Is This a Good IMac

Fuji Dave

Fuji Dave

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Dave
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As I have treated myself to an IPhone 11 plus an Apple watch 6, I`m thinking of getting an IMac. It will be my first IMac and as our lounge is not big I was thinking of this 21.5 inch one, any help will be great. Thank you.

PS: Editing stuff will be Capture One Pro and Affinity Photo.

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I have a iMAC, love it.

I have Affinity Photo also, love it.

Go for it (y)
 
By the way, add as much RAM as you can. Not Apple modules, third party are much cheaper.
 
Hi there

I bought into Apple's "it just works" tag line some years ago (having had may years of PC/Windows experience prior to that) and lived to regret it in due course (well documented fault with it's graphics card). iMacs are truly lovely machines with gorgeous displays, but when a fault develops, the whole machine is out of action. They are not built for user maintenance the way PCs are, you can't upgrade parts after the initial build (can you still upgrade with aftermarket RAM? That feature was removed on MacBook Pros and Mac Minis a few years ago IIRC) and Apple deem anything beyond it's 6th birthday to be "legacy", so won't even offer a repair.

If you are happy to replace the machine after 4 or so years (by which time it will be groaning under ever heavier OSX updates) then it will be great fun, and lovely to look at (even when switched off!) Much as I still love the notion of another iMac, it'll be back to Windows the next time round.

Just my tuppence worth!

Cheers

George
 
PS I'd choose one with as much Graphics card RAM as possible, in addition to overall system RAM.
 
The processor is 8th Generation. I think they are on 9th / 10th Generation these days so that is a surprise to me.

The storage is small at 240gb.

RAM is 8GB which is small going forward into 2021 and beyond in my opinion.

The screen will be excellent although a little on the small side.

The graphics card is a laptop type and was released mid 2018 so again kinda outdated.

Just being honest, sorry.
 
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Norkie said:
By the way, add as much RAM as you can. Not Apple modules, third party are much cheaper.
Click to expand...
That’s pretty hard to do with the 21.5 inch iMacs as the screen is glued in with an adhesive strip all the way around. You have to remove the screen to get to the RAM modules. I gather it can be done but it’s not an easy job as compared to the 27 inch iMacs. Apple make things as hard as possible for the user to upgrade. I gather most stuff is soldered in now too.

@Fuji Dave have a look at the videos before you place an order. They are good for seeing what’s user replaceable and what isn’t. It’s mostly a case of ordered upfront with apple as many parts can’t be upgraded by your average user later on.

This website has quite a bit of info on user upgrades.

How to Upgrade iMac RAM: 2012-2022: EveryMac.com

How to instructions and video to upgrade the RAM in the 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2020 iMac. Actual max iMac RAM, too.
everymac.com everymac.com
 
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Mr M said:
Hi there

I bought into Apple's "it just works" tag line some years ago (having had may years of PC/Windows experience prior to that) and lived to regret it in due course (well documented fault with it's graphics card). iMacs are truly lovely machines with gorgeous displays, but when a fault develops, the whole machine is out of action. They are not built for user maintenance the way PCs are, you can't upgrade parts after the initial build (can you still upgrade with aftermarket RAM? That feature was removed on MacBook Pros and Mac Minis a few years ago IIRC) and Apple deem anything beyond it's 6th birthday to be "legacy", so won't even offer a repair.

If you are happy to replace the machine after 4 or so years (by which time it will be groaning under ever heavier OSX updates) then it will be great fun, and lovely to look at (even when switched off!) Much as I still love the notion of another iMac, it'll be back to Windows the next time round.

Just my tuppence worth!

