Best price and spec for a mac!

EdinburghGary

EdinburghGary

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Gary
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Okay,

My birthday in a few weeks, and I wan't an apple mac as my main pressy.

All I do, is literally browse the interweb, and play with my photos.

Can you mac gods let me know the best value model? I can perhaps spend up to £1,000, maybe more, but the less I spend, the more my wife will love me.

I am not interested in anything smaller than the 24" in terms of screen size, and the 30" gives me a semi. I do understand its a lot more expensive though.

I will check the apple store shortly, as well as places like PC world. But any advice on the model of choice for photo editing would be appreciated.

Rules of engagement:
  1. No PC jokes, I am keeping my IBM's :)
  2. No "Why do you need one" replies, I just do :)
  3. No PC vs MAC debates (pretty please? ;))

Gary.
 
You could get a 20" iMac within your budget, but then I supose you know that anyway.

Now rumors surround a new range of Quad Core iMacs early in 2009 ( first quarter is quoted) so it may be worthwhile waiting, as you may get a current model at a discount price. Or get the latest ones.

Now the new mac books when they were released did have a significant price hike ( with the exception of the Mac Book Pro which didn't go up very much,) so possibly the newer models of the iMac may be a bit more expensive as well.

If you are keeping you PC then look at investing in Paragons NTFS for Mac. This enables you to read and write to NTFS files on PC's. The Mac will read NTFS but not write. Paragon software ( about £25) overcomes this problem.

Also a new version of OSX is supposed to be due early 2009 as well. Labeled Snow Leopard, it doesn't seem to have many new features just tighter coding, might run faster as well.
 
Chappers said:
You could get a 20" iMac within your budget, but then I supose you know that anyway.

Now rumors surround a new range of Quad Core iMacs early in 2009 ( first quarter is quoted) so it may be worthwhile waiting, as you may get a current model at a discount price. Or get the latest ones.
Click to expand...

Apple usually withdraw from sale all old models when they start to sell new models, the only way to get the older one would be via a reseller with old stock, if they are allowed to keep any, or on Apples refurbished store on their website. Linky here. Keep looking though because their offers change all the time.

30" screen? mmmmmmmmm:love:
 
Well the 30" display blows your budget without even looking at a computer. 24" iMac starts @ £1125. Mac mini gets you good performance for quite cheap starting under £400.

Serious suggestion, how about a white MacBook @ £704 plus a 24" MacBook cinema display @ £635. I had a quick play with that setup in the Apple store and it's more than capable. That way you get a desktop and a laptop thrown in :)

Any Mac will be enough for what you are describing.
 
Hi EG... :wave: ... I have an iMac 24" for work and the screen is to die for on its own... :thumbs:


Moving office to the garage set up in January so bought Jill a 20" iMac for Christmas so we still have one in the house proper - other than the Air that is (cos that's mine... :lol: )

Been thinking about the cinema screen for the office when I move but it seems a tad extravagant... :naughty: ... however the iMacs are absolutely superb in twin screen mode... :D


Unless you need portability I would go for the iMac for definite m8... ;)







:p
 
Right, you've got me thinking now, as a similar setup would be good for me and my girlfriend at the mo as she might need a laptop quite soon.
I'm sure you mentioned having kids? That setup comes out at £1245.45 if you buy it on the discount for students and the 24" iMac starts at £1058.
 
Give it a couple of days and something good may turn up in the Apple refurb store?

Personally, I'd be thinking Mac Mini + a screen of your choice...but that's only because I have had some bad experiences with 'all in one' systems like the iMac.

Cheers,
James
 
Gary you will not go far wrong mate with just the normal 24" Imac, the normal spec one is a 2.8 processor and 2gig ram which you can up yourself with ram from Crucial.

I would not worry about getting a large internal drive I just got the basic 320 and use external drives for all my image archives and library's. Only thing I have on the main drive are my application and i still have 201 gig spare after a year of use.

The smaller mac's have a different type of screen to the 24" not sure what the difference is but I got the larger one and have not looked back.

Have a look in the referb store you might get lucky, but the normal 24" is only slightly over your budget of 1K. I am sure you will overcome that minor issue.

Nigel
 
Wait. Macworld is in a week or so and the iMac's are due for a revamp.
 
Cheers guys. My wife has a Stirling Uni ID, however, in the past, I have always just used the education store with my own name. They don't actually check you exist at uni, and ask for no proof. As long as you enter the name of any establishment, seems to work.

I might wait for Macworld, unless I can get a credit crunch busting deal on a 24" imac tomorrow.

Not my birthday for another 2 weeks, so plenty time to shop around.

Looking forward to whatever system I buy! I bought the 30" display before, but cancelled the order and bought a large Dell monitor instead.

Gary.
 
Guys is THIS a good deal?:
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/st...null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=938221&category_oid=


Price inc VAT £1,124.52

Product Information
Let yourself by wowed by Apple’s signature all-in-one computer features a sleek and elegant anodized aluminum and glass design that will turn heads. The iMac offers rapid processing Intel thanks to its Intel Pentium 2.8Ghz Core 2 Duo Processor (800MHz FSB). With 2GB of memory as standard, you can run more programs at the same time, with faster performance. Data storage will never be an Issue for the iMac thanks to its 320GB Hard Disk Drive.

