Retina iMac Suggestions

[C_Landro]

Hello,

Brand new to the forum - - hoping to get some advice on which retina iMac to choose. I've got a $325 apple gift card and I'm eligible for student pricing, so that should help ease the pain a little bit.

I am switching from my mid 2011 MacBook Air (256gb flash drive), which is only about half full and mostly consists of music files.

My initial thought is to go with the 3.3GHz M290 and upgrade to the 256gb flash drive. I'm thinking my subscription to apple music going forward will cut down on how much I store locally. I also have a 2TB time capsule (ac wireless) that I would be able to use for extra storage as well if I get in a bind in the future, correct?

Also, I'm pretty set on the 27" screen, but does anybody feel like the retina screen is not worth the extra money?

Appreciate any feedback/thoughts!

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Hello,

Brand new to the forum - - hoping to get some advice on which retina iMac to choose. I've got a $325 apple gift card and I'm eligible for student pricing, so that should help ease the pain a little bit.

I am switching from my mid 2011 MacBook Air (256gb flash drive), which is only about half full and mostly consists of music files.

My initial thought is to go with the 3.3GHz M290 and upgrade to the 256gb flash drive. I'm thinking my subscription to apple music going forward will cut down on how much I store locally. I also have a 2TB time capsule (ac wireless) that I would be able to use for extra storage as well if I get in a bind in the future, correct?

Also, I'm pretty set on the 27" screen, but does anybody feel like the retina screen is not worth the extra money?

Appreciate any feedback/thoughts!

Retina screens are almost always worth the money, thatis what you interact with most on a computer and the best quality screen makes that all teh more pleasurable (text is brilliant on retina screens).

For your use case the lower end version with a 256 SSD sounds perfect. Remember a cheap $50 dollar usb 3 external HDD will give you 1TB of storage very cheaply for all your music photos and videos

 

[yjchua95]

Hello,

Brand new to the forum - - hoping to get some advice on which retina iMac to choose. I've got a $325 apple gift card and I'm eligible for student pricing, so that should help ease the pain a little bit.

I am switching from my mid 2011 MacBook Air (256gb flash drive), which is only about half full and mostly consists of music files.

My initial thought is to go with the 3.3GHz M290 and upgrade to the 256gb flash drive. I'm thinking my subscription to apple music going forward will cut down on how much I store locally. I also have a 2TB time capsule (ac wireless) that I would be able to use for extra storage as well if I get in a bind in the future, correct?

Also, I'm pretty set on the 27" screen, but does anybody feel like the retina screen is not worth the extra money?

Appreciate any feedback/thoughts!

How about getting the base high-end retina iMac instead? The extra punch from the M290X may come in useful. And also, it comes with a Fusion Drive as standard, with the option to go to a 256GB SSD without any extra cost.

 

[C_Landro]

Retina screens are almost always worth the money, thatis what you interact with most on a computer and the best quality screen makes that all teh more pleasurable (text is brilliant on retina screens).

For your use case the lower end version with a 256 SSD sounds perfect. Remember a cheap $50 dollar usb 3 external HDD will give you 1TB of storage very cheaply for all your music photos and videos

Appreciate the info!

 

[C_Landro]

How about getting the base high-end retina iMac instead? The extra punch from the M290X may come in useful. And also, it comes with a Fusion Drive as standard, with the option to go to a 256GB SSD without any extra cost.

Thanks so much for the suggestion. I actually ended up going with the m290x 256gb ssd. It was only $30 more than if I would have went with the m290 and upgraded to 256gb ssd.

Estimated delivery July 14-16. Hopefully it comes sooner!

 

[ZipZap]

Retina screens are almost always worth the money, thatis what you interact with most on a computer and the best quality screen makes that all teh more pleasurable (text is brilliant on retina screens).

For your use case the lower end version with a 256 SSD sounds perfect. Remember a cheap $50 dollar usb 3 external HDD will give you 1TB of storage very cheaply for all your music photos and videos

I respectfully disagree that going from 1TB HDD+128GB SSD to 256SSD is better.

 

[ZipZap]

Thanks so much for the suggestion. I actually ended up going with the m290x 256gb ssd. It was only $30 more than if I would have went with the m290 and upgraded to 256gb ssd.

Estimated delivery July 14-16. Hopefully it comes sooner!

Did you explore refurbished Apple iMacs? Same warranty less cost.

 

[C_Landro]

Did you explore refurbished Apple iMacs? Same warranty less cost.

I did take a quick look. But qualifying for the education discount took $200 off, so I went that route.

I respectfully disagree that going from 1TB HDD+128GB SSD to 256SSD is better.

Appreciate your opinion! Even with the new 2TB time capsule?

 

[yjchua95]

I respectfully disagree that going from 1TB HDD+128GB SSD to 256SSD is better.

There isn't really a better or not between the 1TB FD and the 256GB SSD.

1TB FD allows you to have the best compromise between performance, storage and cost. It gets you SSD-like speeds most of the time, but not as fast and as reliable as the 256GB SSD.

The FD gets around 650MB/s reads and 350-400MB/s writes, while the 256GB SSD gets around 720MB/s reads and 650-680MB/s writes.

Meanwhile, the SSD-only route gives better reliability as well since when the HDD part of the FD fails, the entire setup is toast (but then a user is supposed to make backups regularly anyway, SSD or not.).

So it depends whether you want storage at SSD-like speeds, or pure speed and reliability.

 

[xmichaelp]

I would get the base model 2299 one and get an SSD with it.