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imac value for money?

S

super spud

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 20, 2013
45
0
Hello all. What a great looking forumn you have here!

Right my top of the range HP laptop has died after an unimpressive 3 years of service 1 of which has been painfully slow. So I've decided to switch to apple and see if the grass is greener.

Although value and apple are not words used in the same sentence im still after good bang for buck.

The portability argument is not very applicable as generally I work at a desk so do not require portability similarly I have an external monitor so attatching a laptop with additional wires although not ideal is not a swaying factor either.

Ive debated between an imac 21.5" and macbook pro retina and the choice finally has come down to bang for buck.

I qualify for student discount and comparing the middle macbook pro retina with 8gb ram, 256flash storage, dual core and iris graphics with a base imac with quad core, 8gb ram,256 flash storage, iris pro graphics the price difference is negligable.

Am I missing something here? I always believed you paid a premium for portability? Can anyone shed any light on this? Is it because the pro has just had an update but the imac is due one?

Yes quad core would be quicker as long as the application can split tasks between the cores and the graphics is marginally better but thats all I can see?
Any comments much appreciated.
 
Dual Core 2.4Ghz vs Quad Core 2.7Ghz: The iMac is considerably faster

You also upgraded the Hard Drive on the iMac to the SSD. Like most OEMs Apple bends you over and gives it to you on upgrade prices. The Educational discount doesn't make the upgrade price quite so bad. Still they are making at least $50 to $75 off a $180 upgrade that takes very little additional labor.

If you factored in the upgrade fees Apple charges that middle Macbook would have cost you $1479 instead of $1399. Like most OEMs the upgrade pricing is disproportionate to the package price.
 
Hi thanks for your reply. The macbook does not need addition upgrade options as it already comes with 256 flash storage which I upgraded on the imac. The price difference between my two machines is negligable.

Is there a huge difference between iris and iris pro? The computer will mainly be used for the usual tasks plus cad applications.
 
Don't forget resale price when looking at value.

For example, I spent £1500 on a top of the range custom PC. 4 years later, it was essentially worthless. So it cost me £1500 over 4 years.
I then spent £1200 on an iMac and sold it 4 years later for £500, so it cost me £700 over 4 years, eg half as much as the PC!

My new iMac cost £2000. I am guessing in 4 years time I'd be be able to get £1000 for it, but whatever the number turns out, there is a decent resale value there.

So while initial expenditure will be higher with Apple, the overall cost is no more and probably lower.

Also, re your question
I always believed you paid a premium for portability? Can anyone shed any light on this? Is it because the pro has just had an update but the imac is due one?
I'd say the answer is simpler than that, in essence the iMac is a laptop, just in a slightly different form factor. So you are paying the price for portability in both.

In your position, as long as you are sure about not needing much portability, I'd go for the iMac because of the bigger screen. Plus you can put the keyboard where it suits, which obviously you cannot do with a laptop.
 
Ive already decided to go down the apple route and suffer the premium so dont need persuading on that front.

I have keyboard and mouse :) yes my desk may not be the most clutter free but id rather get my monies worth. Is the imac due an update anytime soon? Is their cheaper version worth waiting for? Im unaware of apples product history so no idea if its media hype or what.
 
Ahh right good stuff. I heard they are releasing a cheaper version so assumed 90% of the power at 70% cost.

What are the must have upgrades? Ram? Fusion/flash memory? Graphics card?
I think even the basic imac will run what id want except for the cad stuff which im unsure of.
 
super spud said:
Ahh right good stuff. I heard they are releasing a cheaper version so assumed 90% of the power at 70% cost.

What are the must have upgrades? Ram? Fusion/flash memory? Graphics card?
I think even the basic imac will run what id want except for the cad stuff which im unsure of.
Click to expand...

When i choose o computer the most imortant part always is the graphic card.. If i were you i should compare those to see what you want..
I recently bought the topmodel.. 27" i7 cpu with Gtx780m graphic and fushiondrive.. Very happy with it.. I dont relly need the i7 but i thought what the heck, since i got it all why not that also..

A very important choise today is also the internal drive.. Go fushion drive or ssd!
Not a basic hd drive only..
You really feel the difference.. Computer gets really snappy!
With 27" imac u may upgrade memory later on really easy by youself but on 21" there is no way to do that.. If you go 21" you better buy the amount of ram you may need in the future.
I got 8 gb ram and everthing actually runs really well.. No hickups.
 
Sounds like you would be a good candidate for a Mac mini. You already have all the peripherals that you will need, so it'll save you a few hundred dollars.
 
A memory upgrade is always a good thing with the 21 inch since apple make it essentially impossible to add more. Yep, go fusion or SSD. I went SSD so I had no moving parts.
A lot of people thought the iPhone 5c would be 90% at 70% but it's more like 70% at 90%, however if you can wait you can always see what happens with the rumoured and may never happen lower cost one. My guess which is worthless is that it will be closer to iphone 5c in that respect and have perhaps no upgrade options at all, they don't want to damage 21 inch revenue too much.
 
Ive looked at mac mini but I just cant bring myself to do it given the spec.

Which would you recommend out of fusion or 256mb ssd? 256 is rather small I do have an external drive already from my now dead HP. The fusion has 128mb of flash is this enough or will it get taken quickly?

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Tumbleweed666 said:
A memory upgrade is always a good thing with the 21 inch since apple make it essentially impossible to add more. Yep, go fusion or SSD. I went SSD so I had no moving parts.
A lot of people thought the iPhone 5c would be 90% at 70% but it's more like 70% at 90%, however if you can wait you can always see what happens with the rumoured and may never happen lower cost one. My guess which is worthless is that it will be closer to iphone 5c in that respect and have perhaps no upgrade options at all, they don't want to damage 21 inch revenue too much.
Click to expand...

Ive just looked at the 5c vs 5s and there is actually very little in it. Seems most the savings would have come from materials..interesting.

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I cant believe its an additional 150£ for a dedicated graphics card between models.
 
super spud said:
Ive looked at mac mini but I just cant bring myself to do it given the spec.

Which would you recommend out of fusion or 256mb ssd? 256 is rather small I do have an external drive already from my now dead HP. The fusion has 128mb of flash is this enough or will it get taken quickly?
Click to expand...


That's the neat thing about fusion, it will never get taken in the way you think because what's on it gets dynamically moved between SSD and HD so your most accessed stuff is nearly always in the SSD part, but you don't have to do anything to make that happen, it's automatic. So let's say you are working on some particular photos for a few weeks they are moved to SSD, once you stop using them they get migrated to hD and something else takes their place, maybe the next set of photos.

On my current disk use I could just have got away with 256 ssd but I could afford 512 and didn't want to be messing with always struggling with moving stuff around on and off external disks.

I also thought that 512 might have better resale value than 256 AND I didn't want any moving parts, so for me that worked well. In your position If disk space is an issue id probably go fusion.
 
If I purchase an additional fladh drive in the future. Could I set the system up to use and recognise that as one of its harddrives? Saving items seemingly to it?
 
Also is my iphone can store 8gb of memory for the price of £500 why the hell does it cost me £160 for 256mb?!!
 
It's not just about the portability, but also the opposite end of the scale. There's some tasks I just need the extra screen real estate, so I have an iMac 21.5" for those tasks that are just a pain on the MBP. I also have a 13" MBP which I use for casual browsing etc, although that would be an MBA if it were to be replaced, now I've got the iMac.
 
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