Should I Take the Plunge

[Applefan17]

So I recently took at trip to my neighborhood Apple Retail Store and fell in love with Apple's desktop beauty, the iMac. With magic mouse in hand, I quickly commandeered the machine for myself and cruised through the slick features that I just love. Now, this would be my first Mac purchase so I am a little worried whether or not I am making the right choice.

With the baseline iMac model in question ($1199), I'm wondering if it can handle all the things I plan to start doing:

Photo editing (mainly Aperture 3, with the ability for some light Photoshop/Lightroom down the road)
Video editing (maybe a little iMovie/Screenflow screencasting and Final Cut Pro X for down the road use)
Everyday computing (web browsing, word documents)
Maybe a little Web design sometime later on

I do plan on doing a RAM upgrade from the standard 4GB to 12GB or 16GB (not through Apple)
I also plan on splurging on an external HD as to preserve the onboard HD storage space

I am not a creative professional or anything, everything I want to do is strictly for hobby so I don't really demand the highest possible computing power to get things done as fast as possible

So, is the base-line iMac a good idea for me?

 

[Sandman1969]

Yes the baseline would handle what you are talking about, especially with the memory upgrade.

You might want to take a look at the refurbs as well. That is the route I went and saved us about $400 on each of the 2 27" iMacs we purchased. So that savings can bump you up some from the bare baseline.

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/mac/imac/21

So for $50 more than the current retail base, you get a bumped HD, bumped CPU, and bumped Video.


I would go with the latest 2011 models to ensure you have the latest video options and Thunderbolt for future use.

Also, I would recommend getting Apple Care, which you can get for 119 I think it is with a student discount. 3 years of peace of mind is nice to have.

 

[Applefan17]

Thank you for the reply!

So in terms of Apple's "refurbs", what exactly do they mean? Are they just used systems that have been returned by other users? I would imagine Apple wouldn't sell computers with even the slightest problems.

 

[Orlandoech]

Thank you for the reply!

So in terms of Apple's "refurbs", what exactly do they mean? Are they just used systems that have been returned by other users? I would imagine Apple wouldn't sell computers with even the slightest problems.

Open box items that were perfect, returns that were perfect or defective then fixed. Either way, it still comes with a default 1yr warranty and is still applicable for Apple Care. You just don't get a pretty retail box, it's a plain white box.

 

[Applefan17]

Ok, thanks for the info, I will definitely be looking into Apple's refurb models for a good deal. If anything, I'm just glad that the base-line iMac is a good system to support my needs if I don't find a good deal for a refurb iMac

 

[jwm2]

I just bought a baseline at best buy 2 weeks ago for $1124 and couldn't be happier. I do web design / graphics design and manage several e-commerce companies from my desktop. I also like to play games (portal 2 on max settings) and browse the web. I've got 16gb of ram and am loving it. I probably didn't need to buy 4 4gb sticks of ram but its so cheap ($30 a set) i figured why not? So i can attest that you will be just fine with the entry level machine and shouldn't have a need to upgrade for several years. I plan on passing this machine down to my oldest daughter when the time comes

 

[Vantage Point]

Yeah, it should handle all that with no problems and RAM upgrade is very inexpensive these days.

My first Mac was a 2009 iMac refurb (all refurbs have same as new warranty) and when it arrived it was hard to tell it wasn't brand new!!!