Buying 2 x 27" iMacs - what accessories / extras to buy?

The Magic Trackpad is much better at enabling the gesture interface. Having both a mouse (Apple's or otherwise) and the trackpad isn't uncommon.

There's a keyboard charging station out there that some people find convenient, depending on how quickly you're draining your batteries.

People don't like the Time Capsule because its a single point of failure for both your routing/Internet and your backup. It's fine for most home use though. If you care about your data you should have an external drive or a time capsule and enable Time Machine. If you get a normal external, there's an accessory called Backpack that will hide it for you.

Oh, and you use CDs or DVDs at all, you'll need an external optical drive.

I would certainly suggest the Magic Trackpad for a Mac - you will be able to specify it as a free option on the iMac at order time (in place of the magic mouse).

Since you are getting iMacs I wouldn't suggest the Time Capsule, instead I would suggest a large external hard drive that you can hook up to one of the iMacs via USB3 (or thunderbolt if you get an exotic one, but it not necessary for a backup drive).

Then you can set Time Machine up to use that local drive on the first iMac, then also share that drive on your network (System Preferences > Sharing > File Sharing, click the plus symbol and add the external disk to the shared list). Then on the other machine, connect to that drive and add it to the login items so that it always connects, then set it as the Time Machine drive. Both machines can then back up to it.

Or, you could just buy two large external USB3 disks and connect one to each iMac - it would probably still be cheaper than the Time Capsule. I use a bus-powered portable drive for my Time Machine volume and it just sits on the foot of my iMac so it's quiet, cool and out of the way, but large external desktop drives are cheaper and can live quite happily behind your iMacs out of sight.

I can recommend the Airport Extreme though - it's an excellent simultaneous dual band (2.4 and 5GHz) router with USB printer sharing and is really easy to set up and control. You may not need this if you already have a decent router though.

I would also get a decent USB hub for your iMac too - Apple's choice to put the USB ports on the back looks nice but can be annoying if you use things like memory sticks etc.

joe-h2o said:

I would certainly suggest the Magic Trackpad for a Mac - you will be able to specify it as a free option on the iMac at order time (in place of the magic mouse).

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lolwut, i can do that? im buying the 27" when its available in a few months i guess. So i can order the trackpad free instead of the mouse?! :O didn't know that.

I've found the Magic Trackpad to have insufficient resolution to work with the large 27" display. YMMV so try one in the store first. The easy (but IMHO not really sufficient) solution to backups is to have an external drive for TimeMachine on each system. However if you have anything you value you will also need an offsite backup. You can have an additional set of hard drives that you clone from your system on a regular basis (weekly at least) and keep at an other location. Use SuperDuper! or CarbonCopyCloner for that. Or go with a cloud service (CrashPlan seems to be best for multiple systems).

You haven't stated why you will have two systems or what you will be doing with them. If there will be lots of file sharing, and especially if the systems are not necessarily used simultaneously, a better approach to backups that gives you file sharing is in order. I use a Mac mini (any recent one will do, you can buy one used) with server software. It can handle the TimeMachine backups and allow for shared storage, calendars, and address books between your systems and any that you might add in the future. NAS systems are also recommended, but you would need to be sure that it supports Macs.

GunZi said:

lolwut, i can do that? im buying the 27" when its available in a few months i guess. So i can order the trackpad free instead of the mouse?! :O didn't know that.

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You can select between the Magic Trackpad and Magic Mouse, it's been like this for a while.

I think you can also select between the wired keyboard or the wireless keyboard, or even a wired mouse.

I hope this stays for the new iMac because I'm definitely gonna get a wired mouse/keyboard.

Why would you want two iMacs in your home office? Unless you are hiring people to work there I done see the point. Can you just buy a single iMac and either have a second display or use a Macbook pro for other users.

Broseidon said:

Thanks for the advice

I personally have a real dislike of trackpads so I'll give that a miss but thatnks for the heads up.

I'm quite keen to back my data up - will the Time Capsule be ok for 2 iMacs with time machine? I've heard a lot of bad things about the Time Capsule breaking - the reviews on the Apple site are a little scary - the Back pack product sounds like a good solution.

