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General Discussion

Posted by Rana Melissa Baghdar
Rana Melissa Baghdar
9,425 Points

Which iMac to buy?

Hi there guys,

Some of you might find my questions stupid, but I really need advise! So, I'm buying a new iMac since my MacBook Air(2 yrs old) (I also have a MacBook Pro I've had for 4 yrs now) kills me while writing code since everything is so small and yea, it makes the multi tasking part hard as well (this is my opinion)

First off, is there any new iMac's dropping soon? Soon as in before aug - sept 2016? I need a new one for my studies and since exams are coming up and they'll be on paper its not that urgent, but I would really like to use my summer off learning new different languages.

But what should I go for? the 4K or the 5K? 3,1 - 3,2 or 3,3 GHz processor? I am very well aware of the fact that the 4K is 3,1 GHz. And I don't need that much storage since I have two macs and a time capsule.

Please let me know what I should go for! Thanks guys <3

3 Answers

johnmacgaffey
johnmacgaffey
13,877 Points
johnmacgaffey
johnmacgaffey
13,877 Points

MacRumors' buyer's guide is a good place to start. Right now the iMac is in the middle of its product cycle. If you don't need to do any heavy image/video editing, the base model should be sufficient for programming.

Rana Melissa Baghdar
Rana Melissa Baghdar
9,425 Points

johnmacgaffey Thanks for the response, but does that mean that something new will drop soon or nah? I'm going to start editing soon, as my studies include this and thats why I was wondering if I should go for the 4K or the 5K one. The basic one isnt a option for me atm.

johnmacgaffey
johnmacgaffey
13,877 Points
johnmacgaffey
johnmacgaffey
13,877 Points

Based on historical patterns, the iMac isn't due for a refresh for at least a few months.

Michael Afanasiev
PLUS
Michael Afanasiev
Courses Plus Student 15,597 Points
Michael Afanasiev
Michael Afanasiev
Courses Plus Student 15,597 Points

Hi Rana,

What kind of editing are you going to do? I actually would suggest you to just buy a good monitor, and hook it up to your 4 year old MacBook Pro or 2 year old MacBook Air (depends on how heavy the usage is). This should be good enough for any kind of programming/editing - of course you'll have to spend some cash for peripherals.

By the way, don't mistake GHz with hard drive memory, these are completely different things. :)

Rana Melissa Baghdar
Rana Melissa Baghdar
9,425 Points

Michael Afanasiev Mostly Illustrator/Photoshop, my studies include a bit of graphic design. My MacBookPro works really slow, it's been doing that since day one and I'v taken it to the store I got it from multiple times but they don't find anything wrong with it. However the MacBookAir might have a virus or something that it got when I tried to download something from this one link I should have stayed far away from.

I'm fully aware of the fact that I can use these two laptops and just set them up with a monitor, but I'm going to buy a new Mac and its going to be a iMac so I'm basically just wondering which one to get :) But thanks for the tip thou!

Rana Melissa Baghdar
Rana Melissa Baghdar
9,425 Points

Oh, I also forgot to answer you on the last thing there. Yeah, I know :) But thats just the way they lined them up at the apple store so I just did the same to keep it simple :)

Michael Afanasiev
Michael Afanasiev
Courses Plus Student 15,597 Points

Well, for your MacBook Air I can recommend running Malwarebytes for Mac just to be on the safe side. Perform a clean install of El Capitan if needed as well.

If you still going for the iMac, then by all means go for it and I bet it'll suite all of your needs. However, if I was in your position, I would wait a little for the MacBook Pro's upgrade and buy a top of the line 15 inch MacBook Pro, and again, hook it to external monitor XD, I just feel that the value you get with these 4K/5K Macs just doesn't worth it.

With high-end Macbook Pro + External Monitor you just get much better experience, and in my opinion, much better workflow.

If you're still stuck on the iMac, then by all means go for the 27inch 5K one, whatever configuration you'll choose, configure it to be 16GB of RAM, you won't regret it :D!