The Cost of a DIY iMac: $2929.85

[lixuelai]

The 680MX is between a desktop GTX660TI and GTX670 in performance.

Anyway the LCD is overpriced. It goes on sale for $700 quite often and Ebay sellers sell it new for $750 with full 3 year warranty.

That motherboard is crazy expensive. Thunderbolt is very rare outside of Macs.

RAM and SSD are both overpriced.

Fact of the matter is that you can build a computer that will outperform an iMac for a lot cheaper but a purchasing decision is not always about bang for the buck for a certain amount of performance...

 

[Siderz]

The big item in this is the display. I got the Dell u2711, which is apparently the same panel used in the iMac, which comes in at almost $1000.

Where did you find that out?

I'd like to know what panel is used in the 21.5" and a monitor with the equivalent.

I'm sure they've changed the panel since the last gen so maybe you've got the wrong panel anyway?

Hoping to get an external monitor soon, too OCD; don't want it to be slightly off from the iMac.

 

[12dylan34]

It depends on the developer. Some of the larger developers are extremely lenient if you want to switch. $5000 can represent a couple applications or many, so I have no idea how much work would be involved in checking.

That's a good point. It's probably like 15 commonly used plugins from 6 developers, Adobe apps and Cinema 4D from Maxon. Either way, I vastly prefer the Mac and how it works, like you and probably a lot of people here.

Also there's the matter of placing a few hundred After Effects presets in the right folders in Windows, so there's the element of inconvenience. The plugins in that respect too.

I see what you mean wih transferring your license, though.

 

[12dylan34]

Where did you find that out?

I'd like to know what panel is used in the 21.5" and a monitor with the equivalent.

I'm sure they've changed the panel since the last gen so maybe you've got the wrong panel anyway?

Hoping to get an external monitor soon, too OCD; don't want it to be slightly off from the iMac.

Honestly, it's just chatter that I've heard around here in the past that I assumed was true. Nobody has corrected me, so I suppose it's correct. The new one may very well be different as well.

As for the 21 inch, I'm not sure. I'm out of the house now, but I would just look at a higher priced Dell or whoever monitor that has good reviews. The place that I work has an Asus something or another with a 21.5" that looks good, although I don't know if it's IPS.

 

[Siderz]

Honestly, it's just chatter that I've heard around here in the past that I assumed was true. Nobody has corrected me, so I suppose it's correct. The new one may very well be different as well.

As for the 21 inch, I'm not sure. I'm out of the house now, but I would just look at a higher priced Dell or whoever monitor that has good reviews. The place that I work has an Asus something or another with a 21.5" that looks good, although I don't know if it's IPS.

I saw a perfect HP monitor, but it was missing HDMI (I'd like to bring the PS3 to my desk) and it would be nice to have some USB ports.

I've been looking at some Dell monitors but it looks to me like the stands are going to take up a lot of room.

Buying monitors is so annoying! Why can't they make it simple?!

 

[thekev]

That's a good point. It's probably like 15 commonly used plugins from 6 developers, Adobe apps and Cinema 4D from Maxon. Either way, I vastly prefer the Mac and how it works, like you and probably a lot of people here.

Also there's the matter of placing a few hundred After Effects presets in the right folders in Windows, so there's the element of inconvenience. The plugins in that respect too.

I see what you mean wih transferring your license, though.

I know Adobe is quite flexible. Maxon might be as well. I'm quite used to OSX as well, but if it becomes too awkward to meet my purchasing requirements at some point, I'll switch. It's not even always possible to say what those requirements will be in a couple years. Look at OpenCL and CUDA. Adobe and a number of other developers have gone that route whenever possible on newer features. It's something newer, yet it's something I now consider on purchases. I dislike things that just squeeze by on the current requirements. People were concerning themselves on whether they should choose the discrete gpu 2011 mini over the others for creative suite applications, yet it didn't support half the gpu based features in CS6 anyway. By CS7 it would probably become a completely unsupported option. I have no idea what After Effects plugins look like on Windows. All I know is that I hate their proprietary scripting language.

Where did you find that out?

I'd like to know what panel is used in the 21.5" and a monitor with the equivalent.

I'm sure they've changed the panel since the last gen so maybe you've got the wrong panel anyway?

Hoping to get an external monitor soon, too OCD; don't want it to be slightly off from the iMac.

Panels don't always change much from year to year. You have times where a distinctively next generation panel comes out. Other in between stuff is typically limited to tweaks made to the implementation or price drops.