400.00 (Fusion Drive) + $ 250.00 (2GB graphics) + $ 300.00 (32GB RAM myself/ NOT apple) = $ 3250.00


OR


Get the 13" MBA with 8GB RAM and 128 SSD for $ 1299.00, plus the new iMac 27" as it is for $1999.00. So total would be $3299.00.



What would you guys do?

I mostly use it for video editing (mainly for youtube the moment/ I have a carspotting channel and I am building my channel currently), photoshop, web, use it to watch Full HD 1080p videos and a bit of gaming once the iMac is here (nothing heavy).

I am planning on getting Apeture & CS6 and for the end of the year I want to launch my own website to support my youtube channel and vice versa!


The MBA would be for the living room and when going on vacation 1-2 year and the iMac for the bedroom.

Please help!

Thanks!
 
M

MacPat333

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 16, 2012
140
0
Dubai
Guys, please give me some advise, I really need to find the best solution to my "problem".

One big point is the MBA I could get BTO within 1 week, the iMac might not come until Jan. or even Feb. 2013! And maybe I could wait a bit longer then and let the first little problems get fixed before I get the iMac!

What do you guys recommend?
 
F

flatfoot

macrumors 65816
Aug 11, 2009
1,010
3
If I were in your shoes I'd get the maxed out iMac and the entry level MacBook Air.

The small MBA is enough for some work on the road/the living room/vacation. The iMac can't be upgraded later on (apart from RAM), so I'd max it out right away.
 
M

MacPat333

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 16, 2012
140
0
Dubai
There is the problem, cause despite me wanting a maxed out iMac I believe that it will be kind of an overkill in specs for me.

I would love to get more into real video editing, but I am not sure how I gonna get to this and if I will be able to get results I would like to see.

Upgrading from a 1,66 GHz Intel Atom and 2GB RAM 10' Asus Eee Netbook even the basic Air would be like turtle vs. rabbit. But what I would be missing in the basic lowend Air is the SD card slot and the 2 hours less of battery life.

And taking into consideration that with every OS update the system requirements are getting higher, taking an 4GB RAM Air would maybe allow my only to upgrade the next OS but the one after that would most probably not run as smooth and fast anymore. 8GB would give me 3-4 years of usage out of the air.


In regards to the iMac, yes, I think I would upgrade to the i7, but the 2GB graphics card seems over the top. And the only other interesting thing would be the SSD. But the pure 768GB SSD will be way to expensive, so I guess it would be the Fusion drive with the 128SSD and the 1TB HDD.


Not sure, not sure! HELP, advise or money gifts to my account please! ;)
 
F

flatfoot

macrumors 65816
Aug 11, 2009
1,010
3
Fusion Drive for the iMac is not a must. You could also get it with just an HDD (to save some money) and add an SSD via ThunderBolt.

If you want you could make that setup a Fusion Drive, too. (guides are online)

iMac:
If you don't use the iMac for heavy, and I mean heavy, gaming then you don't need the 2GB graphics card.
The i7 is a must in my eyes, too.

MacBook Air:
You are kinda right about 4GB vs. 8GB of RAM.
You could get a cheap, small SD card reader for the 11".
 
Yebubbleman

Yebubbleman

macrumors 603
May 20, 2010
5,789
2,379
Los Angeles, CA
MacPat333 said:
Hey guys,

I am in some kind of "dilemma", if you wanna call it this way.

Since May this year I am waiting for the new iMac, wife's approval already received for the iMac and I was very happy when it finally got announced.

Now I am still waiting until December and actually for sure one more months as Dubai is not gonna see any shipments until Jan. or maybe even Feb. 2013!

Now, the 27" iMac will be $ 1999.00, I would upgrade the processor to i7, the hard drive would be the Fusion Drive as I want a SSD, but the 768GB SSD will be way too expensive! And the last thing I would upgrade would be the 2GB graphics carsd. The RAM would be upgraded later to 32GB by myself.

I reckon the total price for the above will be $1999.00 + $ 300.00 (i7) + $ 400.00 (Fusion Drive) + $ 250.00 (2GB graphics) + $ 300.00 (32GB RAM myself/ NOT apple) = $ 3250.00


OR


Get the 13" MBA with 8GB RAM and 128 SSD for $ 1299.00, plus the new iMac 27" as it is for $1999.00. So total would be $3299.00.



What would you guys do?

I mostly use it for video editing (mainly for youtube the moment/ I have a carspotting channel and I am building my channel currently), photoshop, web, use it to watch Full HD 1080p videos and a bit of gaming once the iMac is here (nothing heavy).

I am planning on getting Apeture & CS6 and for the end of the year I want to launch my own website to support my youtube channel and vice versa!


