iMac 21.5 inch, some questions

[DarkestSoul X21]

Hey everyone, I'm planing on getting a iMac tomorrow, (the $1200 model) and just have a few questions..

1. Is it a good machine? I plan just to make videos, make art, music and general school stuff.

2. Can I upgrade it? Like hardware wise (Hard Drive, ram, etc)

3. For people who own it, what is your opinion on it?

4. Is the Apple Protection plan worth it?

Thanks.

 

[DarkestRitual]

1. Yes, it will kick total rear for those types of tasks. I have a 2GHz core 2 duo macbook (same ram speed and stuff) and it is great, especially since snow leopard, with how fast this processor crunches numbers. Yours will be more than 1GHz faster than mine... AWESOME. Also, OS X uses RAM much more efficiently than *Ahem* some other operating systems that are out on the market. I have 4GB of DDR3 in my macbook, and after 4 days of uptime today, I finally got my first page out (as in my system had to use some virtual memory for a second, yikes!). That was after some fairly intensive Garage Band sessions where I was running about 20 tracks side by side with layered effects. My dad just got a 20 inch iMac with the same specs as my laptop from the college he works for, and he loves it. I imagine the 21.5in with better specs would also be extremely pleasing.

2. Yes, if you're very very good at being careful. On these new ones to get at stuff, I think you have to take the screen off. Granted, 4GB of RAM is enough for most of what you'll be doing, I'm sure, but if you want more, I'd try to get it preinstalled. Apple isn't charging any more than you'd be paying for the RAM from Crucial right now, and they'll install it for you. Go to 8GB now if you think you'll want it in that machine. HD, 500GB is huge man, and network storage is becoming more and more common, so you can have a lot of your stuff on a network drive accessible by all computers.

3. I don't own it, but I want to. (I actually want an i7 or i9 iMac, if they come out with an i9 one in the next generation or 2). My next computer will be an iMac. Well, next computer probably an iPad (also second gen)... next desktop, an iMac.

4. Yea, I need to buy it while I still can for this MacBook.

 

[DarkestSoul X21]

Can I get the warrently after i get the mac?

 

[chscag]

Can I get the warrently after i get the mac?

Yes, anytime during the first year. But my advice is if you're going to buy Apple care, buy it right away. Consider this: Your free phone support will only last 90 days. After that if you call Apple for phone support, you may be charged. With Apple care, phone support is included for the entire three years. (one year + two years of Apple care = three years)

Regards.

 

[DarkestSoul X21]

Yes, anytime during the first year. But my advice is if you're going to buy Apple care, buy it right away. Consider this: Your free phone support will only last 90 days. After that if you call Apple for phone support, you may be charged. With Apple care, phone support is included for the entire three years. (one year + two years of Apple care = three years)

Regards.

Ok, thank you. This is just a huge investment for me and I sold a lot of stuff to get the money so just wanted to make everything is ok.

 

[chas_m]

If it makes things easier, buy the Applecare before the 90th day. That will ensure no lapse in telephone support, but still give your wallet a little time to recover.

 

[Bullwinkle]

I have the exact machine you're looking at...and no regrets (only had it six weeks). I saved for a year to get it. I got Applecare though I don't usually get extended warranties, I felt this was worth it.

 

[Newbie2mac]

If you want to save about half on the AppleCare, you can buy it on eBay from at least a couple of sellers that have sold it for a long time - just be sure to check their feedback. I did and paid $74 for it, instead of $169. Registered immediately without a problem. The seller had lots of xln't feedback from prior purchasers for the same thing and they gave him the highest of marks.

 

[DarkestSoul X21]

I have the exact machine you're looking at...and no regrets (only had it six weeks). I saved for a year to get it. I got Applecare though I don't usually get extended warranties, I felt this was worth it.

Ok, have you got any apps for it? Like iWorks or Microsoft Office?

 

[granolaj]

You mentioned you're using it for school. Are you a college student? Make sure to ask for an education discount (bring school ID). You save $ on the computer -and- the AppleCare.

 

[DarkestSoul X21]

Well I got the iMac, total is 1337.50 with the iMac and Apple care with the student discount.

 

[toMACsh]

Congratulations!
You'll be having some fun for awhile now....

 

[Bullwinkle]

Ok, have you got any apps for it? Like iWorks or Microsoft Office?

Although a long-time MS Office user, I wanted to try iWork before making any purchases. Downloaded the 30-day trial version which I eventually purchased. If I wasn't retired, I'd have purchased Office because of my involvement in the PC world at work. Since most of what I do these days is personal, iWork suits me just fine. Plus I enjoy learning new things.

Enjoy your new toy.

 

[the8thark]

1. Is it a good machine? I plan just to make videos, make art, music and general school stuff.

Yes plus it can do so much more. They really can to everything a home or pro user would do and really efficiently too. Just make sure if you want to hardcore game, check out for discrete graphics.

