Which iMac would you recommend for me?

I may be in the market for a new Mac soon. I don't think I will need the portability of a laptop, and the Mac Pro is out of the budget. That leaves one of the iMac line. I'd like to end up with a machine that can handle lots of general computing, with the occasional heavier duty work (video conversions, light photo editing, etc). My wife would also like to be able to play World of Warcraft at reasonable levels in the event her Windows box blows up sometime soon.

I haven't really kept up with which models still allow users to add memory or drives other than in very general terms. What do you guys think is the most bang for the buck that I can get for roughly $2000 US? Yes, I am going to consider refurbished models.

The 27-inch is the only one that allows user-upgradeable RAM, and none of them allow user-upgradable internal drives. So it's the 27-inch 5K iMac (or a refurbished non-Retina one) for you, and Thunderbolt 2 for your future super-fast drive expansion.

I may be in the market for a new Mac soon.

Click to expand...

The 27" 5K iMac as recommended by chas_m. The newest 2015 model can take up to 64 GB of memory! And since you're a wealthy Louisiana land holder, OWC will sell you the 64 GB kit ( 4 x 16 GB modules) for $1200. ;D

chscag said:

The 27" 5K iMac as recommended by chas_m. The newest 2015 model can take up to 64 GB of memory! And since you're a wealthy Louisiana land holder, OWC will sell you the 64 GB kit ( 4 x 16 GB modules) for $1200. ;D

Click to expand...

You have obviously mistaken me for one of the wealthy Texans (yourself or Tom fir instance). LOL

In all seriousness though. I didn't realize the 5K models had user upgradeable memory. That might just cinch things for me.

I've had a 27" (non retina) iMac for a couple of years now. When I first set it up I thought "what have I done - it's huge"! But I soon got used to the screen size (it replaced a 20"iMac) and now couldn't live with anything smaller for what use it for most (photo editing and viewing). And I upgraded the RAM very easily - I often say that if I could do it then anyone could!

If you're ok with not going with a laptop…definitely go the 27" iMac route. The display quality & screen real-estate are awesome!

Definitely give the Apple refurbished area a look over. Definitely a range of models there (older non-retina & newer retina models). There were 7 models under $2000 (lowest was $1439).

The user upgradeable ram on 27" iMac's is a really nice feature.

One thing I wanted mention (from a details standpoint). The "May 2015" 27" retina iMac's are what I would call the "dumbed down" 27" retina iMac's. This was the "2nd round" release of 27" retina iMac's..and was basically a less expensive/more affordable 27" retina iMac. Compared to the "1st round" 27" retina iMac's (October, 2014)…the May, 2015 27" retina iMac's had a slower cpu, slower graphics hardware, and a slower HD.

Still a good/great computer. Apple just did some cost-cutting to make it more affordable for folks that didn't want to pay the $2499 price tag of the original 27" retina iMac's.

One other thing regarding 27" iMac's is the display resolution (good & possibly bad). The good is lots of screen real estate. The bad…depending what you were used to on your MacBook Pro…the text at the 27" iMac's native display resolution can be small. But…one of the cool things about the 27" retina iMac is the "display scaling"…or the adjustments that can be made to the display resolution via Display preferences.

The settings in display preferences allow you to increase or decrease the display resolution to provide you with increased text size (slightly less screen real Estate)…or greater screen real estate (with even smaller text). Here's an image of the Display Preferences settings for a 27" retina iMac:



Have fun shopping!

- Nick

And while you're at it Sly, why not go for the 1TB SSD and finish the job properly!:Blushing: Ultra fast (also ultra expensive, but you're only young once).

Ian

And while you're at it Sly, why not go for the 1TB SSD and finish the job properly!

Click to expand...

Sure, why not? Those wealthy land holders can afford it! ;P

@Nick Thanks for that info. Very helpful as usual. I was giving myself something of a headache working out the differences. I looked at the refurbished area briefly late Saturday night. I'm certainly going to take a better look at the options there before buying.

