Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Another Should I buy an iMac thread.

A

Alpha I Omega

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 24, 2012
5
0
Hey, so Ive really been looking forward to buying an iMac until I came here.
Ive seen a few threads were people are having issues with screen and this seems like a common problem from what I can see.
Ive linked some threads below, because I know the trolls will be acomin' asking for links.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1313500/
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2300580?start=0&tstart=0
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1313221/


My other issue is, I cant mentally wait for Ivy Bridge, but if it was really worth it, I can hold out. Just as a guesstamation from y'all, do you think that Ivy bridge will bringe important updates t the table, including a screen fix and a better price point, or even god willing, better performance for less money?

I am a college student, I do game, but mostly on Xbox, but I love having a machine with power.(like having a stupid nice car, you cant use the fast engine to go 120+ but its nice to have.) I will be playing SC2, ToR, Modded Glitchfare 2, Dirt 3, and Warhammer. Should a 21.5" 2.7GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5 iMac do the job? Or will I want to upgrade to the 2.8 i7?

Sorry for all the questions, any help would be great!
 
Ivy Bridge would bring you a gpu update for gaming. I guess it's a matter of how much of a gain is seen there. On the desktop end, the cpu upgrades don't look so great. If anyone wishes to mention the lower tdp, that is predominantly on the top cpus which would only be seen in the 27" imac assuming they maintain similar configuration options. i5 vs i7 means nothing for gaming. The two you mentioned are basically hyperthreading enabled vs disabled. In many cases people disable hyperthreading when gaming anyway because it can cause weird behavior there.
 
1) Don't worry about all the "problems" you see posted. It seems a lot worse than it is because all the issues are being massed onto the same page. I mean, really, why would everyone bother to post that their iMac is perfect? Rather people post if they are having problems they need help with. The iMacs are great, don't worry.

2) I wouldn't be waiting for a refresh but that's just me. Ivy will be great but there's no guarantee it will even do much in the 21.5" iMac's plus apple could jump the price up for the new processor's or something. I wouldn't worry too much.

3) Personally I upgraded to the i7 for a boost in power. The low end 27" is the same price as the i7 upgrade though so if you want to use it mostly for gaming the extra screen space might be nice. If you're like me and would rather have power over screen space though the 21.5 is plenty large. The only problem you may have with either is the GPU but the games you listed aren't insanely taxing on the system so you should be fine.

My Suggestion:

Go for the current 21.5" iMac with the i7 upgrade.

OR

If you want to save a bit of money stick with the high end model (don't go low end) but keep the i5.

And, as always, I would suggest you keep the default 4GB apple RAM and then buy some third party RAM from Crucial or OWC to put in yourself. Extra RAM won't hurt you at all but apple RAM is way over-priced.
 
Thanks for the thorough response Ace, I just got back from bestbuy, and while the 21" is great, I've come to LOVE the 27".

I might end up saving money for the 27" 3.4GHz with a 2GB 6970M.
Not sure if I'll really see a decent boost in framerate in games if I upgraded to that over a stock baseline 27".

Theres only one issue, the 27" is too tall for my desk as it would hit my shelf, going to try to make it work xD

Also I will end up buying from bestbuy to get their warranty which will cover ANYTHING in case apple decides that my issue cant be fixed. :D
 
Alpha I Omega said:
Thanks for the thorough response Ace, I just got back from bestbuy, and while the 21" is great, I've come to LOVE the 27".

I might end up saving money for the 27" 3.4GHz with a 2GB 6970M.
Not sure if I'll really see a decent boost in framerate in games if I upgraded to that over a stock baseline 27".

Theres only one issue, the 27" is too tall for my desk as it would hit my shelf, going to try to make it work xD

Also I will end up buying from bestbuy to get their warranty which will cover ANYTHING in case apple decides that my issue cant be fixed. :D
Click to expand...

Do get an SSD. It is so worth it.
 
Just further adding on to what's been said:

Forums are for people who have questions, or complaints. You don't see posts in the sections going "I love my iMac!" ok, I lied, you do, but they're rare. Apple netted $40 billion in revenue last quarter. I guarantee that if their products were so bad as people report them to be, they would NOT have done that well.