The MBA would be for the living room and when going on vacation 1-2 year and the iMac for the bedroom.

Please help!

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Get the Air, if you have to max anything out on the Air, max out the built-in RAM. CPU and SSD help, but the former doesn't make super-huge differences and the latter, at the absolute worst case scenario can be upgraded later; plus it sounds like the Air is just a portable machine in which case your storage needs ought to not matter too much anyway. Secondly, you're pricing upgrades that no one knows the actual cost of. Though I will say that the odds of you having to fork over $300 for after-market RAM for your iMac seems ridiculously steep; at worst you might have to spend $150, but I have a feeling that even that is unlikely.

For your needs the GTX 680MX might be overkill; I'd certainly at least go with the GTX 675MX found in the base version of the higher-end model as the differences between performance between the two on things out today will be negligible unless you're really into gaming and it will probably not future-proof you by all that much more; though the 2GB VRAM might prove me wrong (though I have a feeling that it won't). Remember, the 27" iMac is a heat demon. Heat has been that computer's biggest issue and it isn't exactly getting better with this version.

Otherwise, going with any Fusion Drive makes much more sense than going with a 768 SSD, from a cost standpoint, from a storage economy standpoint, pretty much from just about every standpoint.
 
I

ihuman:D

macrumors 6502a
Jul 11, 2012
925
1
Ireland
flatfoot said:
If I were in your shoes I'd get the maxed out iMac and the entry level MacBook Air.

The small MBA is enough for some work on the road/the living room/vacation. The iMac can't be upgraded later on (apart from RAM), so I'd max it out right away.
Click to expand...

Yes, it can :rolleyes:!
 
C

CASLondon

macrumors 6502a
Apr 18, 2011
536
0
London
MacPat333 said:
There is the problem, cause despite me wanting a maxed out iMac I believe that it will be kind of an overkill in specs for me.

I would love to get more into real video editing, but I am not sure how I gonna get to this and if I will be able to get results I would like to see.

Upgrading from a 1,66 GHz Intel Atom and 2GB RAM 10' Asus Eee Netbook even the basic Air would be like turtle vs. rabbit. But what I would be missing in the basic lowend Air is the SD card slot and the 2 hours less of battery life.

And taking into consideration that with every OS update the system requirements are getting higher, taking an 4GB RAM Air would maybe allow my only to upgrade the next OS but the one after that would most probably not run as smooth and fast anymore. 8GB would give me 3-4 years of usage out of the air.


In regards to the iMac, yes, I think I would upgrade to the i7, but the 2GB graphics card seems over the top. And the only other interesting thing would be the SSD. But the pure 768GB SSD will be way to expensive, so I guess it would be the Fusion drive with the 128SSD and the 1TB HDD.


Not sure, not sure! HELP, advise or money gifts to my account please! ;)
Click to expand...



If you have aspirations to get into video, by no means buy the bare min iMac, in fact you should max it out.

What does an MBA give you ? Why not just get the max iMac and an iPad? Not much of anything you can do on the air that you can't do on the iPad, but the iMac line has split into two lines, one that will date much quicker than the other and the larger one that is specced for at least a better run

As for SD cards, you can get a card reader for any device

Adobe CS6 will find out your system's limits in a hurry, really.
 
4

49JC

macrumors member
Jul 11, 2010
89
47
I would go with the maxed out iMac. U got the approval plus this will last u a long time. Perfect for everything ur doing. Then I'd get a refurbished 11" Air. If this strictly for leisure than u don't anything special get enough to browse maybe minimal work. This will work fine. Go all out on one side and skimp on the other.

I should say I'm in the same situation as yourself. I'll be getting the maxed out iMac. But also purchased the iPad mini recently for travel and vacay.
 
M

MacPat333

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 16, 2012
140
0
Dubai
Thanks for all the replies first of all.

There some issues here (Dubai). We do not have an official Apple Store, only certified sellers. Second no refurbs are available here, so that option doesn't work either.

The other thing is, I could get the Air now (within the this month) while the iMac might not even come to Dubai until Jan. or Feb. 2013. And eve if it comes I am a bit unsure to get it right away and play guinea pig for Apple in the first weeks to sort out possible issues in the new model.

I get the idea of maxing out the iMac, and most probably I would consider upgrading the same too once I decide to get it (despite having the Air at that point if I get both) with i7 & Fusion Drive, but that would be pretty much it!

I kind of feel that I could get some good use out of the Air over the next 6 months or so before I would need to buy the iMac, and if they refresh the Air in the summer I could even consider trading the Air for the new model (if needed) or replace the Air with the iMac at that point by selling the Air.


I need mroe thoughts guys, anyone in a similar situation and someone who done the same calculation and thinking before too?

Thanks a lot!
 
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