Need some help ordering a new imac.

[Thatguy120191]

I'm gonna be ordering the 21' 2012 iMac. I am a college kid and the computer is for me and my girlfriend.
We pretty much download movies and music look stuff up due paper and power points mirror stuff to the apple tv and she also wants it to play the sims 3.

My question is how much ram do you think I need and how big of a hard drive?

Thanks for your help

 

[Spink10]

8GB RAM

Base HD - use external if you need it

 

[Thatguy120191]

No need for me to get 16 gig ram?

 

[THOPMedia]

Based on what you use your computer for now, the base model is fine. However I always recommend that people think about what they may want to do with their computer if they had a better one. Meaning, if you started to gain some interest in making movies or a video blog or doing some creative design, you would want to think about that too. So I usually recommend people get something that is just a couple steps above their current need.

I would say get the 16gb ram and step the processor up one notch. Otherwise the base model is enough for nearly every general computer user.

 

[Thatguy120191]

Thanks think I am gonna go with 16gig ram to be safe.

 

[Macclone]

Ask her. She may want something bigger.

 

[tom vilsack]

I'm not sure how taxing Sim's 3 is on video cards?

But it you look at this video card rating score (see link below) the 2.9GHz Imac with the NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M scores a 46 overall,where the base 2.7GHz Imac with the NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M scores a overall rating no higher then 83.

If you can afford the extra $600 i would get the 2.9GHz with 16gigs ram and 1 TB fusion drive (unreal the difference a ssd makes!)

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Computer-Games-on-Laptop-Graphic-Cards.13849.0.html

ps: yes the Imacs use laptop video cards