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Would you buy an iMac again after owning one?

Acorn

Acorn

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Jan 2, 2009
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I was thinking today how much I like my imac. Just about the only thing I dislike about it is I have no vesa mount since I bought it directly from the apple store. Its just frustrating not being able to set it up mounted on the wall and everything like I had originally planned. Just having it on the wall with no external boxes with the wires hidden. just pure bliss.

I am thinking next upgrade cycle I will opt for another imac just with vesa support. So what about everyone else. Would you buy a imac again or change to something else.
 
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Acorn said:
I was thinking today how much I like my imac. Just about the only thing I dislike about it is I have no vesa mount since I bought it directly from the apple store. Its just frustrating not being able to set it up mounted on the wall and everything like I had originally planned. Just having it on the wall with no external boxes with the wires hidden. just pure bliss.

I am thinking next upgrade cycle I will opt for another imac just with vesa support. So what about everyone else. Would you buy a imac again or change to something else.
Click to expand...

I'm definitely buying an iMac again, when my current ones bite the dust. Perhaps in the next 5 years or so. I normally change them in a 5-6 year upgrade cycle.

My current 27" was ordered from the online store with the VESA mount.
 
I have been taking a liking to the desk profile. Needless to say, with the iMac sitting on the desk it does take up precious space. I might consider my next iMac VESA depending on my current living conditions.
 
If I did not need more of a machine then yes I would certainly buy an iMac again. I will continue to buy them for my wife. She loves her iMac and could not do without it. They are a great machine, especially when they are fully loaded. I have yet to see them really bog down when I am working with them.

But with the work I am getting into, I am looking at going to the nMP for my next machine. Want the extra power it can provide, plus the peripherals that can be added to it. For the average user that wants a desktop, the iMac is one of the best choices out there.
 
Owned one for a few days - it had a few issues (high pitch whine, something dead beyond the LCD screen and it was too reflective).

I'll stick to Mac Mini's until Apple decide they aren't selling them. At that point (if it happens) I'll have to decide between a couple of desktops Macs I don't actually want or just get a laptop and external screen - although this isn't an ideal situation.

So, short answer: No I wouldn't get another.
 
I'd definitely buy one again, it's a gorgeous machine.

Haven't had the smoothest of experiences, had a 2010 model that seemed to enjoy playing up and getting lugged to the Apple Store - Apple decided to replace it free of charge for a 2013 model last year, a week before the AppleCare expired! Also got an extra three years of AppleCare with it!

I've donated it to my family for a family computer now, just bought a fully loaded 15" rMBP and it is just fantastic.
 
Definitely!

I am currently using my second consecutive iMac and will upgrade again next year. They are be far the best desktop machines I have ever had the pleasure to use. (I don't need a MacPro or I'd be tempted)
 
Had an iMac from 2007-2010 and would not buy one again. Too much compromise. If I can't easily upgrade/install/repair a computer I want it to be a laptop so that I get portability. For me the iMac combines the disadvantages of a desktop with the disadvantages of a laptop.
 
I got one for my parents, light usage, bit of iPhoto, Web, Email etc, but the main reason was Video Conferencing to a friend abroad.

As there friend had a mac as well then was so easy getting all set up and conferencing, and with the speakers, microphone, webcam all built in then doesn't create a sprawl on the desk for them.

As such when there 2008 model bites the dust would get them another iMac to replace it. For what they need then the iMac is great.

Whilst I have a Mac Pro 2010 at the moment I suspect that likely will replace that with a top end iMac instead of an nMP. I am not intensively doing video editing / handbrake encoding so shouldn't be a problem.

http://store.apple.com/uk/buy-mac/imac-vesa

You can buy them with Vesa mount adaptors from the store, not sure if you can in physical store. Just search iMac vesa mount and should find.

However at the moment believe is purely for new iMacs not a retro purchase available.
 
