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20" iMac or 24" iMac?

BlakTornado

BlakTornado

Guest
Original poster
Apr 24, 2007
944
0
Washington, OH
Hey, I'm a Windows user (Grrr) but not out of my own free will. My parent's (well, mother) inflicted this upon me, so I'm now breaking free from the horrendous grasp of Windows and saving up for a Mac. I already have 1/4 of the money I need for the 24" I have in mind, but it's £200 (I'm from England, incase you couldn't tell from the "Location" section under my username") more than the 20" of the same price.
Now, I'm far off buying, Leopard and new iMacs will probably be out by the time I can afford one, but I need a target price, and I can only judge on what can currently be bought.
Anyway, to get on with it, I am a teenage indie film maker/Stop motion animator who wants to pursue a career in this area. Since Windows is a horrible OS, I have come forward to Mac as my only hope for a chance to succeed in the tough cruel world of "Media".
I've used OS X Tiger several times and know my way around (pretty much). My father (Who lives in Poland) owns an iBook and a G3 iMac. When I went to visit him, I used his iBook and I loved the experience. I knew about Macs, but not much about them. One of my Dad's friends from Chicago was visiting him when I went to visit him and she had an iBook as well. She made a music video for me and my brother in Garageband and iMovie because I had taken my guitar with me and we didn't have much to do. It was stunning!
I had thought about getting Mac since then, really, but I needed a new camera first, so that was my birthday money gone (It was only a cheap Samsung video camera - £200). It was only after Christmas '06 that I looked into Macs. I had some money and didn't have anything to spend it on, so I thought "Hey, I could get a new computer!". I had looked into Dells and upgrading my current one, but I didn't want a Dell and I don't trust my computing knowledge to fiddle around inside the only computer I would have had for a long time... So I turned Mac with help from a forum I visit.
I've now started selling childhood toys (Lego) on ebay and have made £200 so far, boosting my current budget to £477 which is enough enough for a MacMini with minor custom configurations. I would lunge in and buy a MacMini if I was someone who would only use it for browsing online and talking on messengers, but I need power to run good, powerful video editing applications and audio applications. My school has several MacMinis and I have used them on my Media course, but they aren't as powerful as I would like my next investment to be. If I'm going to get a new computer, I'm going to get one that will last me a good half-decade or more!
So, I looked on the UK Apple store and this is what I appeals to me the most:

* 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
* 2GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 2x1GB
* NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT 256MB SDRAM
* 500GB Serial ATA drive
* Keyboard (English) & Mighty Mouse + Mac OS X (English)

* 24-inch TFT display
* 8x double-layer SuperDrive (DVD±RW, CD-RW)
* AirPort Extreme
* Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR

Overall Price: £1,689.02

I will need £2000 if I buy iStopmotion HR, which I will do.
The thing about the 24" is that it has a FireWire 800 port, which will probably useful for cameras and stuff? I don't know much about cameras, but it's possible. Also, the 24" has better speakers which will be useful for precise audio editing, however, I can buy more speakers if I really want to.
The bigger screen also has a much larger resolution meaning that I can use apps when they require bigger resolutions... And the graphics card is apparently much better, but is it worth the extra cash for the joy of it being more "future-proof" (Not that anything IS future proof where Apple is concerned).

Here are the specs for the 20":

* 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
* 2GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 2x1GB
* ATI Radeon X1600 with 256MB VRAM
* 500GB Serial ATA drive
* Keyboard (English) & Mighty Mouse + Mac OS X (English)
* Country kit
* Country kit

* 20-inch TFT display
* 8x double-layer SuperDrive (DVD±RW, CD-RW)
* AirPort Extreme
* Bluetooth 2.0

Overall price: £1,309.00

But I think that I may feel I'm missing out by not getting the 24"...I'm really confused as to which to get! Is it worth the extra £400 for the joy of a larger screen? Surely, the 20" is just as future proof, even if it doesn't have a FireWire 800 port or a larger resolution... Do I need a 24" or would a 20" be just as good?

This is really confusing, could someone help me, please?

(Sorry if this is LOADS to read!)

Thanks in advance!
 
sounds like you need something to just get you started, not necessarily the highest end at all. I would consider a 17" refurb with a gig of ram. You won't break your budget and you'll be able to do everything you need to. The extra screen space is just a luxury.
 
I, personally, don't think that I would be satisfied with a 17" =\ They just seem too consumer and I want to feel at least slightly pro =P And I like the idea of having a big screen after being stuck with nothing bigger than 13" screens =\ And I like to do alot of multi-tasking so it would be nice if I could have all the Apps I need open so that I can see them all at once =P 17" just doesn't sound like it would let me do that, haha.

And, I wouldn't want a refurb - This is going to be the first computer I ever buy myself; I don't want one that has been used before... I know it sounds fussy, but my first computer is a big thing for me. Plus, you can't configure refurbs and I'd really like to buy one that will last me a while and run all the latest apps that I'll need, so I don't really want to buy a refurb.

Thanks for your help, though.
 
it sounds to me that you've pretty much made up your mind to go for the 24", and I think that's a great choice. If you want to keep it for a long time, the bigger screen and faster graphics will serve you well down the road.

And hey, by the time you save up enough, you may even have updated models to choose from!
 
We got a 24" partly to show off.

But it is better when we want to run Parallels within a window. Or for multiple applications of any kind.

I find that I want more mouse room with the larger screen.

I also find that with larger monitors, I need to find a way to get the monitor lower on the desk. Both our desks have raised surfaces for the monitor - my neck gets tired if I work with a higher monitor.
 
Although I think that the 20" iMac would work fine for you, it seems that you would prefer to go with the 24" model. I have a 24" Dell 2007FPW hooked up to my 2.5GHz Power Mac G5 and I love it, the extra screen space that I got when I upgraded from my Dell 20" 2005FPW was quite noticeable (and appreciated). :)
 
I've got the 20" C2D and it's worked out great for me. It only seems small compared to the 24" side by side. I did try out the WoW demo and it played that wonderfully, however it choked on the quake 4 demo.

17" seemed too cramped, and the 30" display I have at work is sometimes too big -- my arm gets tired moving the mouse so far! :eek:
 
Well, there's nothing wrong with refurbs - its not like Apple will sell you a machine with chewing gum and a hello kitty sticker stuck to the side. They're just like new machines. Your budget sounds tight and you're in an expensive line, so I would think about how to cut corners any way you can. And I would use these systems to earn money on the side by picking up some multimedia work.

But anyway, those are both great systems. Get the 24" if you can afford it, and go to the Apple store and play with it a while to convince yourself that you can. :)
 
I've just bought a 24" iMac and like you, I couldn't make my mind up between the 20" & the 24". I previously had a windows machine with a cheap 19" widescreen monitor. I knew the mac was a big investment so I decided to go mad and plump for the 24" and when it arrived and I unpacked it and plonked it on my desk, I'm soooooo glad I did. It's huuuge, crystal clear, pinsharp and is an absolute joy to use. I got my iMac online and got the student discount, which gave me £90 off. So it's worth getting the student discount and going for the 24".
 
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