Hi Everyone,

I have decided to ask Santa for a mac for Christmas and am trying to decide which one. I don't really enjoy using laptops and I work from home, so I imagine the iMac is the way to go.

I was looking at the 24"/2.4 GHz with a GB of RAM. My business is internet based and plan on doing more video and graphics in the future, but I don't think I really really require the Pro, and it may not be in Santa's budget anyway.

Do you think this is a good option for me? Which software is a must have? Do I get any special benefit from ordering it from Apple.ca or is any old reseller fine? (I have read on here not to get from Future Shop, and I hate FS so I wouldn't get it from there anyway). I am in the North end of the GTA if that helps.

Thanks in advance,
Critty

Hope Santa is good to you, but do yourself a favour and at the very least double that RAM to 2 G, 3 or 4 if you can would be better. Leopard loves RAM and works so much better with lots of it.

Hi,

I agree with that first poster, plan for another gig of RAM. The new iMac comes with 1 gig and one free slot. So you can buy it at a local store for cheaper than Apple. If you have the money, a 2 gig (for a total of 3) stick would be a good deal for the future. Leopard needs more memory than Tiger.

Also, you're talking about video. Maybe an HD upgrade would be a good deal too, as it is what takes lots of space on HD.

One advantage of ordering from the Apple Store online is that you can upgrade (BTO) parts you need, like HD, while some store may not be able to do so. And shipping is free!

I'm a research monster...DUE to the fact that I enjoy procrastination!...so, in my humble opinion, given what it is that you intend to do, get an iMac (for budget reasons), with the largest screen that you can afford (for the video end of things), WITH the maxed-out version (get 4 G) in terms of RAM as, yer gunna burn 'er up quick...I just bought a mac pro tower, 2.66 with 4 g ram and, I'm taxed....that having been said, you mentioned that you are in the GTA...if you were to enroll in a college course, say, at george brown college for example ($170) , for, I dunno, "introduction to desktop publishing" or "photoshop" or whatever, you'd be elligable for a student discount which, by the way, saved me a couple a couple grand given the fact that I purchased the adobe creative suite 3 design premium in and about the same time....

eg. photoshop/indesign/illustrator/acrobat/contribute/dreamweaver/fireworks/flash/
and bridge.....$ 400

Get a refurb 2GHz mac pro it is like 150 more. I bought an imac 1 year a go and now going to get a refurb mac pro.
The 20 inch imac I have is great but it is more of a race horse when the mac pro is a work horse. Catch my drift? Plus you can upgrade the mac pro until the cows come home, imac not so much. Hope this helps.

Hi, for budget reasons I would recommand ther refurbished 24" iMac and upgrade it to 4GB of RAM since you want to do video/picture editing stuff.

As for programs, photoshop, and final cut?

Like one of the poster said, if you know anyone that goes to post secondary, go the their book store with them and purchase some software at student price to save yourself some money.

Good luck with your purchase and your business!

if you are doing graphics, plan on investing in a quality 8bit lcd panel to go with the iMac as the newer imac screens blow for graphics.

I have a 20 Intel and it has been a great computer, I edit video and it suits me just fine in fact I went back to my old G4 to do some work while the iMac was rendering and I couldn't believe how slow it was. I would suggest that you get Applecare because it is an all in one system and if something goes wrong in the next three years it will be fixed by Apple. My optical drive went south about 10 months after I got the Imac I wasn't happy about that but it was replaced by apple. Since you are in the GTA I would suggest you check out Macdoc.com. He has some pretty good deals. You are probably going to need the extra ram and a external hard drive. He is a member here.


John

Thanks everyone for the extremely helpful advice. This is my first foray into Mac and my hubby is a Linux dude, so I want to make an educated purchase. I will look at reburbished models and definitely up the ram. Is the ram easy to install yourself? I cringed when I saw the princes on apple.ca for upgrading ...

Thanks again,
Christie

Look to CanadaRAM for memory purchases - great products and service. Apple has instructions on adding memory - quite easy for G5 and Intel based iMacs.