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27" screen or 42"...?

B

BrandonRugzie

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 21, 2011
14
0
I am about to sell my 24" iMac, I will be getting $1050 (selling with peripherals). Now, I am in a bind. I could go out and buy a refurb 27" iMac (3.2 i3, 1tb, 4gb), or I could buy a 42" LED TV and a Mac Mini. My question at this point isn't so much about the system itself, because I have about 12 TB of external network storage if I choose the Mac Mini, but which screen will I be happier with?

I love the idea of a 42" screen, but how much quality am I going to lose, and is it feasible as a wall mounted monitor? I will be using it more as a monitor than a home entertainment system.
 
BrandonRugzie said:
I am about to sell my 24" iMac, I will be getting $1050 (selling with peripherals). Now, I am in a bind. I could go out and buy a refurb 27" iMac (3.2 i3, 1tb, 4gb), or I could buy a 42" LED TV and a Mac Mini. My question at this point isn't so much about the system itself, because I have about 12 TB of external network storage if I choose the Mac Mini, but which screen will I be happier with?

I love the idea of a 42" screen, but how much quality am I going to lose, and is it feasible as a wall mounted monitor? I will be using it more as a monitor than a home entertainment system.
Click to expand...

IMHO TVs make crappy computer monitors. They are optimized for video. The 27" iMac (or stand alone 27" monitors in the $1000 price range) have IPS panels that have wide viewing angles minimizing dropoff and color shifts, much higher resolution, and generally sharper images needed for static displays (like text). They also tend to have more accurate color.
 
I personally rather get the 27 inch screen. You get almost twice the resolution with the 27 inch screen, and HDTVs typically look very blocky when viewed up close as a standard computer monitor-- they're meant for longer distance viewing.


It's not a true LED screen either. The 42inch TV is just as much an LED screen as the 27 inch iMac's. When a company markets a TV as being LED, they just mean it's LED backlit. True OLED TVs go for thousands and are small.

There's also the argument that the iMac is way more cost efficient for its performance compared to a mac mini.
 
I would go with the 27" iMac. I've tried the whole TV monitor before and it doesn't work that hot.

Plus my mom always said. "Sitting that close to the TV will make you go blind."
 
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