On the Brink of a New iMac. Opinions Needed.

[TheGrudge]

My wife and I both hold full time jobs, and we're also both taking University courses.
In our house we have a 2007 iMac, and third gen iPad, and an 8 month old MacBook Air.

We both enjoy the laptop, but when it comes time to do some research or write an essay - you know, really spread out - nothing beats a big desk and a big screen.

The issue is, our 2007 iMac is now painfully slow. It'll work okay for a bit, but then you'll click on something like the Photos app and it'll chug for 10 minutes.

In addition to being used for homework, I use it to house/edit photos and movies, surf the web, email etc.

Given that the 2007 iMac has been rock solid for about 8 damn years, I figured we'd go the same route again. I like the idea of an all in one, I love Apple, and I still love our current iMac. I wouldn't change a thing.

I'm looking at the 2.8Ghz model because I figure the extra processing power and video card will help the longevity down the road. It'll also be faster (I figure) when I'm editing a movie or photos. I'd also absolutely insist on popping a fusion drive in the thing as I've heard that's a must and relatively inexpensive.

I just can't shake the voice of naysayers who would say at just under $2k Canadian, I could almost certainly get a better computer for less money. I'm not really interested in a mini and a monitor, and our office is on the main floor so the computer is out in plain sight.

Am I crazy for upgrading to the 2.8? Is there something I'm missing? Or is the fact that I love my '07 iMac enough to just keep on keeping on?

Just curious to hear other opinions before pulling the trigger.

 

[keysofanxiety]

It sounds like the issue with your iMac is relating to the hard-drive. Due to the age of the machine it's likely that the HDD's failing anyway.

I'd recommend swapping out the HDD for an SSD in your iMac. That will breathe new life into it, and certainly be a lot cheaper than a new one.

 

[cdcastillo]

It sounds like the issue with your iMac is relating to the hard-drive. Due to the age of the machine it's likely that the HDD's failing anyway.

I'd recommend swapping out the HDD for an SSD in your iMac. That will breathe new life into it, and certainly be a lot cheaper than a new one.

Exactly this. Otherwise, no, you are not crazy, the 2.8 with a fusion drive is a great option for you and your wife.

 

[talmy]

While it does just sound like a failing hard drive in your current iMac, the latest ones have better displays and seem to run much cooler. The 2.8 will make a difference particularly for video rendering, but the difference is much less than what one might think for "typical" tasks since when only one core is needed it doesn't speed up as much as the base 1.6 model can. Fusion is definitely the way to go, but spring for the 2TB version as the 1TB has a much smaller SSD portion.

 

[Algus]

You are certainly not crazy for upping to the 2.8 ghz iMac. On the 21'' models, that is probably the one I would recommend. This machine will absolutely destroy the things you've listed and should do so for many years to come.

 

[kohlson]

Who knows what you'll want to do with this machine in 8 years? So putting as many resources as you can (such as processing power) is a good thing to consider. Note that with the last few OS releases, a solid state drive (either all or part/fusion) is not really an option - it's a must. So for me, any way, SSD is the first "extra" I would get. Faster processors will make some apps incrementally faster (video rendering and large photo manipulation). Some systems can get memory upgrades after purchase, and some cannot, so that's something to consider, too.
As suggested, replacing the drive in your current system with an SSD will, in all likelihood, make it better than new. But there is the issue of good money after bad - does Apple even support this thing any more?

 

[winston1236]

It will definitely work for you and be faster in every way. The Iris Pro GFX are not amazing for video editing but I'm assuming you're not talking about professional work so I think it would be ok. The only problem I would see is the screens are a little small on that model but if that's what you're used to that won't be an issue.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

My wife and I both hold full time jobs, and we're also both taking University courses.
In our house we have a 2007 iMac, and third gen iPad, and an 8 month old MacBook Air.

We both enjoy the laptop, but when it comes time to do some research or write an essay - you know, really spread out - nothing beats a big desk and a big screen.

The issue is, our 2007 iMac is now painfully slow. It'll work okay for a bit, but then you'll click on something like the Photos app and it'll chug for 10 minutes.

In addition to being used for homework, I use it to house/edit photos and movies, surf the web, email etc.

Given that the 2007 iMac has been rock solid for about 8 damn years, I figured we'd go the same route again. I like the idea of an all in one, I love Apple, and I still love our current iMac. I wouldn't change a thing.

I'm looking at the 2.8Ghz model because I figure the extra processing power and video card will help the longevity down the road. It'll also be faster (I figure) when I'm editing a movie or photos. I'd also absolutely insist on popping a fusion drive in the thing as I've heard that's a must and relatively inexpensive.

I just can't shake the voice of naysayers who would say at just under $2k Canadian, I could almost certainly get a better computer for less money. I'm not really interested in a mini and a monitor, and our office is on the main floor so the computer is out in plain sight.

Am I crazy for upgrading to the 2.8? Is there something I'm missing? Or is the fact that I love my '07 iMac enough to just keep on keeping on?

Just curious to hear other opinions before pulling the trigger.

To be honest no you should go with that one over the cheap version as that cheaper one is basically a desktop macbook air with a very low power dualcore mobile chip.

The 2.8 version has a quadcore desktop CPU and far better graphics and is well worth the extra money, for me I'd want the 4K screen as well but that is getting a little on the expensive side.

You definitely want fusion 2TB if you can afford it as that has a full 128GB SSD over the 24GB cache in the 1TB (shanme on you apple this was a terrible decision).