3Ghz iMac? Good deal at 999?

[jerwin]

Best buy is having one of their fire sales.

on the imac with

Retina 4K Display
3.0GHz Processor
1TB Storage

My sister has been meaning to replace her aging 11 inch macbook air, and was wondering how slow the hard drive will be. Should she even consider running from an external SSD?

She doesn't really use the portability of the air, and finds the screen too small for her liking, even going so far as to use a keyboard, mouse and monitor for her usual use. Her most demanding use case would be OCR (albeit not with the fastest software around). That tends to drive her macbook air's fan into overdrive.


she's not interested in video, or games. Just writing, designing board games, and doing archival research.

Thoughts?

 

[Glmnet1]

It's a pretty good deal and the machine is fine for her needs but yes, run it from an external SSD. It will be a LOT faster than that relic of a hard drive even for the most basic usage.

Also, keep in mind that it's been out for almost 11 months now so it's not the best time to buy it even though the 300$ off makes up for it.

 

[Dark Void]

It won't be slow, but it will certainly be slower. Definitely run from an external SSD.

Not to start a "consumer view point" storage vs. speed debate, but I can't believe a one thousand dollar computer (and that's a sale price) does not come with a SSD.

 

[Glmnet1]

Not to start a "consumer view point" storage vs. speed debate, but I can't believe a one thousand dollar computer (and that's a sale price) does not come with a SSD.

I know! And it's not only Apple, just look at Best Buy listing and there are so many computers with i5/i7, discrete graphic cards but no SSD. Ignoring gamers and a few professionals, a SSD should be one of the first thing to pay for when buying a computer. I'd much rather have a 5 years old computer with an SSD than the latest i7 with a HDD, for my needs.
[doublepost=1525134188][/doublepost]Just saw this in the description of one of the rare desktop with SSD: "The 256GB solid-state drive in this Acer desktop computer has no moving parts for a quiet operation." That's their sales pitch for a SSD?

 

[Dark Void]

Definitely don't want to start that war of a debate, but honestly, in 2018 with technologies that offer alternatives to just having local storage, I don't understand it. It's to "keep cost down" or "offer a more usable system" as far as not being hindered by lack of space for files and installations, I have heard.

Sure, a nice little $300-$400 Dell or HP home use laptop, I get that having a HDD along with its plastic construction and lack of bells and whistles for an entry level computer user. But a premium, $1000 computer? Putting a spinning hard drive in that today is the exact definition of a bottleneck.

 

[kwikdeth]

"The 256GB solid-state drive in this Acer desktop computer has no moving parts for a quiet operation." That's their sales pitch for a SSD?

honestly a lot of times the OEM SSDs are junk that isnt much better than a regular spinner; my cousin got an acer laptop with some sandisk ssd in it, it couldnt barely sustain 250MB/s when it was nearly new. far cry from a samsung 850.