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Hard decision : 21.5 or 27 inch imac ?

B

bo-waleed

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 15, 2009
609
21
first of all,i can afford both and my i have a space in my desk for the 27'' imac.

i will use the new imac for internet browsing,gaming,watching videos,etc.

i will get the 6970M gpu if i get the 27'' imac.

i will spend most of my time on the new imac for watching videos (more then gaming) and most of my videos are 720p and some are in 480p.

the problem is that gaming is better on the 27'' imac and watching videos is better on the 21.5'' imac.

i would like to play some future games like DmC (most wanting game for me),MGS:R, the witcher 2.

Thanks for answering.
 
You have to make your own decision, but at work I've just ordered a 27" iMac. I figure there will be more space in the bigger iMac and also more aluminum to allow heat to dissipate, so hopefully managing the internal temperature will be easier. I suppose the large screen had something to do with it as well. :D
 
bo-waleed said:
first of all,i can afford both and my i have a space in my desk for the 27'' imac.

i will use the new imac for internet browsing,gaming,watching videos,etc.

i will get the 6970M gpu if i get the 27'' imac.

i will spend most of my time on the new imac for watching videos (more then gaming) and most of my videos are 720p and some are in 480p.

the problem is that gaming is better on the 27'' imac and watching videos is better on the 21.5'' imac.

i would like to play some future games like DmC (most wanting game for me),MGS:R, the witcher 2.

Thanks for answering.
Click to expand...
If money is no issue you should get the high end model for the video card and the higher resolution display. Also upgrade the gpu from 1GB to 2GB. I purchased the baseline model 21.5 because the 27 is too big and very expensive. I will be playing games on mine and from the videos I've seen the 6750m isn't all that bad. I can't play some games on ultra but I can play them on medium or high which is good enough for me.
 
Easy decision..

I'm working with my 27" and it has to be the best decision I ever made regarding IT kit. If you have the space and the resources, go for the big one, you won't regret it.
 
Run DVDs in a window!

bo-waleed said:
i can afford both
<snip>
Thanks for answering.
Click to expand...

Then get both:p

Seriously, get the 27" and don't worry about the SD video stuff. The PPI is comparable, so you can get the same experience on the larger as with the lesser.

It's like that tune, y'know: "anything 21' can do, 27' can do better" - conditional on space and time (=money) not being a consideration:D
 
I can't speak for it's gaming abilities but I went with the base 21.5" as it was $1059 at a local MicroCenter over Memorial day weekend. I will upgrade the ram but I'm very pleased with it's performance otherwise. The Quad core CPU more than handles the video encoding I do via Handbrake or iMovie. The 27" screen would be nice, but I really don't have room on my current desk setup.

Now I just hope Thunderbolt allows me to run external SSD for the boot/OS drive without having to open up the iMac.
 
Without any hesitation whatsoever, I strongly recommend the 27".

The 21.5 just feels too small, especially if you're tall and sitting at your desk. It feels like working on a "slightly" larger laptop. No disrespect meant to anyone who prefers the 21.5, but the difference in price is 100% worth the larger screen and desktop real estate.

(I made the mistake of ordering a 21.5 first only to return it and end up in post-sales hell)

Get the 27" ;)
 
The difficulty you have, I think, is that you want to kill two birds with one stone: you want a good computer and a good media streamer/television setup. They're not the same thing, and you'll have to compromise if you're absolutely determined to combine them.

How you should compromise depends upon your own personal standards. Me? I refuse to compromise on the quality of my media, so I have a dedicated streamer with an upscaler (Popcorn Hour A-210) connected to an HDTV. If ever I have to watch media on my iMac, it's alright (even at 480p), but it's not great. I couldn't have it as my first-choice media setup.


I note that a prior poster recommended the Mini. Everyone's entitled to their opinion, and here's mine: I think the Mini's an underpowered, overpriced piece of [insert derogatory noun]. If you want to engage in powerful computing of any kind, the Mini isn't for you. Certainly, if by 'gaming' you mean anything involving high-resolution 3D graphics, forget about it. It just can't do it. I don't mean for this to degenerate into a rant, but it must be said that there are quite a few fanboys on this forum (I'm not targeting the aforementioned poster here; let me make that clear...) who'll tell you that the Mini can do everything under the sun, and it's complete nonsense. I owned a 2009 Mini, and my father a 2010, and we both replaced them in under six months: unless the new Mini is a revolution (and it never is), I don't think it'll do what you need it to.

Aaaaanyway...

... if money's no object, I'd say get a media streamer and an HDTV, and get an iMac. If that's off the table, I'd say get the best 27" iMac you can afford - it will give you good computing power, and a reasonable media experience.
 
dh2005 said:
The difficulty you have, I think, is that you want to kill two birds with one stone: you want a good computer and a good media streamer/television setup. They're not the same thing, and you'll have to compromise if you're absolutely determined to combine them.

How you should compromise depends upon your own personal standards. Me? I refuse to compromise on the quality of my media, so I have a dedicated streamer with an upscaler (Popcorn Hour A-210) connected to an HDTV. If ever I have to watch media on my iMac, it's alright (even at 480p), but it's not great. I couldn't have it as my first-choice media setup.


I note that a prior poster recommended the Mini. Everyone's entitled to their opinion, and here's mine: I think the Mini's an underpowered, overpriced piece of [insert derogatory noun]. If you want to engage in powerful computing of any kind, the Mini isn't for you. Certainly, if by 'gaming' you mean anything involving high-resolution 3D graphics, forget about it. It just can't do it. I don't mean for this to degenerate into a rant, but it must be said that there are quite a few fanboys on this forum (I'm not targeting the aforementioned poster here; let me make that clear...) who'll tell you that the Mini can do everything under the sun, and it's complete nonsense. I owned a 2009 Mini, and my father a 2010, and we both replaced them in under six months: unless the new Mini is a revolution (and it never is), I don't think it'll do what you need it to.

