Is the entry level iMac for me?

[In Sams World]

Hey everyone,

First time posting here, have been frequent in the iPod forums, but never here.

Anyway, im sure there has been many a thread like this one but im looking for a little help...

I am currently a PC user and am looking at getting a mac.

I will be selling my current Toshiba laptop for $1000 and my iPod Video 30gb for $200.

So that will be on top of some money I already have set aside.

What im needing abit of help with is which iMac to get...

I surf the net, have ALOT of music, a fair few movies, I use Photoshop a fair bit for work, but nothing to intense...

So my question is do you think I should get the entry level 20" iMac or the one up from that with the 2.4ghz processor?

Do you think going to the one up is needed considering I could upgrade the RAM on the entry level rather cheaply myself.

Thanks everyone in advance.

 

[dukebound85]

no i wouldnt think so. save the money on the processor and get some cool accessories like ram and whatnot

 

[vendettabass]

just got my 2.0ghz with cto 500GB hard drive... my god its fantastic! I'm in pretty much the same position as you, big itunes library and fiddling with CS3!

Can't wait for the video drivers to be updated tho, I want this h.264 hardware on the ATi card to make some difference to my encoding!

 

[OllyW]

The entry model should be fine, just feed it more RAM when you can afford it.

 

[kwfl]

i think, if u are planning to use the iMac for more than 2-3 years, then buy the 2.4GHz one, it will look quite better in 2 years.

 

[dukebound85]

i think, if u are planning to use the iMac for more than 2-3 years, then buy the 2.4GHz one, it will look quite better in 2 years.

but to me, i dont think it would be worth paying the premium to get the fastest chip. get what you can afford

 

[queshy]

Go with the entry level.

In 2 years, whatever is out there will be much more powerful than the faster processor you dished out for now. It will be so much faster that you won't even care if you have the 2.2 or the 2.4 (or whatever the two available chips in the iMac are). The difference in speed will also be pretty unnoticeable for most things. Get the baseline and use the money for more ram or whatever.

 

[emptyCup]

i think, if u are planning to use the iMac for more than 2-3 years, then buy the 2.4GHz one, it will look quite better in 2 years.

Many people say this but if you had followed this advice 3 years ago you would have bought the 1.8 GHz single processor iMac instead of the 1.6 GHz. Three years from now the 2.4 will be 0.4 GHz less pathetic than the 2.0 GHz machine.

Unless the 2.0 does not suit your needs now, buy it and put your extra money into more RAM and, perhaps, a larger HD. You will get more for money, and extend the useful life of the machine more, this way. Best wishes.

 

[MAW]

do you game at all?

 

[In Sams World]

do you game at all?

Not in the slightest.

Music, Photo editing and Grageband are going to be the most used things id say.

And Ive got a large external HD already so the 250GB that comes with it is fine.

I think ive decided, the entry level is for me.

Thanks for the help guys.

 

[flopticalcube]

Good for you. I'm sure you'll enjoy it.