And in regards to the games you listed, the iMacs should be fine, and for the high end model you specified, 2GB GPU will be more than enough.

Ivy Bridge won't bring much more to the world of iMacs then Sandy Bridge. The jump from C2duo to sandy bridge was huge, but between sandy bridge and ivy bridge won't be anywhere as near. Plus for gaming you'd want to focus on memory and GPU.

My take on the changes that will come regarding the iMac are:

Price: Apple tends to keep their prices pretty static with every release (sometimes it may change like the 2011 mac mini), so I don't think the prices for the 2012 21" and 27" base models will be far off from what they are now.

CPU: Ivy bridge (not a HUGE boost from sandy bridge, but a lot of sites are reporting maybe a 10-15% boost in processing power, nothing that will be noticeable for 95% of users). The integrated GPU along with it will be a good boost for those with MBA's, 13" MBP, and base mac mini,s basiclly any unit utilizing the integrated GPU, but you won't have to worry for your iMac

Graphics: I stopped following this long ago, but from looking at their tech specs, I say maybe bump everything down one (6770m goes to base 21, 6970m goes to base 27, high end 27 gets something new). Or maybe not who knows, I don't know how fast this tech develops.

Display: same
Memory: same
Storage: same

And everything else the same. Who knows maybe they'll have a slightly better camera, or more energy efficient iMac.

But long post short, something "newer" and "better" will always be around the corner for apple. If you can wait, then wait, b/c obviously you don't need it. But if you can't wait, then go for it, because you'll be much happier with it.

I don't see significant upgrades to the iMac, but I do see Ivy Bridge helping out mac mini's, MBA's, and 13" MBP's.

----------
Jaro65 said:
Do get an SSD. It is so worth it.
Click to expand...

This. :]
 
Jaro65 said:
Do get an SSD. It is so worth it.
Click to expand...

Yeah, no.
I would, as an SSD is essential any any PC nowdays, but for some reason they only operate on SATA 2, which is a complete waste of money.

Im paying $500 for a $180 SSD getting not even half of what an SSD on SATA 3 or TB.

Sure I'll see a little bit of a performance boost, but for the time being, I cant justify a $500 SSD purchase or defacing a nice new mac to put a Corsair Force 3 in :(

Please do correct me if I'm wrong, as this info came from a Mac specialist at best buy, but was incredibly knowledgeable with custom PC's.

Thanks for the info guys, really excited till the end of the month when I have the money to buy it :D
Just hope it fits on my desk, might have to post pics!
 
Alpha I Omega said:
...as this info came from a Mac specialist at best buy...
Click to expand...
Did they try to sell you a Monster HDMI cable/Surge Protector/Screen cleaning kit at the same time for the low, low price of $200? A black tie warranty that covers everything besides the product itself?

Getting a BTO iMac with an SSD installed significantly increases it's benchmark performance:

http://www.macworld.com/article/160311/2011/06/ssdimac2011.html

It does cost extra, however. And that performance boost may not matter to you depending on what you do with your iMac.

The SSD upgrades can increase your performance more than the faster processor.
 
btbrossard said:
Did they try to sell you a Monster HDMI cable/Surge Protector/Screen cleaning kit at the same time for the low, low price of $200? A black tie warranty that covers everything besides the product itself?

Getting a BTO iMac with an SSD installed significantly increases it's benchmark performance:

http://www.macworld.com/article/160311/2011/06/ssdimac2011.html

It does cost extra, however. And that performance boost may not matter to you depending on what you do with your iMac.

The SSD upgrades can increase your performance more than the faster processor.
Click to expand...

Haha no this guy realized I'm not the average BB customer. We ended up talking about custom built PC's for an hour, and didnt really push any product at all.(although I planned on building an i5 2500k rig, or buying an iMac, so there isnt much product to push.)

Like I said, mostly only for gaming, web browsing, lots and lots of college work, I also code HTML and Javascript for fun, but no compiling.

Those benches are nice, but I just cant imagine spending $500.
Beyond a faster boot, slightly faster transfer rates, what would be some other bennies of an SSD?

Trust me I want the SSD.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back