2. Can I upgrade it? Like hardware wise (Hard Drive, ram, etc)
HD yes with a little effort and soemone who knows how to crack into the imac.
RAM, yes very easily, you can do that yourself.
Anything else nope. But you do not need to honestly. For what you want to do, your imac will last you for 5+ years still using the lastest OS and apps.

3. For people who own it, what is your opinion on it?
My imac is an earlier model than yours and I love it. And your one is cool too. I think imacs are the best value for money computer someone can buy. (Now maybe = with ipads in my opinion). But I'm only get one with a discrete graphics card. I just like them. But if you don't intend to play cutting edge games then it's ok you do not need it.

4. Is the Apple Protection plan worth it?
For imacs, it's a hard call. 95% of imac owners have no issue with their imacs. I only had a hard drive issue eith mine which I got replaced 4 years after I bought my imac. So for piece of mind you can get it. But you do not have to. I did not. it's a really timy chance there will be an issue with your imac. But it just depends on if you think it's worth the money.

For imacs I think not. But for MB's and MBP's I think it is. But each person is different

 

[DarkestSoul X21]

Well I got my iMac today from Fedex, seems pretty good, major changes lol But I will hopefully get used to it. So yeah, first post from the new iMac

 

[DarkestRitual]

Congrats, buddy! Welcome back! It's a way sweeter world now! If you need some pointers as far as utilizing the new features and whats handy and stuff, give me a private message. I'll kind of highlight what I think some of the best changes are for you.

If you could give me a brief description of what you use your computer for too, that'd be helpful.

 

[DarkestSoul X21]

Thanks, sure is different but I am quickly getting the hang of things. Well for now, I plan on using it for managing my music and movies, school stuff (doing the iWorks 30 day trial), and a little of gaming. But I do have this one question. If I decide to put Windows on my mac, if I get a 1TB external hard drive, can I put the Windows OS on that?

 

[DarkestRitual]

Thanks, sure is different but I am quickly getting the hang of things. Well for now, I plan on using it for managing my music and movies, school stuff (doing the iWorks 30 day trial), and a little of gaming. But I do have this one question. If I decide to put Windows on my mac, if I get a 1TB external hard drive, can I put the Windows OS on that?

I wouldn't recommend putting it on a USB external, even though the new macs are now USB bootable. If you do decide to do that, make sure at least that it is a firewire external drive, so you get somewhat decent performance.

Music is great, I've been using iTunes since it came out for OS 9 back in 2001, I realized its greatness (even over MacAmp, which was cool and skinnable) immediately. Great auto-organize feature, if you're not so ridiculously anal about your music collection that you need to rename the folders to some other obscure file structure than separated by artist and album. Always made the most sense to me.

iPhoto is cool. I started organizing my stuff in it yesterday. It was just one of those things I hadn't gotten around to doing on this computer. It's been about a year since I bought it now and I'm finally getting to it haha. It's been a long moving in process.

How's the gaming working out for ya? I play a little world of warcraft on the 9400m in my MacBook. It's a decent chipset, excellent as far as integrated graphics go.

iWork is great, but try out OpenOffice and see what you think. It's a little clunky, but it lets you save to most major file formats usually without much formatting error.

If you do internet chatting at all with your friends, I'd check out adium immediately. The best OS X chat client, single program and buddy list for all your accounts, highly skinnable. Most excellent.

 

[DarkestSoul X21]

Ok, just wondering. Because I was thinking of putting Windows on there for some little gaming. My Windows computer is just for pc gaming, everything else I hate about it lol.

Throwing out the PC specs:
Manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz (8 CPUs), ~2.8GHz
Memory: 6142MB RAM
Hard Drive: 500 GB
Video Card: ATI Radeon HD 5850
Monitor: Polarold 19" LCD HDTV
Sound Card: Speakers (High Definition Audio Device)
Speakers/Headphones: LifeChat LX-3000 headset
Keyboard: Sidewinder X6 Keyboard GFWL Edition
Mouse: SideWinder Mouse GFWL Edition
Mouse Surface: 1030 sUrface Archetype GFWL Edition
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7600) (7600.win7_rtm.090713-1255)
Motherboard: Intel P45
Computer Case: Xion Vulcan Gaming Case

But yeah I got the iMac for mainly surfing the net without worrying about viruses, and mainly non gaming stuff.

 

[the8thark]

Well to be honest for everything bar the hardcore gaming you might not even bother booting up your PC. You can play the games right in OS X or use bootcamp, which is windows natively on a Mac. But for those hardcore cutting edge games you might still get a better responce with your PC.

But for everything non gaming the Mac will rock
Just remember to ask any questions here if you need to.