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Yes another 'which Mac should I buy thread' :P

L

LiloThePleo

macrumors 6502
Original poster
After saving up my Christmas money, doing some serious budgeting and so on I am pleased to say that one the 20th of Jan I will have enough to buy my very first iMac (not my first Mac though, I had an old black and white apple Mac II when I was a kid, lol). I am only going for the baseline model, for a few reasons:

A) it only has to last until next year when I finish uni and get a job and hence have a greater disposable income.

B) I need it well in advance of the start of university so I can get used to the new system (I haven't used a Mac sice the one I mentioned above 😱) so I can't leave getting one too late.

C) the specs are slightly better than my current PC which handles everything I throw at it (which isn't much) without a problem. The only games I run are all old like zoo tycoon 2, the sims 2, RCT 3 which I will test through parallels first but will go bootcamp if I need to.

Ok having said all that (and if anyone sees a problem in the above points do feel free to point them out) I don't know whether to buy a new iMac (apple education store Australian pricing of $1380) or a refurb iMac which has a 1tb hard drive for $1300. Any opinions would be most welcome. I have been reading the threads available here with similar questions but opinions seem a little divided, I don't want someone else's problem.

Finally I've been through mroogle and google and the apple website reading all the info I can on switching to a Mac but if anyone has a good starter guide, lists of essential software etc on hand I'd love to hear from you 🙂

Thank you 🙂
 
I have a couple of points. One, why are you only going to university for one year? Secondly I dont know what it's like in australia but it's pretty hard going looking for a job in the uk. You may want to take that into account? Of course if the economy is doing fine in australia then ignore what I say lol.
 
I've been at uni for five years, but up until now I've had a PC. Mind you there are plenty of one year uni courses. And yes the Aussie economy is doing very well, plus I am in training to be a teacher which are in short supply here 🙂 Besides, I am quite sure my iMac will not just die the day I finish uni 😉
 
I'm the same in regards to being undecided as to which model I would like to buy. I'm upgrading from a 20inch iMac from a few years ago. I'm in my second year of university studying Computer Games Development.

I want something with the power to play games and do some rendering with 3DStudio Max as well as compiling with Visual Studio. I would go for something like the HP Envy but I'm a massive Mac nerd and have used Macs for several years and feel like I can't go without the operating system. I'm leaning towards something with portability with the travelling home at Christmas and Easter holidays and the days I can't be bothered getting out of bed 🙄.

So basically I can't decide between an iMac 27" full spec, Mac Pro base with upgraded GPU or a fully specced 15" Macbook Pro. 😕

All have their plusses and negatives I just can't make the choice. My student loan comes in on Monday and I don't know which to get... 🙁
 
3DS Max would be pretty spectacular to work with on that 27 inch screen not to mention gaming. But it definitely wouldn't be very portable. I study at home so portability isn't an issue for me, but if I had to cart it back and forth every school break (and I had the money) I'd be going for the macboook pro. I guess you'd have to weigh up the screen real estate vs portability though, especially if you are into details 🙂
 
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