Oskar45 wrote:
which Mac would you REALLY recommend? I've read a few contradictory posts on here.
I've had variants of all of the machines mentioned on this thread so far, so I'll try to offer a set of key decisions that you would likely need to make. In your first post, you indicated that you wanted an iMac. I assume that's because you like the form factor and the industrial design. Any of the current iMacs are fine machines. I think the only major decisions to make regarding the current iMacs are (1) screen size and (2) whether you want an i5 or an i7 processor. Everything else is secondary.
Screen size depends mostly on your personal taste and the physical space that you plan to house the machine, although the 27" iMac can be configured with somewhat faster cpus than the 21.5" models.
If you plan on doing a lot of video editing or audio mixing, get an i7 configuration. For all other purposes, the i5 models are quite fine (and the i5s are fine for audio/video work, too, if those are things you only do once in a while).
You'll probably want to upgrade any of the base configurations to a 2 TB drive, if only because
replacing the internal drive is a bit of a chore. Of course, you could always rely on external storage instead, but that does remove a bit of the clean design aesthetics.
For RAM, 4 GB is fine for most things. Depending on price, 8 or 16 GB is worth considering, again, especially if you want to do a bit of audio/video work. I'd probably get the 8 GB configuration. You can always upgrade the RAM later, and
at least that process is simple.
As for software, the machines come with iLife (iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand), and they are all quite good at what they do. You might consider getting Apple's Aperture software for more professional, database-driven photo editing and management, or also Adobe's tools. Actually, Adobe's consumer level Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements are surprisingly capable, and if you keep an eye open for sales, they are sometimes bundled together for ~US$100.
Regarding office suites, I have both Apple's iWork suite and Microsoft Office 2011. When I use an office suite, 90% of the time it's the Microsoft flavor, but there are occasions when Apple's iWork tools are simply far superior to Microsoft's tools, particularly in terms of visual formatting and layouts...even with spreadsheets. (I also have Open Office, but the last time I used it was when I needed to open a ten year old WordPerfect document.)
You might also want to get a copy of either Parallels Desktop or VMware Fusion if you are interested in firing up DOS/Windows/Linux/OS2/Solaris/xBSD/etc on a Mac. I use both (for historic reasons), and they are both excellent.
A used iMac can be a good value, but if you go with a used machine, I suggest sticking with one of the models from late 2009 or newer, i.e. the i5/i7 generation. The Core 2 models are good machines, but I'm not sure that's what you'd want to be using for photos and videos two or three years from now.
As others have pointed out, the Mac Pros (particularly if you want to open up the hardware and tinker) and the Mac minis (if you're tight on space and already have a nice, compatible display) have some appealing features, but the Apple aesthetic is most apparent in the iMacs and the laptops, especially the latest MacBook Airs. For completeness, consider going to an Apple retailer and playing around with an Air or a MacBook Pro, but it sounds like you are more interested in a desktop experience, in which case any current iMac should be fine.
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
J5600, 2 x Mac, 3 x SUN, Alpha DS20E, Alpha 800 5/550, 3 x RS/6000, Amiga 4000 VideoToaster, Amiga4000 -030, 733MHz Sam440 AmigaOS 4.1 update 1. Tandem Himalaya S-Series Nonstop S72000 ServerNet. 
