Please Help (Possibly Purchasing an iMac)

[ksmith5393]

I have been recently experiencing some problems with my PC and for years I have dreamed about getting a mac but I am only 14, I dont have any money, and my parents dont use the computer too often so of course we never got one.

As of now, it is possibly a 50/50 chance that we might be getting a mac. So, I dont know if I am or not but I need help from some people who are experienced with a mac.

We were thinking of the new iMac that has these specifications:
* 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
* 1GB memory
* 320GB hard drive1
* 8x double-layer SuperDrive
* ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB memory

This is already at a price of 1500 dollars which is not something that my parents would really want to spend, but they MIGHT.
but i am wondering- is this a good deal? and is it worth the money? we would like it for mainly general use, but i enjoy putting pictures and video (although i would not have TONS of video, just an small to average amount...)

Please give me your opinion! Thank you!

 

[Morod]

I'm assuming it's a 24" aluminum iMac. Is it new with a full warranty? On the apple online store, a new one of these is $1,800 so yeah, $1500 for a new one is a good price. But is it best for you? Hard to say. I recently bought a new one. I've been paying my own bills for a long time and I still had to wonder if the iMac was really worth the money.
Could you get by with say a Mac Mini, monitor and keyboard? That brings down the cost a bit and you still have a Mac with OS X.
Are you a gamer? Probably best to steer clear of Macs if you are.
I will say this. It's good to one so young have such good taste in computers.
Good luck!
Morod

 

[jemeinc]

I really like the iMacs.. I have a G5 iMac, but it's not anywhere near the machine you're considering.. I push mine hard with video editing and photos and it handles it very well, so that iMac will give you plenty of room to grow.. Not sure what opinion you're looking for from us, if it's whether or not you think your family will be satisfied with an iMac I say heck yeah!! I don't think there's a better computer out there for a family to get.. Ours sits right out in the middle of our living room and it's the center of our attention.. It's either being used for homework, playing music, editing video, making movie reservations, checking the weather, creating sales reports for work, checking everyones schedules- and many more things- usually all at the same time.. It's the center of our digital life.. You'll enjoy it very much..

 

[ksmith5393]

Thank you for both of your opinions!
And I maybe should have stated my question more clear (since you werent exactly sure what I was asking..)

But do you think that the 20" iMac for mostly general use but for use of videos and pictures is worth the 1500 dollars?
-And is the 2.4 GHz, and the 1GB of RAM, and all of the other specifications ENOUGH to have a working computer for general use but also using garageband, safari, itunes, etc. and all of the iLife 08 features?

 

[Spievy]

You can get a better deal. The Apple online store has 20" iMac Alu 2.4GHZ 1GB memory 320GB HDD for $1299, This includes a 1 year Warranty.

The Processor speed will be fine for what you want to do however, you might want to upgrade to 2GB of Memory.

 

[themoonisdown09]

You can get a better deal. The Apple online store has 20" iMac Alu 2.4GHZ 1GB memory 320GB HDD for $1299, This includes a 1 year Warranty.

The Processor speed will be fine for what you want to do however, you might want to upgrade to 2GB of Memory.

That's actually in the "Refurbished Mac" section. I haven't bought a refurbished Mac before, but from what I've heard on here, they're just as good as new. I would not buy any extra RAM from Apple because of the high mark up. If you want more RAM down the road, buy it from crucial.com or macsales.com... it's really cheap.

 

[CalBoy]

Unless your family really likes desktops, why not go for a macbook?

At $1300 for a new one, it'll offer almost the same power as the iMac (save for the graphics, but you haven't mentioned anything that would require that) and get all the portability of a notebook.

You mentioned that your parents don't use the computer much anyway, so the macbook might make it easier for them to make more use of it (ie, when they're in need of a computer on a trip or any of you want to bum on the couch with a computer).

Also, remember to buy your RAM 3rd party; Apple charges way too much for RAM (this applies even if you go for an iMac).