Considering new iMac purchase

[JeffL]

Hi Guys. Further to my starting this thread. Apple have today released a new model iMac 21.5". If I were to buy one I would specify two upgrades, 8GB RAM to 16GB Ram (2666MHz) and iTB Fusion Drive to 512GB SSD. However they are offering three choices of processor and I'd like to ask your advice on which one I should choose.
A. 3.6GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i3 8th generation. Total cost with Ram and SSD upgrades £1789 (£149 month on 12 months interest free credit)
B. 3.2GHz 6-Core Intel Core i7 8th Generation with Turbo Boost up to 4.6GHz. This adds £270 to the price of Option 'A' above. Total cost with Ram and SSD upgrades £2059 (£171 month on 12 months interest free credit)
C. 3.0GHz 6-Core Intel Core i7 8th Generation with Turbo Boost up to 4.1GHz. The iMac with this processor is priced at £200 more as it has higher spec video graphics and memory (which I probably don't need?). Total with upgrades £1899 (£158 month)or can specify this one with the 3.2GHz as in 'B' above and price then is £2079 (£173 month) this includes the higher spec graphics etc.

My current iMac is a 'Late 2012' model 2.7GHz Quad-Core Intel i5 processor, 8GB 1600MHz RAM, 1TB Sata Drive, Nvidia Ge Force GT 640M 512MB Graphics. I use it for Email, Contacts, Calendar, Photos, Music, Pages, Numbers, Notes. I don't do any gaming but I do watch music videos on YouTube. Activity Monitor often shows about 6.25GB of my 8GB RAM in use. CPU often shows less than 10% in use. Although the existing iMac is faster than it was since tweaking a few things (see this thread) I do still sometimes get the beach ball appearing and some documents take a while to load. So I'm just considering the possibility of a new iMac. What do you think? Thank you.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

Hi Guys. Further to my starting this thread. Apple have today released a new model iMac 21.5". If I were to buy one I would specify two upgrades, 8GB RAM to 16GB Ram (2666MHz) and iTB Fusion Drive to 512GB SSD. However they are offering three choices of processor and I'd like to ask your advice on which one I should choose.
A. 3.6GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i3 8th generation. Total cost with Ram and SSD upgrades £1789 (£149 month on 12 months interest free credit)
B. 3.2GHz 6-Core Intel Core i7 8th Generation with Turbo Boost up to 4.6GHz. This adds £270 to the price of Option 'A' above. Total cost with Ram and SSD upgrades £2059 (£171 month on 12 months interest free credit)
C. 3.0GHz 6-Core Intel Core i7 8th Generation with Turbo Boost up to 4.1GHz. The iMac with this processor is priced at £200 more as it has higher spec video graphics and memory (which I probably don't need?). Total with upgrades £1899 (£158 month)or can specify this one with the 3.2GHz as in 'B' above and price then is £2079 (£173 month) this includes the higher spec graphics etc.

My current iMac is a 'Late 2012' model 2.7GHz Quad-Core Intel i5 processor, 8GB 1600MHz RAM, 1TB Sata Drive, Nvidia Ge Force GT 640M 512MB Graphics. I use it for Email, Contacts, Calendar, Photos, Music, Pages, Numbers, Notes. I don't do any gaming but I do watch music videos on YouTube. Activity Monitor often shows about 6.25GB of my 8GB RAM in use. CPU often shows less than 10% in use. Although the existing iMac is faster than it was since tweaking a few things (see this thread) I do still sometimes get the beach ball appearing and some documents take a while to load. So I'm just considering the possibility of a new iMac. What do you think? Thank you.

I just replaced my own 2010 iMac with a 2019 model. I have the 27” so my perspective will be a little different. I went with the base model but upgraded to the 1TB SSD. I hated to spend that much at Apple’s prices, but going SSD-only is a very practical decision given how hard these are to service if an HDD crashes. With Thunderbolt ports available, you can expand capacity cheaply with an external USB-C drive, which is what I did. Just be sure the 512GB SSD will be enough internal capacity for your long term needs. Also, going with 16 GB RAM is certainly the minimum I would be considering since you can’t upgrade yourself on the 21.5” model. That should suffice long-term for what you appear to be using it for. As for the cpu, you are probably ok with the i3 for your needs, but consider going up to the i5 just to future-proof it a bit, and maybe help with the future resale value some. The base i5 option should be more then adequate. I think the i7 would be overkill for you.

 

[pigoo3]

...I do still sometimes get the beach ball appearing and some documents take a while to load. So I'm just considering the possibility of a new iMac. What do you think? Thank you.

Apologies Jeff. I must have missed your April 1st reply.

As far as beachballs. I think we're all prone to these from time to time. You never eliminate them 100%...especially if the computer is being asked to do a lot of tasks...or a fewer more demanding tasks.

If you're asking the "Should I buy a new computer?" question a 2nd time after 4-6 weeks from when we improved things the 1st time...I won't try to talk you out of it again. I think you may have the "new computer bug" in your blood...and only one thing will satisfy that!

- Nick

 

[JeffL]

Apologies Jeff. I must have missed your April 1st reply.

As far as beachballs. I think we're all prone to these from time to time. You never eliminate them 100%...especially if the computer is being asked to do a lot of tasks...or a fewer more demanding tasks.

If you're asking the "Should I buy a new computer?" question a 2nd time after 4-6 weeks from when we improved things the 1st time...I won't try to talk you out of it again. I think you may have the "new computer bug" in your blood...and only one thing will satisfy that!

- Nick

Hi Nick. Well 18 days on and in fact I've decided to keep the existing iMac as it is running a lot faster now. There was a recent update to the OS which I think also helped? I was tempted with the zero rate finance offer, but Apple offer those quite often so no need to change at the moment. Just bought an additional WD My Passport back-up drive so I'm now backing-up on two of those (belt and braces). It was very interesting and informative researching a new iMac and the comments on here have been very helpful. It will all be useful at some point in the future I'm sure.

 

[pigoo3]

Hi Nick. Well 18 days on and in fact I've decided to keep the existing iMac as it is running a lot faster now.

Good deal...great to hear it. As you've experienced recently...it seems your Late 2012 iMac is capable of still providing acceptable performance for your needs. If you experience slowdowns in the near future...I would venture to guess that those would be due to:

- asking the computer to do too much at one time
- something was installed that slowed things down
- computer needs some periodic maintenance
- might just need to be rebooted

...and not the computer hardware itself. Since as you've experienced...usually the more recent slowdowns we've discussed...were something software, maintenance, or OS related.

No need to spend big $$$/£££ quite yet!

- Nick