Title says it all! If so, what is your reasoning? Why would you prefer the 21.5" over the 27" what configuration will you get? What makes the 27" a deal breaker for you? : )
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Who's getting the 21.5" iMac over the 27"?
- Thread starter MagicThief83
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Well, nobody has yet offered to pay the difference between the two models for me, so it looks like I'm stuck with the 21.5 inch model. I'll have to piddle along with the higher level 21.5 upgraded with a fusion drive while all those around me with unlimited budgets flaunt their large screen model.
woe is me.
woe is me.
I am looking to purchase a 21.5 inch iMac
I have a macbook air and a 27inch thunderbolt display in my home office but we need a smaller set up for my wife to use in a smaller space in our den. So yes, I am looking to purchase a 21.5. Probably the old model as a refurbished unit unless I can find one for substantially less in excellent shape used. The issue for us is limited space in the den.
I have a macbook air and a 27inch thunderbolt display in my home office but we need a smaller set up for my wife to use in a smaller space in our den. So yes, I am looking to purchase a 21.5. Probably the old model as a refurbished unit unless I can find one for substantially less in excellent shape used. The issue for us is limited space in the den.
Lack of space and need for less weight will keep me with a 21.5. I actually love that size display. I don't like the slower HDD and will hope that the fusion drive will be 7200 even in this machine. I may kick up the RAM too in hopes to keep it running smoother longer. Yes, I know I will have to pay Apple to do that but probably would anyway. Worry here about repairability so will wait to see what the folks say about getting in to repair them. Now to hope this 2008 hangs in there a little while longer. Thought briefly about a mini but finding an equivalent display at the low weight is tough.
yea, so I just put in my order
for a refurb iMac 21.5. I am having it drop shipped to OWC where they will install a 256 gig ssd and 4 more gigs of ram bringing it up to 8 gig ram.
As I said - i enjoy my thunderbolt 27 but my wife is looking for something a little smaller for her space. Hope this does the trick. We have gotten used to running with SSDs on our macbook airs and cant imagine going back to spinning disks.
for a refurb iMac 21.5. I am having it drop shipped to OWC where they will install a 256 gig ssd and 4 more gigs of ram bringing it up to 8 gig ram.
As I said - i enjoy my thunderbolt 27 but my wife is looking for something a little smaller for her space. Hope this does the trick. We have gotten used to running with SSDs on our macbook airs and cant imagine going back to spinning disks.
I am going to go 21.5" mostly because I tend to upgrade every 2 years and this will fit my budget.
It sucks that Fusion or a flash option isn't standard on the higher end 21.5", but regardless, after 1 or 2 options and tax, it should fit into my budget. I would love to have the 27" but I just don't think I can afford it.
My reasoning is, if I was to stay at 1920x1080, the GT 650M at 512mb should be doable for my casual gaming needs. If I were to go 27" with its 2560x1440 resolution, the GTX 660m at 512 might hiccup a bit. I could be wrong though, but I would want something with more power to push those pixels, such as the 675mx model. Then I would want fusion and end up at $2300 or so plus tax. Puts me out of my budget
I guess it really depends upon how capable the gtx 660m is at 2560x1440 and how long I would be willing to wait for a 27" lol
Oh and my budget too..
I guess I will need to wait until pre orders / orders are open. I am thinking we may see something after iPad Mini goes on sale.
It sucks that Fusion or a flash option isn't standard on the higher end 21.5", but regardless, after 1 or 2 options and tax, it should fit into my budget. I would love to have the 27" but I just don't think I can afford it.
My reasoning is, if I was to stay at 1920x1080, the GT 650M at 512mb should be doable for my casual gaming needs. If I were to go 27" with its 2560x1440 resolution, the GTX 660m at 512 might hiccup a bit. I could be wrong though, but I would want something with more power to push those pixels, such as the 675mx model. Then I would want fusion and end up at $2300 or so plus tax. Puts me out of my budget
I guess it really depends upon how capable the gtx 660m is at 2560x1440 and how long I would be willing to wait for a 27" lol
Oh and my budget too..
