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Buying my first iMac, obviously need some advice :-)

H

HazelLight197

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 26, 2012
16
0
Belgium
Hey everyone,

I joined this forum after reading some threads. I'm about to buy my first iMac and I clearly need some advice. I know that Apple will probably release a new iMac, but for now i'd like to know which standards I need for my Imac.

I mainly use my computer for surfing arround and regular stuff, such as mail etc...I have this weird addiction to music and I occasionally play some World Of Warcraft. I also use the regular iLife and Office programs. I like downloading these american TV shows and will certainly watch dvd's on my iMac

I definitely want the 27 inch one. But I don't know anything about these processors and AMD radeon cards, so i'm wondering which one'll do best for me.

I'm also considering buying a Bose companion set 5 with it, so I can enjoy my multimedia in full experience, what are your thoughts about that? Is that a good investment of should I just buy the companion 3 set and save some euro's ....

I'm also getting 8 GB memory to start.

Hope you guys can give me some good advice.


Thanks already!


Ps: I do hope that the new iMacs will be able to play Blu-ray!
 
HazelLight197 said:
Hey everyone,

I joined this forum after reading some threads. I'm about to buy my first iMac and I clearly need some advice. I know that Apple will probably release a new iMac, but for now i'd like to know which standards I need for my Imac.

I mainly use my computer for surfing arround and regular stuff, such as mail etc...I have this weird addiction to music and I occasionally play some World Of Warcraft. I also use the regular iLife and Office programs. I like downloading these american TV shows and will certainly watch dvd's on my iMac

I definitely want the 27 inch one. But I don't know anything about these processors and AMD radeon cards, so i'm wondering which one'll do best for me.

I'm also considering buying a Bose companion set 5 with it, so I can enjoy my multimedia in full experience, what are your thoughts about that? Is that a good investment of should I just buy the companion 3 set and save some euro's ....

I'm also getting 8 GB memory to start.

Hope you guys can give me some good advice.


Thanks already!


Ps: I do hope that the new iMacs will be able to play Blu-ray!
Click to expand...

The iMacs have enough power to play blu-ray already.
 
Whatever you buy from apple dont ever get pre-installed ram from them. You can buy it and install it yourself in less than 2 minutes for nearly 80% off their price.
 
Whether you buy now or wait a month or so do not pay the Apple premium for increased memory. Installing RAM on an iMac yourself is super easy and anyone can do it. It's literally taking off one cover on the bottow with a screwdriver and putting the memory into place. Do some research online about it and save money by buying the memory from someone else.
 
Thanks for the memory tips, I will do it myself, Amazon'll provide me with my needs haha. About the Blu ray thing, I read about this Kanex XD thing that'll allow me to connect my ps3 so that'll be no problem I guess...
 
i don't think the kanex xd nor the belkin av360 works with the 2011 imacs. they only work for the 2010 imacs.
 
iMacs meet the requirement now...

Based on what you mentioned in your list of tasks, the current iMacs can easily support those efforts. In terms of Blu-Ray, just get an external drive and you'll be all set. I'm also in the market for a new iMac but I want it to do fast processing of large (25MB) photos and some video compression and editing. I'm looking towards the next iMac for the faster RAM (will go from 1333 MHz to at least 1600 MHz), suspect it'll have the core I7 Ivy bridge processor, USB 3.0 I/O It has 5GHz max transfer speed which is plenty fast (and you probably won't even achieve those speeds)and it'll be much cheaper than buying thunderbolt cables. I'm guessing it might be thinner (only a guess based on absolutely nothing except Apples obsession with improving their products packaging designs). I'm also taking another "baseless guess" that they may even offer a touch-screen option. There's obviously no way for most of us to know before the product is announced but it seems like a logical next step towards the merging of their iOS devices, OSX, and desktop HW.
 
If your wanting a iMac buy now but buy a refurb from Apple to reduce the cost.


I bought my first Apple in July, was a refurb and appears like new, it IS new as far as Im concerned. Im 100% happy and am really happy I bought what I wanted when i wanted it and ignored all the "just 1 more month" posts
 
Het guys!

Thanks for all the tips! I clearly have a better view now!

But what's this about an Apple refurb store? They don't even have Apple store's here in Belgium?
 
HazelLight197 said:
Het guys!

Thanks for all the tips! I clearly have a better view now!

But what's this about an Apple refurb store? They don't even have Apple store's here in Belgium?
Click to expand...
There is no bricks and mortar refurb store. It's online only.

Apple refurbished products are considered by most to be a very good deal, as they're pretty much like buying a new Mac, except for the box.
  • Apple Certified Refurbished Products are only available from the Apple Refurb Store and are not sold by any 3rd party or local Apple stores
  • Educational discounts do not apply to refurb products.
  • Refurb products come with the same warranty as new products, and qualify for AppleCare
  • Refurb products have a changed serial number that identifies them as refurbished
  • Refurb products come with whatever OS version and software they originally shipped with as new
  • Refurb products come with the same items in the box as new products, only the box is a plain one, not the new box.
  • A refurb product could have some cosmetic signs of prior use, but rarely do
  • A refurb Mac may have some cycles on the battery, but not a significant enough amount to affect usable life
  • The refurb store inventory changes frequently, sometimes several times a day, and doesn't have any direct relation to upcoming product releases. What's available in the refurb store is determined by what has been returned to Apple.
  • If you're looking for a particular item, refurb.me can alert you when it becomes available.
 
nagareru said:
Whatever you buy from apple dont ever get pre-installed ram from them. You can buy it and install it yourself in less than 2 minutes for nearly 80% off their price.
Click to expand...

Totally agree with this. Its the same for macbooks. I could kick myself in the butt for not doing this back in early 2009 for my macbook. Oh well, lesson learned. Installing RAM is soooo easy. From what I hear, its even easier on an iMac.

The reason some people are telling you to wait then decide is because Apple will be releasing a new iMac in October. Speculation has it that it will be a retina display iMac.
 
I would say that even the base 27" iMac would be fine - so long as you up the RAM. OS X isn't that great at memory management at the moment, so the more you can throw at it the better.

I'd recommend getting 16GB RAM from crucial.com. Good prices, reliable and guaranteed compatible - just choose the model from the list on their website.
 
RipeRetina said:
The reason some people are telling you to wait then decide is because Apple will be releasing a new iMac in October. Speculation has it that it will be a retina display iMac.
Click to expand...

Neither or those things are confirmed and there is no reliable speculation that a 2012 release would include a retina display. Quite the opposite, actually.
 
HazelLight197 said:
Thanks for the memory tips, I will do it myself, Amazon'll provide me with my needs haha. About the Blu ray thing, I read about this Kanex XD thing that'll allow me to connect my ps3 so that'll be no problem I guess...
Click to expand...

The Kanex XD only works with pre 2011 iMacs (non-Thunderbolt). There is no update for the Thunderbolt equipped iMacs and no news of one either.
 
For what it's worth, my 2008 imac does everything you listed without missing a beat. I'd say go for the best deal you can in the refurb store. Good luck on your decision!
 
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