Need Advice (Potential New System)

anachronism · Aug 12th, 2006, 11:37 PM

I've only ever owned two computers in my life, a Pentium 200 PC that I was given (and totally ran into the ground) and my current 700MHz eMac. I've been nothing but happy with my eMac but think that is coming time to upgrade. I've been planning since I was uninspired by Tiger to wait for 10.5 to be released before getting a new computer. While that is still a ways away, I wanted input on exactly what I should be looking for.
I really only seem to do very pedestrian things on my computer and everything I've thrown at my eMac, it has handled even with the slow processor and only 32MB of video so I know I don't need to go crazy and get a MacPro (I so would though

) but I did some figuring and at current prices I could save almost 600 dollars by getting a high end Mac mini with 3rd party 2GB RAM, 300GB HD (internal within a firewire enclosure), and an LG 19" widescreen LCD. I would be sacrificing the video card (256MB upgrade in iMac), about 170 GB in HD space, 340MHz in processor speed, and 1" of monitor realestate. I'm going to assume that even after a refresh in both product lines the potential savings remain the same so is the sacrifices worth the savings or would it be better to just get a baseline 20" iMac with a factory bump to graphics and acquire the RAM and the same HD I would for the mini?

Sorry that was long and wordy.

MacDoc · Aug 12th, 2006, 11:52 PM

Bad approach - get a 17" iMac Intel - 1 gig of RAM and a second screen if you want more space.
email if you want more details macdoc@macdoc.com

anachronism · Aug 13th, 2006, 12:23 AM

I tried to email you but it got kicked back to me as being denied.

*Edit*

Tried again with the different email address.

WorldIRC · Aug 13th, 2006, 12:32 AM

Email Macdoc at

macdoc.com@gmail.com

If you are having probs. He is moving locations right now so...

MacWbee · Aug 13th, 2006, 12:53 AM

mac minis are great, but if you are going to need to buy a better display anyway then just buy an imac all at once with 1 gig ram minimum. if you don't want to waste any memory module in the future and if you have money to burn, just go 2 gig ram.

however if you wait for leopard in the spring, i wonder if you should also wait to see if a new imac comes out that season or august, that is if you mind apple coming out with a new version few months after your purchase.

just my thoughts.

JPL · Aug 13th, 2006, 09:01 AM

I agree, get the iMac, better all around bang for your buck. Check the Apple site to see if there are any refurbs available. Generally Apple throws really nice suprises into the refurbs, like extra ram, bigge HDD or best Vid Card.