Question on purchase of iMac

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Okay, I am a PC user since the 80's and in IT since 1985 so I have no problem with buying a Windows PC, but an Apple on the other hand.... is very stressful!! :Confused:
I currently have two Dell desktops that are about 6 years old, an IBM TP and an HP NC6220 both laptops and both at least 5 years old. I also have a Lenovo laptop that is about a year old. Only the TP and Lenovo are in use, the HP is a spare for work, it still has XP on it and I need it for an IPSEC VPN client for work. (I refuse to lug my work laptop home every night). So I get the most out of what I have, lol.

I want to buy an iMac that will last at least 5 years or longer and this is what I want to spec out for the iMac.

27" i7 3.4ghz
2TB drive with a 256gb SSD
AMD Radeon HD 6970M 2GB GDDR5
4gb RAM (I'll add ram myself)
Parallels or VM Fusion - to run Windows 7
(I have a lot of Windows software that is high end and would bee too expensive to upgrade at this time).

It would be used for movie and photo editing, graphics (Corel & Adobe CS5)
MS Office Suite, and a bit of gaming (my daughter is a big game player so I know she will want to play some high end games on it.)

So would it be safe to say this would be a system I could count on for at least 5-6 years without needing to upgrade? I appreciate all and any opinions/recommendations.
Thanks. Joe
 

pigoo3

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So would it be safe to say this would be a system I could count on for at least 5-6 years without needing to upgrade? I appreciate all and any opinions/recommendations.
Thanks. Joe

I would think so...I would certainly get 5 years out of it.:)

By the way (don't forget in case you didn't know)...you can run Windows natively on an Intel Mac via "bootcamp" (thus no need for Parallels or VmWare Fusion). But this method requires you to boot into Windows...and thus not able to run the Mac OS & Windows OS side by side.

- Nick
 
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So would it be safe to say this would be a system I could count on for at least 5-6 years without needing to upgrade? I appreciate all and any opinions/recommendations.
Thanks. Joe
No, it would not be safe to say this.
 

BrianLachoreVPI


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March 2011 15" MBP 2.3GHz i7 Quad Core 8GB Ram | Mid 2011 27" iMac 3.4 GHz i7 16 GB RAM 2 TB HDD
No, it would not be safe to say this.

You may want to elaborate just a little.

Whether or not that system will last 5-6 years, or whether you'll be happy with it that long in the age of ever advancing technology, I can't really say - but I don't see how you can go wrong with that particular spec'd machine. That's as good as it gets in the iMac line.
'
 
M

MacInWin

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I have both Parallels and VMWare on my MBP. Some thoughts are that both emulate Windows (XP Pro) well. However, the emulation does drive the CPU pretty hard, which means the temperature on the chip goes up. Add to that you want to do graphics-intensive work and it's likely that the machine will run pretty warm. BootCamp, on the other hand, is running Windows natively, which you may find both faster and cooler.

On the issue of 5 years, my iMac 21" is now just over 3 years old, going strong. I expect to get a couple of more years out of it. It runs the business accounting software for my wife's company, so it does get used.
 
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Thanks everyone for your responses, I have never really purchased a top of the line PC before. Working all of these years in Windows environments I'm just tired of PC's and the crap associated with Windows. Most computers I have owned after a year or so I find that I am looking to upgrade, I think that since upgrading the iMac is limited going all out on the initial purchase will more then meet my needs and expectations. Plus I think I sold my wife on the ROI (return on investment).
Joe

Jake, I think I'll run BootCamp first and see how things go with Windows 7, I may find out that I want to detach from Windows completely and bite the bullet and just upgrade all my software to Mac.
 
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One of the many things that make a Mac enjoyable is the fact it runs as fast as the day you buy and several years down the road or at least thats been my experience and with Windows I have had to do a clean install yearly to get the speed back up.
Also maintenance has been little to none on OSX.
 
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You also have an option of using a free software called VirtualBox. same idea as parallels.


I just have not had the need. to try it yet.

one more tip Buy the trackpad it is awesome
 

RavingMac

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Welcome!

You are in good company here. We ran a poll a few months back and a large part of our active membership (around 50%) of those who responded have very similar backgrounds to yours.
Enjoy, and fire away with questions, though I would strongly encourage spending some time reading through past threads, a lot of good info there.
 

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