Should I upgrade, or am I just being decadent?

[MisterEMann]

I'm currently using my first mac, a 2GHz 2GB 2007 mini, bought in Feb 08. There's nothing terribly wrong with it, although the GMA integrated graphics is a frequent foil, and there's fairly occasional lag in simple tasks (opening iTunes, streaming internet video). I could certainly make do with this for a while longer, but I find myself eyeing up the base 21.5" iMac on the apple education store.

Are these (admittedly ignorable) faults worth upgrading to a more powerful machine, or should I just 'put up and shut up'?

Advice and/or anecdotes would be much appreciated (go easy on me- new user)

 

[adomanico18]

Go for it!

I definitely think you should upgrade. Its 2010 and unfortunately integrated GMA's don't cut it anymore.

 

[mgridgaway]

What operating system are you running? It should be Snow Leopard. If not, upgrade --it's cheap. If you're comfortable opening your mini, I would suggest upgrading the hard drive to a 7200rpm model. I don't really think you'll see too much of a difference if you upgrade your ram.

Personally, I think you're being a little picky (but this is a mac forum, after all, which is pretty much the norm). I'll give you a little anecdote. I bought and upgraded a 2001 Quicksilver (a desktop) a few years ago, and I was really excited when I got my new computer because I thought it was going to be crazy fast comparatively. In the end, it was faster, but not mind-blowingly so. Of course, getting out of PPC was great, and CPU intensive tasks like flash didn't lag like crazy, but the general things - browsing, email, itunes - only sped up a little. My general rule is to buy when your computer can't accomplish what you're doing now. For example, if you really wanted to play games on it, then upgrading is a no brainer. Otherwise you're just probably wasting money that you could spend on other things.

 

[tkingart]

You have my vote for put up and shut up. lol

I would get an iMac, compared to what you have now, you'll be a very happy camper. I have the new iMac 21.5 inch and it's amazing. No iTunes lag, or any lag of any kind. You'll be hooked once you sit down and take in all the screen space and vibrant HD graphics. I've had the 13" MacBook and MacBook Pro, I ended up getting the 15" model because the screen was just too small for what I do. My eyes thank me daily for getting the iMac.

If I had to choose between my unibody macbook pro 15 and this new 21.5" iMac, I'd take the iMac in a heartbeat (and get an iPad for portability)

 

[iSee]

I say wait for the Core i3/5/7 to make its way into the 21.5" iMac.

(My guess is this will happen around Octuber -- the iMac refresh for the Christmas shopping season.)

 

[BothBarsOn]

My reply has nothing to do with specs or projected usage. I say this: you sound like you want a new computer. So get one! You only go around once ...