Buying my first iMac

[jlwlynn]

I have an old Macbook Pro, but I want a desktop. I'm trying to keep the price down and I was wondering what you think about the options I'm going to be choosing (most likely). I understand this is completely subjective, but I'm hoping for a shove in the right direction. I'm trying to keep the cost down, so here is what I am thinking :

New 21.5" iMac
2.7GHz processor
16G RAM (Necessary?)
1TB Fusion Drive
Add SuperDrive (I'd like to have DVD/CD capability)

This still comes out closer to $2k than I'd hoped, but I figure with these options this will last me for some time now. I would like to buy from Amazon to save on the tax, but unfortunately, there isn't a way to customize.

I would appreciate any input.

Thanks!

jason

 

[Spink10]

You may want to list your intended use and how long you plan to keep the iMac this may help give better advice.

 

[jlwlynn]

You may want to list your intended use and how long you plan to keep the iMac this may help give better advice.

Ah, yes, sorry.

Intended use: Mostly surfing, email, facetime, photo/video editing (nothing serious), occasional Java development, possible other development, etc. My first order of business is to allow the wife to plug in her camera, rip off the photos with picasa locally and have some sort of automator script or cron job to move them to my NAS. That will get her off of my back. I've tried getting picasa to rip directly to my NAS but it's painfully slow and occasionally the camera has run out of battery. More troubles. I would work on this with my Macbook Pro, but I'm running thin on local space. Also, I intend on having the iMac up 24/7 while the Macbook isn't always. Oh, and I hate iPhoto, thus Picasa.

I plan on keeping it until it dies or until I get fed up with the space and speed.

Thanks!