Im considering a mac desktop. I'm wondering if a imac 2.5 GHz would suit my needs. It would be used mostly for internet. Im also home schooled (No, I'm not a computer geek) so id use it for school projects. Over the years it will gain a lot of pictures and videos. I also love to edit video. BUT, sometimes i do things that require a little more kick. i play mine craft, and don't worry, i don't care about playing on tiny render distance. i will also play some other mid quality games. I'd really like to boot camp it with windows. but i don't know how well that would work on 2.5 GHz. Also if I'm underestimating the processer and a mac mini would do fine, please tell me!
First, I'm new here but I realized pretty fast, DON'T upgrade your ram at all. Get it after market.
Memory up to 32GB for Apple iMac 2011 Thunderbolt equipped models
iMacs all start with 4GB and they want $100 to go to 8GB or $300 to go to 16GB when you can get 16GB for $100, and save $200 bucks. Also I would pay the extra $14 to get 2x8GB sticks vs. the 4x4GB sticks and keep the old 2 sticks in there then you would have 20GB which is way more than enough. Actually the 2x4GB sticks for $50 or 1x8GB stick for $62 would be fine, for a total of 12GB.
So to sum up, you can go from 4GB to 12 for $50 (instead of $100 for 8) or to 20GB for $114 (instead of $300 for 16).
(sense im new does someone want to confirm the above? That would work right? and theres 4 ram slots?)
Other than the possessor the only things your getting for the extra $300 are a larger hard drive and the graphics goes from AMD Radeon HD 6750M with 512MB to a AMD Radeon HD 6770M with 512MB, and I have no idea what the difference is.
The $300 increase seems worth it (unlike there laptop prices where they bundle in a over priced required ram upgrade) but I think the 2.5GHz model with 12GB of ram for an extra $50 would work fine.
More info on what your using it for would be helpful, and remember the more you spend the longer it will last that extra $300 could be another year before you need a new one.