Getting ready to purcase a new iMac

[tomwvr]

Looking at the maxed out 27 inch Imac-will add extra ram when I get it. I would have loved the 21 inch but the video card limits bother me. And spending 1500 on a machine that may have issues in 2 years with that card has pushed me to the maxed out 27. Would raither spend the extra cash and have a machine that will be solid for 4-5+ years

What software is a must for an IMAC - I havent used or owned a MAC since the SE in the 1980's.

I do some gaming , some word processing,spreadsheets ect for work and some minor video editing, photo editing (all for home use) and some pamplet creation for a few non-profits I help out.


Thanks
Tom

 

[nissan.gtp]

good decision! my first mac was an SE as well

Highly recommend XtraFinder, but use the mac for a while without it, to get used to the basics.

Take a look at VLC for video, and Little Snitch, firewall-ish, connection blocker, and more -- it's unique and really useful.

Lots of word processing/speadsheet/etc choices -- MS Office, Apple's Pages/Numbers/Keynote, Open Office, ...

And you DON'T need virus-protection software (Apple has some capabilities built-in) -- only time it might be useful is if you have WIndows boxes that you share a lot of files with, but even in that config if the PC's are up to date and scanning, you should be fine.

 

[marc11]

Looking at the maxed out 27 inch Imac-will add extra ram when I get it. I would have loved the 21 inch but the video card limits bother me. And spending 1500 on a machine that may have issues in 2 years with that card has pushed me to the maxed out 27. Would raither spend the extra cash and have a machine that will be solid for 4-5+ years

What software is a must for an IMAC - I havent used or owned a MAC since the SE in the 1980's.

I do some gaming , some word processing,spreadsheets ect for work and some minor video editing, photo editing (all for home use) and some pamplet creation for a few non-profits I help out.


Thanks
Tom

I have to say your concerns about the video card being useless in 2 years for the work you do on the iMac is unfounded. You are soooooo over buying for your needs. You do not need a 680x card for web browsing, word processing, light gaming and minor video editing, not now, not in the next few years easily.

Just saying, think about it and research it some. The maxed out card is a great card do not get me wrong, but the 650m and 660m cards are really good cards and are even more than you need based on your uses described.

As for software, I like Aperture for photo management and Photoshop Elements and Premiere 11 for photo and video editing. But for light use, the included iPhoto and iMovie should be more than enough for you I bet.

Word Processing, if you do not need Windows Office compatible documents, Pages is basically fine. The free versions like Open Office are great too. I gave up on Office for Mac last year, too many bugs, crashes, lost data, issues with activating when upgrading hardware, etc. I just decided to eat my license cost and deleted it.

 

[Raima]

What software is a must for an IMAC - I havent used or owned a MAC since the SE in the 1980's.

If you still need to use Windows programs, get Parallels. It will allow you to run Windows in a virtual machine mode - ie run Mac and Windows at the same time.

If you need a Microsoft software, I would suggest subscribing to Microsoft TechNet. It gives you a bunch of licenses to use in your subscription period from Windows, to Office, to Servers, etc at a very affordable price. To find out more about Microsoft Technet, do a google on it.

As for Mac software, nissan.gtp mentioned very good titles.

In addition to his suggestions:

* Handbrake to encoding your DVDs into iTunes
* EverNote for keeping all your notes in a central location
* Google Chrome
* Skype
* Cyberduck (free) if you want to do FTP,
* BlackMagic Disk Speed Test
* OS X Server if you want to host your own web server, email etc.
* Kindle to read your ebooks from Amazon

As for Virus protection, I use the free ClamXAV

I hope this helps!

 

[tomwvr]

I understand that I am over buying. I currently have a 10 year old desktop HP - that I gutted 2 years ago and put a newer processor, Motherboard and Video Card.

less then 1GB video worries me on the 21 inch Imac.

And since I really cannot gut the Imac I want to be sure it will be good for a long time - who knows when my wife will allow me to spend that kind of money on a computer again

Tom

 

[dandrewk]

I am a huge fan of future proofing. Even if you don't totally need the better graphics card right now, it's a relatively small price to pay for a significantly better GPU and VRAM.

 

[Outrigger]

I understand that I am over buying. I currently have a 10 year old desktop HP - that I gutted 2 years ago and put a newer processor, Motherboard and Video Card.

less then 1GB video worries me on the 21 inch Imac.

And since I really cannot gut the Imac I want to be sure it will be good for a long time - who knows when my wife will allow me to spend that kind of money on a computer again

Tom

why not get the $1999 version of the 27"

 

[tomwvr]

I am going to get that and then upgrade the video and processor. Since I cannot easily gut this and upgrade in the future, going to go to the best I can.

And as I stated - getting the wife to agree to another large computer purchase in the next few years will be tough to do :>)

Tom