iMac purchase advice needed.

[gpyles]

I am a long time PC user and I am ready to get a Mac. I am a Visual Studio programmer so I would either be running Boot Camp and/or Parallels. I bought a MacBook and few months ago for my son and he loves it. I have decided on an iMac (can't afford the Mac Pro right now) but I have a question.

With all of the issues surrounding the new iMac's I am thinking of getting the older model.

I can get the last gen 24 inch iMac at the local CompUSA right now $1399. It does not come with Leopard or iLife '08 though.

I assume I can still get extended AppleCare also.

Do you long time mac users think I would be better off getting this iMac and just buying iLife and Leopard or would you reccommend going with the current iMac?

I also wonder if anyone has any experience with the 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme version. This is the one I would really love to get if money were no object!

 

[emac82]

You should be able to get Leopard through the Up-To-Date program for $9.99, and you can still buy AppleCare. I am not sure if they offered an up to date program for iLife.

It sounds like a great deal and I am sure you would be very happy with it.

 

[lasuther]

I was at an Apple Store recently. A guy was getting his Mac worked on while he was there and he ran into a problem. Unless you keep your receipt with you, the purchase date of your Mac in their system is when Apple sold it to CompUSA, which could have been awhile ago. Apple will recognize your purchase date, but only if you provide the receipt of when you purchased it. I’m not sure it would qualify for the

That being said, I would definitely recommend buying a new 24”iMac. Having Leopard and iLife 08 really make it worth it.

 

[I'm a Mac]

The new 2.8 iMac is super-sleek, super-fast an super cool. Save up to buy it if you can. It should be worth it.

 

[lamerlizer]

IMHO, i have both kinds of imacs and the only thing i missed about the older imac is the sleep light. without it, i always turn off the power plug without knowing its sleeping. lol

 

[jonswan]

Of course some Macs are always going to have problems - you can't get 100% perfection out of a Rolls Royce. The older iMacs look cumbersome and ugly in comparison to the new ones. Also, it's resale value will not be as high. My ALU iMac 20 inch 2.0 is perfect in every way, and running Leopard with 3 GB ram is great. I'd go for the latest, and if you get a lemon, return it.

 

[gpyles]

I just placed an order for the new 24 inch iMac 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme with a 500GB hard drive.

Thanks for all of the advice. In the end I decided I wanted my first Mac to be the best I could afford!


-Greg

 

[~Shard~]

I just placed an order for the new 24 inch iMac 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme with a 500GB hard drive.

Thanks for all of the advice. In the end I decided I wanted my first Mac to be the best I could afford!


-Greg

Good choice - it will last you a long time and you will thoroughly enjoy the machine. And if you have any questions or issues, just search the Forums here for help and ask some questions if you can't find any answers.