Hi everyone, total n00b here so hoping the community can give me some advice.
I'm interested in purchasing one of the new iMacs, 21.5" retina 4k display. Currently my spouse and I share a 2008 macbook which is showing its age - slower to boot, load internet and apps, etc.
We'd like to replace it with an iMac. We'd like the new iMac to last us technologically about 5-7 years (we would like some longevity of its use).
Regarding use, our macbook currently serves mainly for photo/video storage, internet browsing, and light gaming. Currently our macbook has a 250gb hard drive and we have used about 175gb of it. We are expecting our first child in early 2016, so we are expecting the photo/video storage to increase dramatically over the next few years as we capture the growth of our family - hence our desire to go to the 4k retina display.
With the 21.5'' 4k retina model starting at $1,499.00, we need some guidance on which specs to upgrade.
Processor - we're thinking based on our needs to go with the standard 3.1GHz processor - any other considerations here?
Memory/RAM - I think here we will stay at 8GB based on our usage, would that be advisable? Does that mean the iMac would come with one 8GB stick and one empty slot or two 4GB sticks? Would we be able to upgrade later on our own? In college I had a PC which i added a 2nd RAM stick to, it was pretty simple, would that be possible here, if down the line we wanted to upgrade to 16GB? Or is it worth it now to pay the $200 to upgrade from 8GB to 16GB?
Storage - This is where we are the most confused. It sounds like the standard 1TB 5400rpm drive is NOT the way to go, especially considering we want this computer to last us until the early 2020s. Based on our needs, usage, and the fact we'll probably be taking lots of videos of our growing family (maybe even 4k video), what is the best storage option? My assumption is for longevity we'd want to use either the 512GB Flash Storage (+$500) or the 2TB Fusion drive (+$300). Is this correct? What would your recommendation be based on a mainly picture/video/internet/light gaming use? While cost is not the end-all-be-all of this decision, it is definitely a consideration (the $200 difference between the two isn't insignificant to us). We also have a 1TB external hard drive we use as a back-up hard drive if that matters.
Thank you very much for the help!
I'm interested in purchasing one of the new iMacs, 21.5" retina 4k display. Currently my spouse and I share a 2008 macbook which is showing its age - slower to boot, load internet and apps, etc.
We'd like to replace it with an iMac. We'd like the new iMac to last us technologically about 5-7 years (we would like some longevity of its use).
Regarding use, our macbook currently serves mainly for photo/video storage, internet browsing, and light gaming. Currently our macbook has a 250gb hard drive and we have used about 175gb of it. We are expecting our first child in early 2016, so we are expecting the photo/video storage to increase dramatically over the next few years as we capture the growth of our family - hence our desire to go to the 4k retina display.
With the 21.5'' 4k retina model starting at $1,499.00, we need some guidance on which specs to upgrade.
Processor - we're thinking based on our needs to go with the standard 3.1GHz processor - any other considerations here?
Memory/RAM - I think here we will stay at 8GB based on our usage, would that be advisable? Does that mean the iMac would come with one 8GB stick and one empty slot or two 4GB sticks? Would we be able to upgrade later on our own? In college I had a PC which i added a 2nd RAM stick to, it was pretty simple, would that be possible here, if down the line we wanted to upgrade to 16GB? Or is it worth it now to pay the $200 to upgrade from 8GB to 16GB?
Storage - This is where we are the most confused. It sounds like the standard 1TB 5400rpm drive is NOT the way to go, especially considering we want this computer to last us until the early 2020s. Based on our needs, usage, and the fact we'll probably be taking lots of videos of our growing family (maybe even 4k video), what is the best storage option? My assumption is for longevity we'd want to use either the 512GB Flash Storage (+$500) or the 2TB Fusion drive (+$300). Is this correct? What would your recommendation be based on a mainly picture/video/internet/light gaming use? While cost is not the end-all-be-all of this decision, it is definitely a consideration (the $200 difference between the two isn't insignificant to us). We also have a 1TB external hard drive we use as a back-up hard drive if that matters.
Thank you very much for the help!