@Ian I'm afraid you have me confused with someone else. Haven't felt young in a while. I'll settle for young adjacent.

I worked through a configuration last night to give me a bit of a starting point.


3.2GHz quad-core Intel Core i5, Turbo Boost up to3.6GHz
]8GB 1867MHz DDR3 SDRAM - two 4GB
1TB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm
AMD Radeon R9 M380 with 2GB video memory
Part # MK 462LL/A Total $1912

27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display
3.2GHz quad-core Intel Core i5, Turbo Boost up to3.6GHz
8GB 1867MHz DDR3 SDRAM - two 4GB
1TB Fusion Drive
AMD Radeon R9 M390 with 2GB GDDR5 memory
MK472LL/A

Total $1995.00 - MacMall

Admittedly I'm a bit twitchy about the Fusion drive. I'll upgrade the memory shortly but won't be doing it through Apple. Any thoughts on these two systems?

Fusion drives are fine. Homebrew fusion drives, maybe not as much.

pigoo3 said:

If you're ok with not going with a laptop…definitely go the 27" iMac route. The display quality & screen real-estate are awesome!

Definitely give the Apple refurbished area a look over. Definitely a range of models there (older non-retina & newer retina models). There were 7 models under $2000 (lowest was $1439).

One thing I wanted mention (from a details standpoint). The "May 2015" 27" retina iMac's are what I would call the "dumbed down" 27" retina iMac's. This was the "2nd round" release of 27" retina iMac's..and was basically a less expensive/more affordable 27" retina iMac. Compared to the "1st round" 27" retina iMac's (October, 2014)…the May, 2015 27" retina iMac's had a slower cpu, slower graphics hardware, and a slower HD.

Have fun shopping!

- Nick

Click to expand...

Thanks for that tidbit. As I say I really haven't kept up with the recent gear other than in very general terms. Might be worth looking at the first ten version and comparing it to the most recent ones. There might be a "more bang for the buck" factor there as well. Any thoughts on performance differences between the first generation and current?

Slydude said:

Any thoughts on performance differences between the first generation and current?

Click to expand...

Performance-wise…I think that the newest model has slightly better CPU scores, a slightly newer GPU, and has a higher max ram (64gig vs. 32gig). I think that they ship with the new Magic Keyboard. Overall I don't think that they are majorly different.

Here's what Everymac.com says:

"Compared to its predecessor, this model essentially has the same external enclosure, but it has a higher quality DCI-P3 "Retina 5K" display with a wider color gamut as well as a more advanced architecture and graphics architecture."

- Nick

Admittedly I'm a bit twitchy about the Fusion drive. I'll upgrade the memory shortly but won't be doing it through Apple. Any thoughts on these two systems?

Click to expand...

Go for the Retina. I too am not a lover of Fusion drives either from Apple or anywhere else, however, with the Apple care extended warranty don't worry about it. You might also want to price out that same system with B&H Photo in New York. I have found that they usually beat MacMall's prices. And B&H prices beats everyone for Apple Care.

Good idea. I completely forgot about B&H as a source. Have to agree about MacMall. They used to be one of my go to places for gear but now not so much. Then again I haven't purchased a Mac since I bought the MacBook Pro in my sig. Everything else has been memory and other gear that can be purchased from almost any reputable vendor.

Pulled the trigger in a Late 2015 27" iMac with 8 GB ram and the 3.3 GHZ I5 I mentioned earlier in the thread. I looked at Apple's refurb options but much of what I was seeing was either in the laptops or some of the first and second gen iMacs (basically 2013 and beyond). Between Apple's usual boxes and the packing done by the gang at B&H it was a real tug of war getting it out of the box.

Love the new keyboard even though it is smaller than most keyboards I've owned. Didn't expect to like the new mouse either because it is rather small and I have large hands. I like it much better than the Apple Bluetooth mouse I was using. I didn't get the new Magic trackpad because the older one I have is fine for now. This has to be the most stunning screen I've used thus far.