I guess I will need to wait until pre orders / orders are open. I am thinking we may see something after iPad Mini goes on sale.
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Looks like i'll be getting the 21.5". My wife and are are still in school and we were looking at the 27 vs 21 and think the 27 would be overkill...That and the $$. Buying the new 21" from school i'll be able to get it $100 off the msrp and i won't have to pay sales tax! pretty good deal cause it ends up being the same price as a 2011 high end 21" refurb. I just want to know if the 5400 HDD will be slower than the 2011 7200 HDD. I also hope that the HDD is accessible to be able the replace it later down the road. It will cost too much for the high end 21" + the fusion drive
I am going to go 21.5" mostly because I tend to upgrade every 2 years and this will fit my budget.
It sucks that Fusion or a flash option isn't standard on the higher end 21.5", but regardless, after 1 or 2 options and tax, it should fit into my budget. I would love to have the 27" but I just don't think I can afford it.
My reasoning is, if I was to stay at 1920x1080, the GT 650M at 512mb should be doable for my casual gaming needs. If I were to go 27" with its 2560x1440 resolution, the GTX 660m at 512 might hiccup a bit. I could be wrong though, but I would want something with more power to push those pixels, such as the 675mx model. Then I would want fusion and end up at $2300 or so plus tax. Puts me out of my budget
I guess it really depends upon how capable the gtx 660m is at 2560x1440 and how long I would be willing to wait for a 27" lol
Oh and my budget too..
I guess I will need to wait until pre orders / orders are open. I am thinking we may see something after iPad Mini goes on sale.
Those are pretty much all the reasons I would go for the 21.5" as well. Budget definitely being one of them.
Yea, I upgrade often myself and will be coming from the 2011 model. But I have owned and used both 21.5" and 27" models and I have no problem enjoying the smaller screen size.
I game extensively on my iMac and I'm also curious as the relative power of the 650M on the 21.5" vs the GT 680MX on the 27"...
Those are pretty much all the reasons I would go for the 21.5" as well. Budget definitely being one of them.
Yea, I upgrade often myself and will be coming from the 2011 model. But I have owned and used both 21.5" and 27" models and I have no problem enjoying the smaller screen size.
I game extensively on my iMac and I'm also curious as the relative power of the 650M on the 21.5" vs the GT 680MX on the 27"...
Yes same here. I had a 2010 27" and a 2010 21"... As well as a 2007 20" and a 2008 24"... so I am wondering do I go all out and keep it for twice as long as I would normally, or just stick to the middle ground and upgrade 2-3 years?
I think it comes down to BTO options, and I guess some bench marks of the GPU performances on the 27" resolution.
I'll be getting the 21.5.
I used the 27" for a few days and just couldn't get used to it. Probably because 90% of the time I have iChat, Mail and 2 Safari windows open at the same time. I overlap so I can see the iChat, part of the incoming mail names and one full and one partial Safari window-overlapped.
It was nice being able to see 2 full Safari windows open on the 27" but I still needed to make the 2nd window active with a keystroke or mouse (most of the time I need to hit links on each window to navigate). At the end of the day it just didn't make my work any more efficient. Of course, everyone's needs are going to be different....
I used the 27" for a few days and just couldn't get used to it. Probably because 90% of the time I have iChat, Mail and 2 Safari windows open at the same time. I overlap so I can see the iChat, part of the incoming mail names and one full and one partial Safari window-overlapped.
It was nice being able to see 2 full Safari windows open on the 27" but I still needed to make the 2nd window active with a keystroke or mouse (most of the time I need to hit links on each window to navigate). At the end of the day it just didn't make my work any more efficient. Of course, everyone's needs are going to be different....
I am going to go 21.5" mostly because I tend to upgrade every 2 years and this will fit my budget.
It sucks that Fusion or a flash option isn't standard on the higher end 21.5", but regardless, after 1 or 2 options and tax, it should fit into my budget. I would love to have the 27" but I just don't think I can afford it.
