Buying a new iMac this week

J

jamesp57

macrumors newbie
Buying my first iMac to replace an aging PC. I will installing Adobe Design Premium at first followed by either VMWare or Parallel for windows and Windows XP or 7 later for my CAD/CAM programs (I have a newer laptop to run these programs for the moment).

I'm going with the 27" 3.4 I7 with either the 6970M 1gb or 6970M 2gb. I would like to upgrade the memory to 16gb but the extra $600.00 seems a little high considering the current retail price of memory from Crucial and others. If I make the upgrade myself does it void the warranty. Swapping the memory looks like a piece of cake on the iMac.
 
The ram Upgrade is definitely worth it. I have the iMac you are considering purchasing and I use it for photo editing mainly among other things. I upgraded the ram to 16GB for $165 through Crucial.com.

Makes a big difference!

Oh yea, I didn't go with the 2GB video card as I didn't see the need for using it. I don't game or do any serious video editing outside of Final Cut Pro X.
 
jamesp57 said:
If I make the upgrade myself does it void the warranty. Swapping the memory looks like a piece of cake on the iMac.
Click to expand...

It does not void the warranty. Even Apple sales staff can tell you that this is considered a user serviceable part :) Crucial is a good choice and they sell it directly. Just make sure you order 4x 4GB sticks rather than 2x 8GB ones. $100 is a little steep just for the extra vram. Outside of a few circumstances I'm not sure it's going to provide any advantage especially on a mobile gpu (well that model is sort of built like an underclocked desktop gpu but whatever). I can't find any real test comparisons between the two gpu options there.

Good call on a lot of ram if you intend to run heavy software via Parallels or fusion. Some of those programs are certified under one or the other if they don't have an OSX version. You might research that before making your choice. Some of the third party retailers used to bundle one of the virtualization packages free when you bought a new system. I can't find any such promotions right now though :(
 
jamesp57 said:
Buying my first iMac to replace an aging PC. I will installing Adobe Design Premium at first followed by either VMWare or Parallel for windows and Windows XP or 7 later for my CAD/CAM programs (I have a newer laptop to run these programs for the moment).

I'm going with the 27" 3.4 I7 with either the 6970M 1gb or 6970M 2gb. I would like to upgrade the memory to 16gb but the extra $600.00 seems a little high considering the current retail price of memory from Crucial and others. If I make the upgrade myself does it void the warranty. Swapping the memory looks like a piece of cake on the iMac.
Click to expand...

The refresh is due out in 2 to 3 months. Can you last that long without it?

https://buyersguide.macrumors.com//
 
rkaufmann87 said:
Ridiculous, this guy knows no more than the average guy on the street.
Click to expand...

I never claimed to know. You've been a member here since 2009. Surely this isn't the first time you've seen the Buyer's Guide? And yes, I am fully aware it is in no way accurate but should give a general idea regarding the cycle of Apple refreshes.
 
Macguy76 said:
The ram Upgrade is definitely worth it. I have the iMac you are considering purchasing and I use it for photo editing mainly among other things. I upgraded the ram to 16GB for $165 through Crucial.com.

Makes a big difference!

Oh yea, I didn't go with the 2GB video card as I didn't see the need for using it. I don't game or do any serious video editing outside of Final Cut Pro X.
Click to expand...

Got a link handy for this specific kit?
 
Looking forward to the new mac. One other question, anyone tried Corsair's SP2500 speakers with their iMac?

I'm not a gamer but music is a must in the office.
 
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