The glossy 24" widescreen display, only available with the MB325, is perfect for enjoying photos and video in all their vivid colors. To make the most of its huge 24" display, and boosting graphics performance, the Apple iMac MB323 comes with an ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO Graphics Card

Apple's iMac also include a 8x SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW), Wireless/Networking AirPort Extreme (802.11n*), Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and Gigabit Ethernet. Connectivity comes via One FireWire 800, one FireWire 400, three USB 2.0.

Included with the super base unit and monitor are the Apple Remote, Apple Keyboard, and Mighty Mouse, meaning you'll have everything you need in one box.

Software titles included as standard with the iMac are iLife' 08, Front Row and PhotoBooth, all pre-installed and operated via Apples Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard operating system.

Intel Core 2 Duo Processor 2.8 GHz Processor Speed 2 GB Memory 320 GB Hard Drive 24'' Glossy Widescreen Display Wireless & Bluetooth 2.1 Networking iLife 08 Software iSight Camera ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO Graphics Card Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard & iLife 08 Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard

Full specification Benefit
Processor Type Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor speed (2.8 GHz) The higher the number of Megahertz (MHZ) the faster the processor should be
RAM Memory 2048 MB
Hard Disk Capacity 320 GB
Combo Drive NO
CD ROM YES
CD ROM speed 24 x
DVD Drive YES
DVD Drive speed 8 x
CD Rewriter YES
CD Recording speed 24 x
Graphics type ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO
Graphics card memory 256 MB
3D accelerator graphics NO
Sound Card NOT SPECIFIED The quality of the sound generated by the PC will depend on how powerful the sound card is and the quality of the speakers
Speakers Included NO
Modem NO
No of USB connections 3 The more connections the computer has the more equipment you can connect to your computer e.g. modem, printer, scanner, digital camera, PDA
No of Firewire Sockets 1
Colour ALUMINIUM
Weight 11.5 kg This is the weight of the appliance in KG
Height 520 mm
Width 569 mm
Depth 207 mm
Monitor Tube Size 24 inches
Detachable Speakers NO



Gary.
 
EdinburghGary said:
Guys is THIS a good deal?:
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/st...null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=938221&category_oid=


Price inc VAT £1,124.52

Product Information
Let yourself by wowed by Apple’s signature all-in-one computer features a sleek and elegant anodized aluminum and glass design that will turn heads. The iMac offers rapid processing Intel thanks to its Intel Pentium 2.8Ghz Core 2 Duo Processor (800MHz FSB). With 2GB of memory as standard, you can run more programs at the same time, with faster performance. Data storage will never be an Issue for the iMac thanks to its 320GB Hard Disk Drive.

The glossy 24" widescreen display, only available with the MB325, is perfect for enjoying photos and video in all their vivid colors. To make the most of its huge 24" display, and boosting graphics performance, the Apple iMac MB323 comes with an ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO Graphics Card

Apple's iMac also include a 8x SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW), Wireless/Networking AirPort Extreme (802.11n*), Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and Gigabit Ethernet. Connectivity comes via One FireWire 800, one FireWire 400, three USB 2.0.

Included with the super base unit and monitor are the Apple Remote, Apple Keyboard, and Mighty Mouse, meaning you'll have everything you need in one box.

Software titles included as standard with the iMac are iLife' 08, Front Row and PhotoBooth, all pre-installed and operated via Apples Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard operating system.

Intel Core 2 Duo Processor 2.8 GHz Processor Speed 2 GB Memory 320 GB Hard Drive 24'' Glossy Widescreen Display Wireless & Bluetooth 2.1 Networking iLife 08 Software iSight Camera ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO Graphics Card Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard & iLife 08 Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard

Full specification Benefit
Processor Type Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor speed (2.8 GHz) The higher the number of Megahertz (MHZ) the faster the processor should be
RAM Memory 2048 MB
Hard Disk Capacity 320 GB
Combo Drive NO
CD ROM YES
CD ROM speed 24 x
DVD Drive YES
DVD Drive speed 8 x
CD Rewriter YES
CD Recording speed 24 x
Graphics type ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO
Graphics card memory 256 MB
3D accelerator graphics NO
Sound Card NOT SPECIFIED The quality of the sound generated by the PC will depend on how powerful the sound card is and the quality of the speakers
Speakers Included NO
Modem NO
No of USB connections 3 The more connections the computer has the more equipment you can connect to your computer e.g. modem, printer, scanner, digital camera, PDA
No of Firewire Sockets 1
Colour ALUMINIUM
Weight 11.5 kg This is the weight of the appliance in KG
Height 520 mm
Width 569 mm
Depth 207 mm
Monitor Tube Size 24 inches
Detachable Speakers NO



Gary.
Click to expand...

Pretty much what I have and superb for processing images. Seriously, an imac will make you want to reprocess all of your stock. It can elevate images and your opinion of them.

Pete.
 
Gary, do you know anyone that is a student? I got a massive discount on my macbook pro that way.
 
I would still wait. For the same price you'll get a better machine in a week or two.
 
I'm going to wait as well, another couple of weeks won't make that much difference.
 
I've decided to wait for a couple of weeks too, just to see what's out there. I may even consider a MacBook, and use my current 22" monitor.....

Steve
 
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