1st time Mac interest..

[UKDad]

Hey all, I'm new to this forum and have read quite a bit. Some I understand a little and some not as much. Love the forum!!
I'm going to buy 1st iMac and I am not much of a gammer and it will mostly be used for basic surfing and such. However my daughter will be using it some for photo and limited amounts of video editing. Would the i5 with the 256ssd and 8gb memory be satisfactory? I've read that the memory cannot be upgraded in the 21.5 iMac. Should I then get the 16gb? You can laugh, lol, but I'm leaving behind the old dell inspiron 8600. Its been kicking for 10 yrs. I will trust you guys on this. I'm not a techie at all. But I will be back with lots of questions. Thanks all. Have a great evening!!

 

[Weaselboy]

Hey all, I'm new to this forum and have read quite a bit. Some I understand a little and some not as much. Love the forum!!
I'm going to buy 1st iMac and I am not much of a gammer and it will mostly be used for basic surfing and such. However my daughter will be using it some for photo and limited amounts of video editing. Would the i5 with the 256ssd and 8gb memory be satisfactory? I've read that the memory cannot be upgraded in the 21.5 iMac. Should I then get the 16gb? You can laugh, lol, but I'm leaving behind the old dell inspiron 8600. Its been kicking for 10 yrs. I will trust you guys on this. I'm not a techie at all. But I will be back with lots of questions. Thanks all. Have a great evening!!

That will be fine and there is no need to spend extra money on the 16GB.

You can see from this test that 16GB does very little for you unless you are doing some very heavy lifting with Photoshop or the like.

 

[UKDad]

Thanks for the link. I wouldn't have thought the comparisons to be that small. Good info. How about the difference in the 1TB HDD over the 256 ssd? I just happen to run across one on a site that is brand new that has some desired software already on it.It has the 2.9 i5, 1TB, and 8Gb ram. It would save me over 300$ in cost and tax not to mention the cost of the software. NM, the pc is not new which means the software is prolly not legal for me to have..

 

[Weaselboy]

Thanks for the link. I wouldn't have thought the comparisons to be that small. Good info. How about the difference in the 1TB HDD over the 256 ssd? I just happen to run across one on a site that is brand new that has some desired software already on it.It has the 2.9 i5, 1TB, and 8Gb ram. It would save me over 300$ in cost and tax not to mention the cost of the software. NM, the pc is not new which means the software is prolly not legal for me to have..

Ehhh... if you can swing the money a Mac with an SSD is really a much better overall experience. All the apps launch faster and everything just seems so much smoother. If it was men I would get the SSD version then you can add an inexpensive external USB3 hard drive for more storage later if you need it.

 

[tomwvr]

I went the Fusion Drive route and used the savings on the SSD to purchase a Time Capsule for back up.


Tom

 

[UKDad]

It looks like the fusion drive and the 256 ssd are priced the same from apple right now. Would the 1tb fusion be a better get? I know I'll never use all that storage. The old laptop is 80gb with 20gb still free. You bring up my next question for after my purchase.. Iesrnibg how to back it up on an external drive.

 

[zarf2007]

It looks like the fusion drive and the 256 ssd are priced the same from apple right now. Would the 1tb fusion be a better get? I know I'll never use all that storage. The old laptop is 80gb with 20gb still free. You bring up my next question for after my purchase.. Iesrnibg how to back it up on an external drive.

if the choice is between fusion and SSD then pure SSD will always win on performance and if you are unlikely to use a lot of storage then get the SSD. like people are saying you can add TBs of external usb3 storage for cheaply later if needed.

If the choice is between normal HD and fusion, definitely go fusion as it greatly improves things...

I would need at least a fusion and prefer pure SSD for boot drive/apps and once you use one of them you can never go back to a normal hard drive.

 

[Weaselboy]

It looks like the fusion drive and the 256 ssd are priced the same from apple right now. Would the 1tb fusion be a better get? I know I'll never use all that storage. The old laptop is 80gb with 20gb still free. You bring up my next question for after my purchase.. Iesrnibg how to back it up on an external drive.

Not if you don't think you will ever use the Fusion storage space. A Fusion drive (you probably know this) is two drives so you do double the chances of a hardware failure.

For backup just get an inexpensive USB3 external drive and plug it in and you will be asked if you want to use the drive for your Mac's built in Time Machine backup software.. and off you go with a backup.

 

[Geekazoid]

Quick Question

Hi guys,
Sorry to take this thread slightly off topic but I just have a quick question.

It's as follows:

• Is it possible to partition an external HDD and have OS X use one half for backup and keep the other for storing other stuff?

 

[khedden]

Hi guys,
Sorry to take this thread slightly off topic but I just have a quick question.

It's as follows:

• Is it possible to partition an external HDD and have OS X use one half for backup and keep the other for storing other stuff?

Yes. Just make sure to make your backup partition large enough.

 

[thesimplelogic]

Like everyone else has said, I would recommend getting the SSD as well. It's a much better option when space isn't an issue