My early 2008 iMac is a great machine but starting to fade. I'm now leaning toward a Dell XPS 27 All-in-One, partly because it's so much cheaper and includes a DVD player. The latest iMacs are great, but I don't see what I'd get for the extra money. A thin form factor isn't that important to me, nor is the vast majority of software that's bundled with a Mac.
 
I'd definitely buy one again, and I just did. I went from a Core 2 Duo-based 21.5" iMac to an i5-based iMac/6770M. Then tried out a Mac Mini. Mini was fine, but I wanted more power, so now I have a 27" iMac and am selling my Mini.
 
def got my first imac 3 27 maxed weeks ago or so.other than the ram issues i had which isn't apples fault i love my imac and def would get another one
 
I have mixed feelings about it. While I greatly appreciate the elegant solution of having an all in one computer as beautiful as iMac, few short comings about iMac does bother me quite a bit.

Though I am not a huge gamer as I was back in the day, I do play games from time to time and GPU performance isn't up to where I'd like it to be. But then again, what all in one PC is? Acoustic is something that annoys me quite a bit. While iMac is mostly silent during the light to normal usage, it does get quite noisy when I put it to some heavy lifting. They need to fix the issue with the display being uneven. I understand no LCD panel will be perfect and also aware of calibration but having only the bottom half of the screen tinted in yellow hue makes it impossible to calibrate it. Went through multiple machines, but I wasn't able to get a machine without the tint. I gave up and settled since nMP is out of my reach at the point of purchase and lack of discrete GPU on Mac mini made iMac the only choice for me.

Ideally, I'd like a Core i-series with non-workstation GPU(and desktop versions too!) in a nMP form factor at price of current iMacs. I am willing to pay extra for the display. I don't need ECC RAMs nor Xeon processors and workstation GPUs. This way I can choose my own display and have the performance I want as well. But alas, this will most definitely won't happen. So in the end, I may end up buying another iMac in the future unless there'd be a new desktop option by then. Or perhaps I can afford to buy nMP by then.
 
Love mine, but in future, I'd probably buy a Pro and nice monitor. The screen is not great on any iMac (no need to get upset, fanboys, I haven't insulted Islam). And the lack of upgradeability isn't either.
 
six months ago, i'd have said all the way with an iMac for the next machine, sadly 1 month after applecare ran out the motherboard failed on my 2009 i7 iMac, cost to replace board was £575 for board and labour.

Ended up replacing with a mac mini and a thunderbolt display. its slightly messier on the desk, but if one part fails its just one part not the whole machine.

Next machine will be a mac pro.
 
Back in mid 2008, when I got my 24" iMac, it was brilliant.
But for the new Mac, I wanted a faster CPU - but i7 requires the BTO option and even then i7 is an add-on.
I don't see myself ever requiring the sort of graphics-performance that the Nvidia-cards of the iMacs deliver (and what's worse: they don't even do 4K...).
When I got the iMac, I wasn't wasting one minute on thinking how much it would cost to repair the thing, if it broke.
These days, that's actually a serious consideration. I don't even dare to open the 2008 - even though that's probably much easier than a 2013 model.


So, I got an i7 MacMini.
If I did more video-conferencing, it would be a bit of a mess, admittedly.
 
I bought a 2011 refurb iMac mainly because it was only a few hundred bucks more than just the Apple display and it gave me more options. I also just bought an external thunderbolt SSD (via Seagate's Desktop thunderbolt adapter that made it a lot quicker) for it and I can also just plug my MBP into it just to use it as a monitor when I run Win7/Excel off the MBP.

Whether or not I would get another one would depend on pricing and my needs in the future (I don't see an upgrade in my near future). However, for me, it will mainly depend on the price differential between it and a similar monitor. My MBP is also from 2011, so they will probably need an upgrade around the same time. I would probably upgrade the MBP first and then decide on monitor vs. iMac (same thing I did in 2011).
 
i had late 2012 21.5" iMac and after 6 months i bought the late 2013 27" iMac.
If this year will release the retina iMac with 980M i will buy, if not..i will wait for next year
 
I probably won't buy another, and I've had what, 3 or 4?

