Should I take the plunge and buy the iMac now?

[iStress]

Hey guys, sorry if this is another "when to buy an iMac now?" thread. Sorry once again for the long post...

This is my situation, my high school exam results are coming in on Thursday (in Australia it's HSC, US equivalent is SAT I guess).

Now, my sister promises to buy me a mac when I get my results, but with rumours of an iMac refresh in January, I planned to hold onto the purchase until then. However, she was recently married and asked me to edit her wedding DVD (eg put music on, change a few things around) - which would require a new computer, since the PCs I currently have at home are at least 3-4 years old (they are pretty crap too).

Next thing, Australians recently saw a price increase for the Macbooks and Macbook Pros due to the lower value of the AUD. For example, the new MBP had a $500 price jump. Therefore I would assume the new iMacs will have a price hike of about $500.

That leads me to the next issue - my sister is buying a new house and a new car - which is a lot of money spent. I don't want my sister to fork out too much money for my Mac, I will feel guilty!

The iMac I'm looking at is the 24" 2.8Ghz with:
-500Gb
-Nvidia 8800GS
Total is about $2500 AUD - with the early education discount (I've applied for a University, which is valid for the discount).

I will use this iMac mainly for light-medium gaming (eg Spore, Gears of War, Bioshock, etc), and probably graphics design when I get into the course at University.

Should I put out another $200AUD for the 3.06Ghz? I would like to future proof myself.

So to sum it up:
- I plan to wait until Macworld for a new iMac
- My sister needs to have her wedding videos edited asap
- I want to buy the current gen iMac, but is the $500 price hike of the future iMac worth it?

I've been thinking....I can afford the extra $500 to get the new iMac, but considering these ideas:

- New iMac 24" will probably have:
*Nvidia 9800GS
*Bigger HDDs
*Updated CPUs (don't the current CPUs have a 1066Mhz clock speed, which is the Montevina chips?)
*DDR3 Ram
*LED screen

So is the extra $500 worth it? Plus, I have to do something for my sister, consider it a favour for buying a mac for me.

I look forward to your comments and suggestions - MacRumours is such a great place full of helpful members.

Thank You.

PS. If I decide to buy the current gen iMac, I will probably buy it this Friday. I know there's 3 weeks left until Macworld, but I don't want to wait that long and find out that there are no revisions for the iMac (false hope I guess).

PPS. With current issues surrounding the current iMacs, such as backlight bleeding, gradient issue, sound popping and moisture - do you think they are still apparent?

 

[brop52]

Are you worrying about price, can you wait, or do you want to future proof? You haven't made up your mind. Do you want better graphics performance or do you want to save money? Can your current PCs not do the video editing in the short term and then buy the new iMacs when they come out? You seem to be assuming there will be a price increase before we know anything about it or even that the new iMacs are coming in January. You know you can always buy online somewhere if the new version comes out and is much more expensive or even a refurb iMac.

 

[iStress]

Are you worrying about price, can you wait, or do you want to future proof? You haven't made up your mind. Do you want better graphics performance or do you want to save money? Can your current PCs not do the video editing in the short term and then buy the new iMacs when they come out? You seem to be assuming there will be a price increase before we know anything about it or even that the new iMacs are coming in January. You know you can always buy online somewhere if the new version comes out and is much more expensive or even a refurb iMac.

Thanks for your reply.

That's the thing, I am uncertain about buying an iMac now....or whenever, because there will always be "buts".

I know for sure that the economy won't heal by January next year, so I expect a price jump.

After doing some reading I believe the 8800GS will be slightly slower, if not the same, as the 9800GS - so am I paying the extra $500 for this? I am sure the 8800GS is a pretty decent card.

So here are three scenarios:

1) I get the current gen iMac, pay $2500AUD and finish editing the videos - but I'll miss out on the new iMac
2) I wait until Macworld, pay around $3000AUD for the iMac - my sister will probably be pissed about the unedited videos.
3) No iMac refresh in January

The simple question is.....does the current gen iMac (config posted in first post) capable of doing light-medium graphics designing and gaming? And will it last for around 3 years, considering future softwares?

 

[hellomoto4]

Just wait, it's only $500 more, and when you think about it it's not really that much. Plus, you'll be waiting less than a month so it's not even that long to wait

 

[iStress]

Just wait, it's only $500 more, and when you think about it it's not really that much. Plus, you'll be waiting less than a month so it's not even that long to wait

Interesting! But what if there's no iMac in January?

Argh, I hate playing guess and check

Thanks for your comment btw

 

[Scottsdale]

There will be an updated iMac in January... It is past due, and we have seen previous posts suggesting good things like potentially quad core processors. I would wait if I were buying it for myself. It will at least have faster processor speed and probably dual Nvidia graphics cards as the iMac usually uses same type of tech as the MacBook Pro line. Worth the wait for certain. If buying as a gift, I would go ahead and buy it... as it is a wonderful Christmas present as is.