Looking for input on what to specs to have

Hello. I have used windows my whole life, pretty much because I didn't have an option. I have kept my laptop limping along for the essentials; bill pay, surfing, and my wife likes to use picnic to edit photos. That is very hard on my laptop.
A lot of money and time into it and we're sick of that.
We are both out of school and like I said, she wants to edit phots (me too i guess), and I would just like to watch movies and play civilization V.
I have decided on a 21.5 iMac with 3.2 cpu(i3 i think).
The main reason I am posting here is the RAM. I am inclined to max it out at 16gb-I verified that that is possible with an apple person online during a live chat @ apple.com- mainly because its cheaper to buy it all at once and I want to make sure things run as smooth as possible.
As for the size of out photo library, I wiuld xonsider it average. She has done a half dozen photo books , and that wouod probably be higher if the computer wasnt a POS.

Is 16gb too.... Idk needy?
Any contructive input is apreciated.
Ty
T.T.

Can't see any reason to spend that money and you would likely never need 16GB of RAM for the things you are talking about. I'd recommend just going with the base model, I think they all come with 4GB nowadays.

After using it for awhile and you notice you're filling up the 4GB, upgrade the RAM yourself after the fact to 8GB - and it'll be cheaper than having it done from Apple.

I'm doing all the stuff you're talking about on my 4 yr old MBP that is hardware limited to only using 3GB max without issue.

Ttaylor394 said:

The main reason I am posting here is the RAM. I am inclined to max it out at 16gb-I verified that that is possible with an apple person online during a live chat @ apple.com- mainly because its cheaper to buy it all at once and I want to make sure things run as smooth as possible.

Is 16gb too.... Idk needy?

Click to expand...

The short quick answer is (IMHO) you REALLY don't need 16gig of ram. You would be just fine with 4gig.

- Nick

Thanks guys, I thought that would be a little overboard. I needed an outside perspective.

Spend the money saved on unneeded RAM by upgrading to the 27" iMac.

Razormac said:

Spend the money saved on unneeded RAM by upgrading to the 27" iMac.

Click to expand...

couldnt agree more with that

Razormac said:

Spend the money saved on unneeded RAM by upgrading to the 27" iMac.

Click to expand...

I do not agree with this. This is coming from people I know who bought the 27 inch imac and regretted the purchase. My point is of cause the specs are better with the 27 inch. But the screen size can be a little too big. I know of many people who wished Apple had the 27 inch specs but with a 21.5 inch screen.

My point is work out what specs you need. And I agree with the above that 4GB for now is all you need. But check out the screen sizes. Some people love the larger screen. Others really hate it. It's a personal thing. One you want to get right before you buy. Nothing worse then getting one screen size and wishing you had got the other.

I do all of those things on a base 2010 21.5" iMac without issue. I play WoW, edit photos, and stream movies to my Xbox360, and I haven't seen the need for more RAM yet. If you've got the money to burn and have to spend it, put it in things you can't upgrade later like a better processor. You won't be able to do it later and it'll add a little more life to your comp. Adding memory after the fact like bobtomay suggested is simple and much cheaper. If you can use a screwdriver and plug in a lamp, you'll be ok.

As for the larger screen, I'm one of those who just thought it was too big. I would have had to switch desks to fit it, and my desk is perfect for me.

I have thought about the CPU jump up, and that def makes sense.
As for the screen size, I think the 27 may be too big, especially for the type of desk "cart" we would be using.

THanks again all

TT

FWIW, I bought the 21.5, because it was my first mac, and I wasn't sure if I would like it... Within a few months, it was 2nd nature, and I wish I had bought the bigger screen now...

I didn't see where the size of your hard drive

was discussed. In my case, and I do edit a lot of images, 500 gig is not large enough. I will always go for the fastest processor as software keeps being revised needing more and more speed. I use every bit of my 8 gig of memory.

FWIW