Aaaaanyway...

... if money's no object, I'd say get a media streamer and an HDTV, and get an iMac. If that's off the table, I'd say get the best 27" iMac you can afford - it will give you good computing power, and a reasonable media experience.
Click to expand...
You know I really don't know what kind of person the mini sells to. I guess if you are really cheap and you really want a Mac..maybe. But still you have to buy a monitor to go with it. It doesn't make sense. You can find better ways to stream. I use an Apple TV 2 if I want to stream.:apple:
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_6 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/8E200)

I got the 27" with 6970.

Its awesome rocking starcraft 2 on max settings at native resolution.

It's also great if you do a lot of multi tasking, blogging (rss, multiple pages, and your apps open at once), working with raw images or high rss vods.

I tried the 21" for a few days and it was a good choice for general use. However, if you do any of the hints mentioned above (or game) high end 27" is the way to go.
 
ryu3000 said:
You know I really don't know what kind of person the mini sells to. I guess if you are really cheap and you really want a Mac..maybe. But still you have to buy a monitor to go with it. It doesn't make sense. You can find better ways to stream. I use an Apple TV 2 if I want to stream.:apple:
Click to expand...

Yep, yep, and yep. I can't get on with the ATV2 myself, on account of its file restrictions - I really wish Apple would chill-the-f!!! out over that, because it's a decent bit of kit otherwise.

I bought a Mini because it was my first Mac. I didn't know whether I'd dig it, so I spent as little as possible on finding out. Six months later, I went shopping for an iMac.
 
a question

are there any app that can upscale videos like when a DVD player upscales ?
 
JS77 said:
Without any hesitation whatsoever, I strongly recommend the 27".

The 21.5 just feels too small, especially if you're tall and sitting at your desk. It feels like working on a "slightly" larger laptop. No disrespect meant to anyone who prefers the 21.5, but the difference in price is 100% worth the larger screen and desktop real estate.

(I made the mistake of ordering a 21.5 first only to return it and end up in post-sales hell)

Get the 27" ;)
Click to expand...

Depends on what you consider to be of value. If you prefer browsing multiple windows at once, then I agree the 27" at only $200 more is a steal. To top it off you also get the additional TB port.

But if you want better gaming performance and pixel perfect HD movie viewing at native resolutions without any video degradation , then the 21.5" wins out in my opinion.
 
Icaras said:
Depends on what you consider to be of value. If you prefer browsing multiple windows at once, then I agree the 27" at only $200 more is a steal. To top it off you also get the additional TB port.

But if you want better gaming performance and pixel perfect HD movie viewing at native resolutions without any video degradation , then the 21.5" wins out in my opinion.
Click to expand...

You can still have a few windows open with the 21.5" too. It's not that small....really. Not to mention, OSX makes it easy to scroll through the screens you have open and Lion will make it even easier. The extra screen real estate isn't needed unless you need a good 4 windows open at once to review ALL AT THE SAME TIME.

I am in the process of returning my 27" for multiple reasons including the fact that it is too big. I will be ordering the 21.5".
 
ryu3000 said:
You know I really don't know what kind of person the mini sells to. I guess if you are really cheap and you really want a Mac..maybe. But still you have to buy a monitor to go with it. It doesn't make sense. You can find better ways to stream. I use an Apple TV 2 if I want to stream.:apple:
Click to expand...

I tell you who the Mini sells to, people like me who bought an iMac owned it for two years and as handsome as I am I'm now sick and tired of looking at myself in the monitor. Bought the 27" to start with and that was just way to big and everything on the screen way to small. Sent that back and got the 21.5" and found that way to small. Now looking forward to the updated Mini though for my meager computers needs - lots of Office docs, web surfing, email, Youtube and iTunes even the present Mini is more than up to the job. I shall pair it to a "matte" 24" screen and that for me will be just purrrrrrfect!. :D
 
Lankyman said:
I tell you who the Mini sells to, people like me who bought an iMac owned it for two years and as handsome as I am I'm now sick and tired of looking at myself in the monitor. Bought the 27" to start with and that was just way to big and everything on the screen way to small. Sent that back and got the 21.5" and found that way to small. Now looking forward to the updated Mini though for my meager computers needs - lots of Office docs, web surfing, email, Youtube and iTunes even the present Mini is more than up to the job. I shall pair it to a "matte" 24" screen and that for me will be just purrrrrrfect!. :D
Click to expand...

24" screens aren't much bigger than a 21.5" (22") so you stating the 21.5" is WAY too small doesn't make sense.

Also, as far as the mini is concerned you could buy a used Macbook Pro for not much more and run a monitor off of that. That way you have a laptop as well for almost the same price with the same if not better specs.
 
Last edited:
mackage said:
24" screens aren't much bigger than a 21.5" (22") so you stating the 21.5" is WAY too small doesn't make sense.

Also, as far as the mini is concerned you could buy a used Macbook Pro for not much more and run a monitor off of that. That way you have a laptop as well for almost the same price with the same if not better specs.
Click to expand...

I already have a 24" screen running my W7 PC and believe me the 21.5" iMac looks like an iPad at the side of it - seriously, the difference is that noticeable. As for Notebooks, please wash your mouth out with soap. I hate Notebook computers whoever makes them. It's Desktops or nothing in my computer world.
 
mackage said:
24" screens aren't much bigger than a 21.5" (22") so you stating the 21.5" is WAY too small doesn't make sense.

Also, as far as the mini is concerned you could buy a used Macbook Pro for not much more and run a monitor off of that. That way you have a laptop as well for almost the same price with the same if not better specs.
Click to expand...

That's pretty smart.
 
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