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In the market for a new Apple product, would a 27" iMac be a good choice?

Hieveryone

Hieveryone

macrumors 603
Original poster
Apr 11, 2014
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Right I use a 2019 15" MacBook Pro as my desktop computer.

I also use a 2017 12" MacBook on the go.

I'm thinking a 27" iMac would give me a better desktop experience, the only issue being I wouldn't use my 15" that much anymore...
 
The iMac is an excellent machine for desktop use. The 27” 5K screen gives excellent space to work in. I went from a 24” iMac to a 15” MBP as I wanted a retina screen, which the iMac didn’t have at the time. I paired it with a quad HD 27” monitor, but swapped to a 27” iMac when I could. I use the monitor as a second screen. I think it is a great setu, and I am more productiv.
 
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MacManiac76 said:
Not everyone has $4500+ to spend on an iMac Pro. The 2019 iMac is an excellent desktop computer as long as you configure it with an SSD.
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Right I mean $4,500 is a lot of money for something that you may not even need @throAU
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Would a hybrid SSD be good? I know Apple had those where it's like half SSD have regular @MacManiac76
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Moonjumper said:
The iMac is an excellent machine for desktop use. The 27” 5K screen gives excellent space to work in. I went from a 24” iMac to a 15” MBP as I wanted a retina screen, which the iMac didn’t have at the time. I paired it with a quad HD 27” monitor, but swapped to a 27” iMac when I could. I use the monitor as a second screen. I think it is a great setu, and I am more productiv.
Click to expand...

Thank you SO much for the encouragement. This is exactly the kind of advice I needed.

I feel like I should go for it now. I'm thinking of ordering just a base model 27" iMac because I don't need high specs.

My 2019 15" is a base model and it works great. My 2017 12" MacBook is also base and no problems there either. So base model Macs have worked fine for me.

Now I just need to shop around a little bit, might go with the apple refurb store
 
Moonjumper said:
You can add extra RAM later, so definitely stick to base RAM.
Click to expand...

ok great. I will get an 8GB RAM model then. what about fusion drive? Should I buy that or go with SSD? I'm not getting a spinning drive in 2020 lol
 
Does tend to limit the opportunities to score a bargain, since SSDs are build to order. :( No chance of a 30 percent discount on memorial day, for instance.
 
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Fusion drives are only fast until you try to install bootcamp-- which doesn't benefit at all from the SSD. And later, once you accumulate more data, macOS begins to lag behind as well. I've been using an external SSD since Christmas, as the simple process of repopulating my Safari reading list was taking ages.

What an imac allows you do (besides play games-- the Radeons are decently powerful) is to work with several programs simultaneously.
 
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The iMac is a good machine for desktop use, it is not an ´excellent machine´. It is far from being an excellent machine. It lacks bluetooth 5, wifi 6, T2 or Tx chip, offers only moderate gpu options, still uses old crappy single fan cooling system that barely handles the base model yet it can cope with the i9 only with power limitation and if you’re buying from a reseller it’s highly probable that you’ll end up buying one with a really annoying spinning drive. I don’t want to mention a decade old design and overpriced ssd upgrade options..
 
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I did exactly what you're thinking about, and went from a 15" MacBook Pro attached to a 27" 4K display on my desk to a base model 2017 27" iMac on my desk and a 12" MacBook for when I'm out and about back in early 2018. Long story short: Couldn't be happier. To my surprise I'm even absolutely fine with the 1TB Fusion Drive, which I did not expect after reading all the horror stories on the internet, but it's more than fast enough for my modest needs and requirements. The iMac is a brilliant work horse to run my business from. My only issue is that I will be running out of disk space in about a year, and since I don't want to deal with external drives or multiple disks I'll have to replace the internal SATA drive with a 2TB SSD or an even larger hard drive after my AppleCare+ has expired. Other than that I am extremely happy with that purchase, and am not regretting it at all.

If you find a good deal on an iMac with 2TB or 3TB Fusion Drive you may want to consider getting that. Unlike the 1TB option these two have a 128GB SSD instead of 28GB SSD so you should be able to fit the entire OS and all of your most commonly used applications on the fast part of your storage tier and only use the slower HDD for less frequently accessed bits of data.
 
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As you say you are happy with the 15" MBP. Why not just get a dock and pair it with a 4K or 5K display? Then you don't have another computer to manage and can save some money. You could also go with the best of both worlds. Do the dock and screen as mentioned. Sell or trade the 15" up to the 16".
 
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velocityg4 said:
As you say you are happy with the 15" MBP. Why not just get a dock and pair it with a 4K or 5K display? Then you don't have another computer to manage and can save some money. You could also go with the best of both worlds. Do the dock and screen as mentioned. Sell or trade the 15" up to the 16".
Click to expand...

I bought a 24" 4K monitor from Apple. It's an LG brand and looks boring but the screen itself is NICE!

Gret colors, crisp. Got my 2019 15" MacBook Pro docked on the side running TV right now. It's great!
 
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Hieveryone said:
I bought a 24" 4K monitor from Apple. It's an LG brand and looks boring but the screen itself is NICE!

Gret colors, crisp. Got my 2019 15" MacBook Pro docked on the side running TV right now. It's great!
Click to expand...

It was expensive, like around $770 with tax. Amazon has much cheaper ones that seem to be same quality.

Did I get ripped off? I mean the screen itself is amazing. Also, the lightning cable charges my MacBook Pro which is a nice feature.
 
What's your use case?

The iMac has its limits, but it's also a decent value (when you factor in the screen). I've had two -- a 2013 and now a 2019. I also tried out the base and upgraded models of the Mac Mini prior to settling on my '19 iMac. I had a very specific use case (audio production) and the iMac "just worked" a lot better with my equipment. I went with the base model because it was 30% off and, surprisingly, it's very capable for my needs--but I use thunderbolt NVME storage for high I/O tasks. I can also boot the OS from NVME as well, although I do that much less often than I expected as the fusion is fast for startups and opening my regular applications.

Based on rumors, we're probably 6 months out from a new iMac Pro and I would guess that 2021 will see a redesigned iMac. So long as you won't get the "itch" to upgrade over the next 18 months, I would scoop up an open box or refurb i5 3.7 ghz with (minimum) 2tb Fusion Drive. They are currently $1700-$1800 open box at Best Buy, if you're willing to do an inspection. Micro Center has some decent deals, too.
 
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