I just don't like Apple's insistence on making them impossible to modify or repair, even for something as simple as a HDD. Maybe I'd reconsider once we get gigantic cheap SSDs.

Also, there are now lotsa inexpensive 2560x1440 IPD monitors, just as good as the iMac's. And now some even better ones. I'm not leaping on the 4k bandwagon, since I think for most it's a marginal improvement bordering on 3D, but there are some awfully good cheap monitors out there.

And I don't need something smaller. 27-30" in a monitor is a sweet spot, and a few centimeters in a thinner iMac is a "so what?"

I'd like a new nMP, with more middle of the road components, not the equivalent of a concept car. Something with some upgradeable components, maybe not a full choice, but some processors, add-ons, disk bays, graphic cards. Sort of a maker-Mac. They provide a mother board and case; we go from there. Not a giant iPhone.

I doubt I'll get it, but one can wish.
 
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After many years of buying the top end towers from Apple, I switched to iMacs in late 2009 (when they really upped the design) and there was never an excuse to buy the Pro again for me. The only key to owning anything with more power would be professional video editing, where video processing must be as strong as possible if it's in a true business environment.

You can still buy a 27 inch iMac that has very little processing power and a meager gpu, storage, etc. I.E. the base model. I wouldn't consider it a good example of what the current iMacs can do. You get a very good screen, but little of the platform's capability. The entry level 21 is little more than barely enough to function, but it still has a powerful set in the basic UI/hardware to be a compelling choice over any PC. Apple made it obvious in 09 and people reacted. The machine is almost ubiquitous these days and for good reason.

People in these forums tend to stumble over minor price points as some excuse to not buy up in the platform potential and then complain it's not that good.
Yes it is, at a price you're not willing to go ;)
 
I've had one for 5 days.

It's the stock high-end 21.5" (yes, with the 5400rpm HDD). It was more important to save the $400-600 getting a stock machine at Best Buy, rather than spend about $2000 to get one BTO from Apple, even with all the student discounts.

I have a top of the line i7 '13 MBA so there definitely is a difference between the two, but the iMac is vastly superior for the gaming I do.

I like it enough that I'd get another one, or whatever the next iteration is.
 
Love em now on my 5th in twelve years.

Had G4(2002), G5(2005), Core2D(2008), i7(2012)& i7(2013).
all have been excellent apart from the G5 which had all sorts of heat related issues and was the only one that died on me. I did have a minor issue with the first i7 which my local apple store couldn't fix so they offered to replace it with a brand new 2013, at no cost extra cost:)
Hopefully this one will be good for at least another 5 years.
I've mainly used them for web design and photo editing and I've never felt they were under powered.

Also like most Apple hardware they hold their value well i sold the 2008 entry level model on ebay in 2012 and still managed to get a couple hundred pound for it.
 
I would not buy another iMac. I'm finding that as I get older the glossy display is very tiring on my eyes. And while I could live with that... what I can't live with is the continued GPU problems. I have been through 3 iMacs and all have issues with the graphics boards. I continue to fight with an iMac that randomly has a problem where the screen just goes blank. Computer is running fine...the display just blacks out. I have had the graphics board replaced twice.

What I would prefer is a Mac Mini with an external GPU module. The Mac Pro is just too far over my budget.

So.... If I need a GPU I'm likely to go with a rMBP 15" with an ext monitor rather than an iMac.
 
The new ones have some anti-gloss finish on the displays. Much easier to see. I can certainly understand the frustration with the GPU issues you've had though. Mine came with a $100 Apple gift card and I could not find anything I wanted from Apple, so I may just pay the difference and get Apple Care for the piece of mind.
 
I had just one iMac so far - iMac G5 2.1 GHz. Bought it in 2005. I still have it and it runs great on 10.5.

Actually I am considering getting an iMac again. I just don't like the screen choices to much. 21" is a little on the small side and 27" is quite big.

I actually like the 23" - 24" size quite well.

I am waiting for a screen improvement - I hope for some retina type.
 
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