Again, many thanks for the input!

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Hi first post here but been reading for months.
I too had a dislike for trackpads as being a pc user for ages i bought a MBA and the trackpad is so much better than a windows pc one for some reason, as someone else says about the gestures they're great and now when i use a pc laptop i'm always wondering why the page won't scroll when pushing up and down... go to an apple store and try the trackpad once you get used to it you'll wonder why you fiddled with bill gates scroll bars
I nearly bought an imac back around April but checked out the forums and youtube and have since been waiting for the new 27" please hurry up apple

Willie

Another person here who URGES you to try the Magic Trackpad.

Much better than the Magic Mouse.

If you hate trackpads, you haven't tried the Magic Trackpad.

I just ordered a Logitech K750 wireless keyboard for my iMac. Good reviews and if you want wireless keyboard with a number pad it seems to be the best option.

I use a Logitech Performance MX mouse as well, so when I order my new iMac I'll order the standard wireless keyboard (and use it for other things) and the trackpad. If you're going to use something other than the tiny flat magic mouse (why can't apple design a good ergonomic mouse?!), then might as well get the trackpad instead and see if it will be a good addition to your setup. For me, mouse on the right, trackpad on the left.

I also use a tiny 2.5 external drive that I keep offsite for bi-weekly time machine backups and a fire/waterproof iosafe external for normal everyday backups. I guess at some point I'll upgrade to a USB 3 or thunderbolt model of that.

I too recommend the airport extreme. Every other router I've owned has been flaky but this thing has a much higher range and dual band and just seems to be a more consistent connection for both my iMac and other iDevices (but I kept my netgear hooked up for some old wifi stuff around the house that only seems to work on certain channels)

Tri-stan said:

Why would you want two iMacs in your home office? Unless you are hiring people to work there I done see the point. Can you just buy a single iMac and either have a second display or use a Macbook pro for other users.

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For him and his spouse, potentially? I had the same though initially, but it would make sense if multiple family members were sharing the space.

I know I'm in the minority, but I like the magic mouse. I also liked school cafeteria food so take it for what it's worth...lol

I can't stand the trackpad on my girlfriend's MBP sometimes. I'm assuming the trackpad for the iMac is similar?

You could get a Space Bar, but it's more useful with things like the Mac Pro/Mini.

TrboMac said:

I know I'm in the minority, but I like the magic mouse. I also liked school cafeteria food so take it for what it's worth...lol

I can't stand the trackpad on my girlfriend's MBP sometimes. I'm assuming the trackpad for the iMac is similar?

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I was probably in the same place as you on the mouse. I bought the trackpad when it came out, had a magic mouse too. I really like the magic mouse but found myself not enjoying the use of the trackpad and it seemed redundant.

However since then, its seen more love, better support and further integration. I recently sold my imac and waiting on the new 27", ive decided to order it with the trackpad this time and use a traditional, comfortable gaming mouse.

The decision on the mouse came about because, the magic mouse is no good for what little gaming I may do, you can't press right and left buttons at same time for one and the occasional unintended scroll sometimes gets annoying. A Traditional mouse + trackpad means best of both worlds, you retain the scrolling/gestures etc

kaelell said:

I was probably in the same place as you on the mouse. I bought the trackpad when it came out, had a magic mouse too. I really like the magic mouse but found myself not enjoying the use of the trackpad and it seemed redundant.

However since then, its seen more love, better support and further integration. I recently sold my imac and waiting on the new 27", ive decided to order it with the trackpad this time and use a traditional, comfortable gaming mouse.

The decision on the mouse came about because, the magic mouse is no good for what little gaming I may do, you can't press right and left buttons at same time for one and the occasional unintended scroll sometimes gets annoying. A Traditional mouse + trackpad means best of both worlds, you retain the scrolling/gestures etc

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Yeah, the unintended scroll can be annoying. I may give that a go down the road; trackpad/trad mouse, but in the meantime there's other accessories I'm wanting to get if Santa brings 'em.