Should I buy now or wait

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This question always comes up I know. I am really approaching my upgrade time and hope to get my tax return like in a month's time. Should I wait until the end of September or so to get a Mac. I am considering getting a 27 inch iMac with i7 (refurbished) or maxed out new Mac Mini (I have my own 22 inch screen) with SSD which would cost me slightly less than the 27 inch iMac, though I am sure iMac would perform better than the Mac Mini. And there is the option of Macbook Pros but I can't really afford the versions I want. Lower range like 13 inch seem to be very slow by today's standards and for the stuff I want to do.

Should I hold out couple or so months for newer versions of Macbook Pros and iMacs? Or would refresh be further down the track. If I am not mistaken iMacs were refreshed in May? So, perhaps they wouldn't refresh but how about MacBook Pros?

Another question that rises is that whether max spec Mac Mini (i7 and 8 gig ram, without SSD however) can handle Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash CS5 tasks. Or can it handle video editing and 3-D at all? Does anyone have any experience? I am terribly torn between having a new, beast of a PC and buying a Mac. Macs seem more costly but then again the form factor is so inviting (not a huge fan of OSX, I used Snow Leopard at school).
 
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Whenever you buy, whatever you buy, be it a new car, washing machine, TV or computer, it's inevitable that sooner or later it'll be replaced by a newer model.

Only you can choose when to 'bite the bullet'. Only you know the circumstances of your life, personal or financial etc.

No one here can tell you.

Buying an Apple device, generally you can't go far wrong. I'm just Synching my brand new iPad, purchased a couple of hours ago. Quite soon, that too, will be superceded - there are few 'bells and whistles' that would have changed my mind about when to buy.

Either way, best of luck.
 

cwa107


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Whenever you buy, whatever you buy, be it a new car, washing machine, TV or computer, it's inevitable that sooner or later it'll be replaced by a newer model.

Only you can choose when to 'bite the bullet'. Only you know the circumstances of your life, personal or financial etc.

No one here can tell you.

Buying an Apple device, generally you can't go far wrong. I'm just Synching my brand new iPad, purchased a couple of hours ago. Quite soon, that too, will be superceded - there are few 'bells and whistles' that would have changed my mind about when to buy.

Either way, best of luck.

Great advice, very well stated.

As I always say, buy the machine you NEED when you NEED it, and it will continue to serve those needs even after a newer model is released.

If you're always waiting for "the next big thing" in technology, you'll be waiting forever.
 
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No sense in waiting. They just refreshed the mini and the iMac line. So now would be the time to buy either one if you wanted one.
 
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2019 iMac 27"; 2020 M1 MacBook Air; macOS up-to-date... always.
Should I hold out couple or so months for newer versions of Macbook Pros and iMacs? Or would refresh be further down the track. If I am not mistaken iMacs were refreshed in May? So, perhaps they wouldn't refresh but how about MacBook Pros?

I can only echo the comments of the others. Beyond that, it hasn't been very long since the iMac and MacBooks were refreshed, so it's highly unlikely that it will happen again before next year.

Another question that rises is that whether max spec Mac Mini (i7 and 8 gig ram, without SSD however) can handle Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash CS5 tasks. Or can it handle video editing and 3-D at all? Does anyone have any experience? I am terribly torn between having a new, beast of a PC and buying a Mac. Macs seem more costly but then again the form factor is so inviting (not a huge fan of OSX, I used Snow Leopard at school).

You are looking at $1300 or so if you go with the Mac mini option, and you still need a monitor, keyboard, and mouse/trackpad. No matter which iMac you go with, you'd get a superior GPU with double the amount of RAM on that and double the on-chip L3 cache. All things considered, I suspect the iMac with an i5 would be a better proposition for the money. I'm not experienced with the kind of apps you plan to use, but I don't believe that processor power alone will make up for the deficiencies I listed.

With the iMac (and the mini actually), you can also just settle for the base 4GB RAM and upgrade it yourself with 3rd-party RAM for less.

EDIT: here's a site with some user-submitted benchmarks that may help you decide.
http://www.primatelabs.ca/geekbench/mac-benchmarks/
 
C

chas_m

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I am terribly torn between having a new, beast of a PC and buying a Mac. Macs seem more costly but then again the form factor is so inviting (not a huge fan of OSX, I used Snow Leopard at school).

If you're using the software you listed and even CONSIDERING a Windows machine, I don't think you quite "get it" yet in terms of why the Mac is a far better *value.*
 
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Hi.

@bittenapple

German say: "to live is to dream".

Dreaming is a very cool feeling and practice.
In one's dreams, one can do anything, be anything, have anything.

Eventually, though, life is short and as you guys say "life is a ***** and...".

That said, weigh your doe and your needs and find a way to get your kicks while you still feel the rush.

Whatever you decide, enjoy.

Br / George
 
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MBP 15" 2006 | 2011 21.5in iMac-1tb-i5-12gig | iPhone 3gs
Yup.... my MBP slowed down after 5+ years... I just bought a 21in iMac 4 days ago. It kicks butt!!! and I know it'll suit my needs for the next 5 years til THAT slows down. By then apple will have come out with 5 other OS upgrades... as long as my iMac can take it.... I'll load it!

so get what you need/want now.... why wait?
 

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