iMac failure

Bought my first Apple product a 27"iMac just less than 2 years ago, I was very excited the best looking desktop ever all went well until February this year the machine was just over 1 year old and it died, is this common?
I give Apple credit because they did replace the motherboard and video card, actually everything except the hard drive at no cost even though the machine was 1 month out of warranty.
We thought we could get at least another couple of years out of the machine
Yesterday the machine got so hot I could not even touch the case, we called Apple support they made an appointment and I took it to the local Apple store, their diagnostic failing hard drive, they called this morning the motherboard has gone again, it is going to cost me over $773 dollars to replace the board on top of the $362 for the hard drive.
Is this other peoples experience with an iMac?
Is it time to scrap the iMac and go back to Windows I am furious and disappointed in Apple what a con?

I'm sorry to hear of your troubles with the iMac. It appears you either got a lemon or having a round of bad luck. You would have saved yourself much misery by purchasing Apple Care when you bought the machine. Too late now.

What you described is unusual, but it does happen. The repairs you quoted are going to cost over $1100. Whether to repair or not? That's a decision only you can make.

Hi, sorry to hear about your troubles. I just bought a mac for the 1st time last week, was delivered yesterday. I am new to the forums so forgive me if I speak out of turn. If I were you I would look into the cost of a new motherboard and hard drive and attempt to diy it. I can't imagine it could run more than 4-5 hundred. ifixit is a good resource for all kinds of diy repairs including imacs. A refurbished current model 27 imac is around $1400 so fixing it for $1100 doesn't seem worth it. Good luck.

Thanks for the suggestions, but I cannot even find screws to undo on this iMac and even though I have had many years of tinkering speccing and building intel machines this is too integrated and too many sealed parts so I will not touch it.
Update to the saga fetched the iMac the motherboard is still working but the machine seems to "flutter" goes blank for a few seconds then comes back an indication of a failing motherboard. So I am not replacing the motherboard but now we have a new fan the machine still gets hot but lo and behold a fan can be heard never ever heard that before the machine temperature is lower and the "flutter" has not occurred.
Apple reminds me of my local car dealers workshop whenever my car goes in for a service other things seem to need replacing and he covers up the cars inherent faults and his mistakes and we just have to pay.
So we have decided to use this machine until it dies and go back to windows and building my own machines writing this off to experience.
Now we know why Apple has never been a main stream player in the computer industry and never will be.

The Flutter as you call it sounds like a failing hard drive which happens with every brand of machine. Don't know what to tell you but there are millions of satisfied iMac owners out there. I have had mine for years now and never shut it off and no issues except the hard drive at 3.5 years.