As I mentioned in the chat notes for tonights show there is a significant difference in speed compared to the 2008 MacBook Pro. I ran a 12.08 GB through Handbrake on both machine with the file being stored on a USB 2 drive. The file got converted to M4V using the Apple TV 3 preset. The iMac took just under 1 hour 40 minutes to complete the conversion. The MacBook took 11 hrs. 22 minutes to complete the same conversion.

I'm disappointed that you didn't buy a 64 GB memory kit for your new iMac. Being a big LA land holder (or was it a Red River casino owner) I figured you would go for the very best. ;P Hey Sly, enjoy your new machine and have lots of fun with it. BTW, was the B&H price the best? I know they do not charge sales tax when shipping outside of NY.

I could have gotten essentially the same price from MacMall. I've dealt with them before without issue. The Apple price was about $100 more. IIRC correctly Apple would have collected sales tax in my area (roughly 8% I think). Although the other vendors would not have collected that up front La. tax law requires declaring it on state income tax. I put that difference toward a couple of new surge strips to replace the one my existing gear was connected to.

I was seeing similar prices from other vendors. The few places with cheaper prices seemed to be for some of the first ten 27" models or the savings wasn't enough to convince me to deal with vendors I had never heard of / dealt with before.

BTW Charlie you might have cost me a bit of change sending me there. While poking around the site I found several other bits and pieces of gear / books etc. that looked interesting. This cannot end well

Congratulations Slydude with the new computer!!! How do you like the massive 27" display? How is the text size at native resolution? Don't forget to play around with the Display Preferences settings. Just for fun…I like to click on "More Space" just to see how much more can be displayed. I think that the resolution is equivalent to 3200 x 1800 on a traditional non-retina display.

WOW…that is one heck of a performance difference regarding your Handbrake project. 11hrs+ down to 1hr 40min is pretty amazing. Quite a difference a quad-core CPU makes and hyper-threading (8 simultaneous threads)…plus all the other performance improvements since your 2008 MacBook Pro.

Congrats again on the purchase!

- Nick

I'm really hesitating on whether to go for the new 27" iMac. I'm not a power user by any means but still want the speed and capability if and when I need it. I also fancy having the 5k display.

The reason I'm hesitating is I currently have a 2012 27" iMac with 3tb fusion drive (the fusion drive was recently recalled and replaced by Apple). I've been waiting (and waiting) for the separate thunderbolt display to be updated so that I can use 2 (matching) monitors. The new 5k iMac however doesn't support another such monitor as it needs thunderbolt 3 to run another 5k monitor. I don't have 2 displays at the moment though.

Question is, am I being stupid in waiting? Will I regret not waiting if Apple updates the iMac to thunderbolt 3 and brings out a new thunderbolt 3 5k monitor (bearing in mind the Mac Pro is likely to be updated soon)?

pigoo3 said:

Congratulations Slydude with the new computer!!! How do you like the massive 27" display? How is the text size at native resolution? Don't forget to play around with the Display Preferences settings. Just for fun…I like to click on "More Space" just to see how much more can be displayed. I think that the resolution is equivalent to 3200 x 1800 on a traditional non-retina display.

WOW…that is one heck of a performance difference regarding your Handbrake project. 11hrs+ down to 1hr 40min is pretty amazing. Quite a difference a quad-core CPU makes and hyper-threading (8 simultaneous threads)…plus all the other performance improvements since your 2008 MacBook Pro.

Congrats again on the purchase!

- Nick

Click to expand...

I've been experimenting with the display settings a bit to see what would happen. I have experimented with the settings a bit (once I found them in the scaled settings). Right now I am using the default setting but you're right that option for more space is amazing. I wish there were a setting or two between the current default and the first option to enlarge text. In the meantime I've enlarged text in Safari by using a css file with the zoom command. That doesn't help with the links I have in the bookmark bar. The text is just a tad small.

@horsham hector What kinds of things are you planning to display on the second screen? If it is mainly things like e-mail that level of resolution won't be a big help and might even be something of a hinderance.