My reasoning is, if I was to stay at 1920x1080, the GT 650M at 512mb should be doable for my casual gaming needs. If I were to go 27" with its 2560x1440 resolution, the GTX 660m at 512 might hiccup a bit. I could be wrong though, but I would want something with more power to push those pixels, such as the 675mx model. Then I would want fusion and end up at $2300 or so plus tax. Puts me out of my budget
I guess it really depends upon how capable the gtx 660m is at 2560x1440 and how long I would be willing to wait for a 27" lol
Oh and my budget too..
I guess I will need to wait until pre orders / orders are open. I am thinking we may see something after iPad Mini goes on sale.
You really think the GT 650M will be sufficient for casual gaming in the 21.5"? I truly hope so because I am personally leaning towards the 21.5" because the 27" will be overkill for me. I really don't need a powerful CPU but the only thing worrying me is the mediocre GPU options in the 21.5" I really don't have the space for the 27" and I hate it how Apple forces you into spending serious $ for the 27" just to get decent BTO options. I just want to enjoy a great pc game every here and then, so I guess the 21.5" should be enough.
I think it will. But my idea of casual gaming is world of Warcraft and Diablo III, two games that aren't super demanding (especially wow). Other than Blizzard games, I really don't play too many other games.
I think the deciding factor is when pre-order / ordering is available on the Apple Store, especially if we are able to configure and price out both the 21.5" and the 27".
But, another deciding factor is that the 21.5" will be available sooner and will be cheaper.
AND, another thing to consider is whether or not these things will be glued together. I sure hope not!
Scroll to the bottom of this linked article to see performance tests of a lot of different current games with the 650m. It should do nicely for casual gaming.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-650M.71887.0.html
I think the 680MX (and maybe I'm just trying to rationalize) will fry the innards of the 27" iMac...sometimes powerful ain't a good thing, but I still want it lol. I wonder if the 21.5" is superior at heat dissipation versus the 27" Oh I'm just torn
On the mini, it's +$300 to have 16 GB of RAM. If it's the same on the iMacs, you might as well just buy a 27" and add ram yourself.
I wonder what resolution these gaming benchmarks are done in, as well as whether or not the laptop in question is using 1GB of vram or 512mb. Could make a difference at 1920x1080.
I think the 680MX (and maybe I'm just trying to rationalize) will fry the innards of the 27" iMac...sometimes powerful ain't a good thing, but I still want it lol. I wonder if the 21.5" is superior at heat dissipation versus the 27" Oh I'm just torn
You really think Apple didn't think of that, and hasn't tested it?
I realize there have been heat issues with Apple computers in the past, but this one is too obvious for them to have thought of. My opinion, but I think, and I don't know how, somehow they must have figured out how to cool it acceptably. I'm excited (actually worried) to see what the price to upgrade to the 680MX is...
I don't know what to do . I will be using this computer for the next 4-5 years and I don't want to spend more than 2k for everything (applecare, taxes, ram etc).
My new iMac will be for light-medium tasks: storing my work files (word docs for copy editing and PR), playing the sims 3, storing family photos and my Rosetta Stone language packs.
Bottom line, I'm either getting the 21.5 iMac 2012 or a maxed out 2011 21.5 or 27. I can't shake the nerves that I have about buying a first gen computer.
. I will be using this computer for the next 4-5 years and I don't want to spend more than 2k for everything (applecare, taxes, ram etc). My new iMac will be for light-medium tasks: storing my work files (word docs for copy editing and PR), playing the sims 3, storing family photos and my Rosetta Stone language packs.
Bottom line, I'm either getting the 21.5 iMac 2012 or a maxed out 2011 21.5 or 27. I can't shake the nerves that I have about buying a first gen computer.
Can anyone comment on how critical it is to have 16 GB of RAM instead of 8 GB, and for what kinds of tasks (generally) it's really important?
I'm coming from a late 2008 Unibody Macbook with 4 GB, and haven't noticed big problems, but everyone on MacRumors talks as if it's absolutely necessary to max out your RAM.
Obviously it would be much better if it were user upgradeable, but if the base RAM for the iMacs is 8 GB, is that really so bad?
Thanks!!