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But an iMac and MacBook Pro, opinions?

K

kyledempster7

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 24, 2011
8
0
Hey guys,

I'm currently a PC user and I have jumped into the apple world fast this past year. I'm loving every minute of it and its time to make the computer switch.

I'm looking into get an iMac and a MacBook Pro. I heard that the MB Pros were just refreshed today so that's great. I was wondering about the iMac though. This site suggests waiting but I think that might be hard to do. (For some reason I really want that iMac!)


Let me know if I over killed or didn't add enough. I am a college student that does a lot with social media. I do use Photoshop (not 24x7). Cores really confuse me so if you have advice on anything I would really appreciate it!

21.5-inch iMac:

Configuration
2.7GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5
16GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 4x4GB
1TB Serial ATA Drive + 256GB Solid State Drive
AMD Radeon HD 6770M 512MB GDDR5
Apple Magic Mouse + Magic Trackpad
Apple Wireless Keyboard (English) & User's Guide
Apple Battery Charger


13-inch MacBook Pro

Configuration
2.4GHz Dual-core Intel Core i5
8GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM — 2x4GB
256GB Solid State Drive
SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Backlit Keyboard (English) & User's Guide

Untitled.jpg
 
I would not recommend buying RAM from Apple, they charge way too much. Plus it is dead simple to install the RAM after market, there is just one screw you unscrew on the bottom of the screen and then you pop the RAM in there. I don't own neither so I can't recommend which RAM to get though.

I would get the iMac. When, if at all, are you going to be carrying around your laptop? No where close to a window or outside I hope because that glossy screen will be bad in those conditions. The iMac also has a quad core and you can have the 1tb drive and SSD with sacrificing the optical drive, like you would have to on the MacBook Pro. The iMac is still a great machine and it will continue to be great next year.

Have you checked this out? It is last year's high end model. Not sure if you need thunderbolt or not, but this outperforms the i5 you are considering and is only a little bit more expensive (both stock).http://www.macmall.com/p/Apple-iMac/product~dpno~8811819~pdp.gididgg
 
16GB RAM for iMac is overkill, 8GB would be fine. For MBP don't buy RAM and SSD from Apple, they're overpriced. Instead go with Crucial RAM and Intel/OCZ SSD.
 
Last edited:
I would add that unless you need mobility, get the iMac, following the advice from previous posters.
But if you mostly need mobility, I would suggest a larger display MBP, 17" if it's going to become your primary computer. It was my first Mac too, so I know it's not as heavy as some may think. Remember that power can't be taken lightly.
You'll not regret it. It's the perfect size for the Road Warrior.
 
I'm now considering a 27in iMac and a MacBook Air. I could tunderbolt the iMac and Air together if i ever need a larger screen for the Air.

I would like the iMac to be blazing fast. I believe my current computer has 6gb of ram and that doesn't cut it for me. I know some people were saying not to buy ram from Apple, not sure why - price maybe?

Is it bad to have too much ram? (I'm not very good with hardware). If you could add a link to some very good ram that I could buy separately that would be awesome. I read somewhere that people had trouble installing 16gb of ram into their iMac - is that true?

Does a more powerful core help with simple things on the computers? One blurb on apple's store made it seem like the more powerful the core, the faster everything on the comp runs, however, an apple expert said otherwise.

What about graphics card? I plan on watching HD movies at the most - no gaming.

iMac%252520%252526%252520Air.jpg


Please let me know which iMac I should look at and with which components.
 
kyledempster7 said:
I would like the iMac to be blazing fast. I believe my current computer has 6gb of ram and that doesn't cut it for me. I know some people were saying not to buy ram from Apple, not sure why - price maybe?

Is it bad to have too much ram? (I'm not very good with hardware). If you could add a link to some very good ram that I could buy separately that would be awesome. I read somewhere that people had trouble installing 16gb of ram into their iMac - is that true?
Click to expand...

Apple RAM's are way overpriced, you can add them manually. I'd recommend you Crucial RAM which costs about $50 for 8GB.


kyledempster7 said:
Does a more powerful core help with simple things on the computers? One blurb on apple's store made it seem like the more powerful the core, the faster everything on the comp runs, however, an apple expert said otherwise.

What about graphics card? I plan on watching HD movies at the most - no gaming.

Please let me know which iMac I should look at and with which components.
Click to expand...


Intel Core i5 will handle HD videos just fine. The 2GB VRAM won't be of any use, even if you game. The second config is good as it is, go with that:)
 
jmpnop said:
Apple RAM's are way overpriced, you can add them manually. I'd recommend you Crucial RAM which costs about $50 for 8GB.
Click to expand...

To get 16gb of ram in the iMac, how much would i have to buy? Sorry if that's a dumb question. It comes with 4 but i wasnt sure if you need to buy a certain size to get to 16gb.





jmpnop said:
Intel Core i5 will handle HD videos just fine. The 2GB VRAM won't be of any use, even if you game. The second config is good as it is, go with that:)
Click to expand...

So, you think i should go with the second config in that picture? How much of a drawback would it be if i went with the first. Obviously i save some money with the first one.
 
kyledempster7 said:
To get 16gb of ram in the iMac, how much would i have to buy? Sorry if that's a dumb question. It comes with 4 but i wasnt sure if you need to buy a certain size to get to 16gb.
Click to expand...

The iMac comes with 4 memory slots, two slots are used with two 2GB modules, thus you need to buy four 4GB modules to get to 16GB RAM and have two 2GB modules, with what you can't do anything, except keeping them for the time you might have to send/give your iMac to Apple to let it repair.
 
kyledempster7 said:
So, you think i should go with the second config in that picture? How much of a drawback would it be if i went with the first. Obviously i save some money with the first one.
Click to expand...

The first one's sufficient actually, you'll have absolutely no problems:)
 
simsaladimbamba said:
The iMac comes with 4 memory slots, two slots are used with two 2GB modules, thus you need to buy four 4GB modules to get to 16GB RAM and have two 2GB modules, with what you can't do anything, except keeping them for the time you might have to send/give your iMac to Apple to let it repair.
Click to expand...

So, 4 of these:
Untitled.jpg
 
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