iMac???

[Matt K.]

My pc is on it's last legs, I think .. and I am considering buying a refurbished iMac. Anyone have any experience with a 27" i5 iMac and can give me some hints?

[fotoguy]

I have one. I love the large screen for editing images. It has been a good machine for my photography for the past year.

Watch out for the yellow tone found on the bottom third of many of the early displays.

[Gremlich]

How much are you planning on investing? Are you considering other options? PM me if you would like some ideas.

[Jivesucka]

Great choice!
Especially if you're buying a refurb from Apple, because you'll get the standard 1-year warranty as you would on a new model.
Grabbing another two years by buying AppleCare is a good idea, because just about any repair out of warranty will cost more than AppleCare. Partly due to the fun involved in opening an iMac (the first step involves suction cups).
You can get AppleCare any time during the first year of ownership, but you can probably get a discount if you buy them together at a physical store.

The screens are positively blinding on full intensity. The built-in SD card reader can come in handy also.
With any new or recent iMac, I'd expect at least 3-5 years of cutting edge use before the Apps begin needing more grunt.
Far longer than that if your requirements are less intense.

Grab an external hard drive while you're at it.
Time Machine (free with all Macs) does automatic backups every hour.
The cost of that HD is much less painful than the cost, loss of memories & wasted time of a HD failure.

iPhoto also comes free with new Macs, but once your library grows beyond 5,000-10,000 photos it starts to really slow down, as many apps do.
Aperture is a powerful app for editing, organizing & storage. It's more work than iPhoto, but gives you more control. I've been learning it recently & it's pretty great.
Of course, there's Adobe stuff that'll do the job nicely too.

I hope some of that's useful, feel free to ask more questions. Good luck with your future purchase.

[Matt K.]

Great choice!

I hope some of that's useful, feel free to ask more questions. Good luck with your future purchase.

Too late, sorry. Looked at the screen and it is just too shiny for my taste, very reflective. So I bought a Dell 27" Ultrasharp (DY-NO-MITE monitor) with the same resolution as the iMac. And I bought a PC. Runs very smooth and no problems with larger files at all. But thanks, anyway.

[Mad Aussie]

I just went IMac ... 27" I5.

Still learning it, only had it a couple of weeks. Waiting for my CS5 to arrive. Currently have a trial Lightroom on it and likely to buy that as well rather than learn Aperture.

So far pleased with the change from PC.

[Matt K.]

I just went IMac ... 27" I5.

Still learning it, only had it a couple of weeks. Waiting for my CS5 to arrive. Currently have a trial Lightroom on it and likely to buy that as well rather than learn Aperture.

So far pleased with the change from PC.


My pc has an I7 in it ... and 6 gig of ram ... so it smokes. Windows 7 is very nice, so overall i think i made the right choice. I just could not get over the freaking shiny screen .... so darn reflective; and apple does not offer a matte screen.

[AcadieLibre]

I use an 27" iMac and a 17" Mac Book Pro and just love them for photo processing. Both lightroom and PS5 run fabulous on them and could not recommend them enough. I have a second monitor hooked up to both setups and for the cost I think it is something to consider when you have the money. For the extra real estate you get well worth the investment. If you decide to upgrade your ram don't do it through Apple though far to costly I added extra ram on my own since I like to max out the ram my computers can handle.

[Mad Aussie]

We ran 2 monitors on our PC systems (Still have one here operating), but the single 27" is almost as much real estate on it's own. I can see me wanting a second monitor sooner or later though :)
Yes, heard about the ram from a mate at work.
Thanks for the input.