Cheers

George
Click to expand...
My Mac mini is 8 years old and isn’t groaning - fingers crossed it’s got a few years life left in it yet
 
Mr M said:
Hi there

I bought into Apple's "it just works" tag line some years ago (having had may years of PC/Windows experience prior to that) and lived to regret it in due course (well documented fault with it's graphics card). iMacs are truly lovely machines with gorgeous displays, but when a fault develops, the whole machine is out of action. They are not built for user maintenance the way PCs are, you can't upgrade parts after the initial build (can you still upgrade with aftermarket RAM? That feature was removed on MacBook Pros and Mac Minis a few years ago IIRC) and Apple deem anything beyond it's 6th birthday to be "legacy", so won't even offer a repair.

If you are happy to replace the machine after 4 or so years (by which time it will be groaning under ever heavier OSX updates) then it will be great fun, and lovely to look at (even when switched off!) Much as I still love the notion of another iMac, it'll be back to Windows the next time round.

Just my tuppence worth!

Cheers

George
Click to expand...
Mr M said:
PS I'd choose one with as much Graphics card RAM as possible, in addition to overall system RAM.
Click to expand...
fujilover said:
The processor is 8th Generation. I think they are on 9th / 10th Generation these days so that is a surprise to me.

The storage is small at 240gb.

RAM is 8GB which is small going forward into 2021 and beyond in my opinion.

The screen will be excellent although a little on the small side.

The graphics card is a laptop type and was released mid 2018 so again kinda outdated.

Just being honest, sorry.
Click to expand...
Craig1912 said:
My Mac mini is 8 years old and isn’t groaning - fingers crossed it’s got a few years life left in it yet
Click to expand...


Thanks folks, have a lot to think on, but have wanted an IMac for a long time so will Google a lot.
 
rob-nikon said:
That’s pretty hard to do with the 21.5 inch iMacs as the screen is glued in with an adhesive strip all the way around. You have to remove the screen to get to the RAM modules. I gather it can be done but it’s not an easy job as compared to the 27 inch iMacs. Apple make things as hard as possible for the user to upgrade. I gather most stuff is soldered in now too.

@Fuji Dave have a look at the videos before you place an order. They are good for seeing what’s user replaceable and what isn’t. It’s mostly a case of ordered upfront with apple as many parts can’t be upgraded by your average user later on.

This website has quite a bit of info on user upgrades.

How to Upgrade iMac RAM: 2012-2022: EveryMac.com

How to instructions and video to upgrade the RAM in the 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2020 iMac. Actual max iMac RAM, too.
everymac.com everymac.com
Click to expand...


Thanks for that Rob, will have a look.
 
200
Craig1912 said:
My Mac mini is 8 years old and isn’t groaning - fingers crossed it’s got a few years life left in it yet
Click to expand...

2005 MacBook Air 11 inch here (i7, 8gb ram and 512gb ssd) and its a fast little thing and is incredible!
 
Macs are moving to own ARM architecture and these will soon become obsolete and in best case run on Windows. For the money you could do so much better elsewhere if running windows is the intention otherwise wait, wait, wait.
 
The principal for buying a Mac is to spec the machine you'll need in 3 Years time, because there's no upgrade path for most parts and overhead increases with new or updated software.

I'm curious about the idea of a 2005 MBA being a speedy thing - my late 2008 MacBook was ok when first purchased, but quite sluggish at 5 years old when replaced, even with SSD and 8GB RAM. I still have it, but it sweats over a bit of web browsing or playing a DVD. OK for writing a letter/email but not for lightroom 5.

If Macs were upgradable then they would be ok, but the lack of upgrades has prevented me buying another.
 
ancient_mariner said:
The principal for buying a Mac is to spec the machine you'll need in 3 Years time, because there's no upgrade path for most parts and overhead increases with new or updated software.

I'm curious about the idea of a 2005 MBA being a speedy thing - my late 2008 MacBook was ok when first purchased, but quite sluggish at 5 years old when replaced, even with SSD and 8GB RAM. I still have it, but it sweats over a bit of web browsing or playing a DVD. OK for writing a letter/email but not for lightroom 5.

If Macs were upgradable then they would be ok, but the lack of upgrades has prevented me buying another.
Click to expand...

This is my thinking as well. I built my PC in Sep 2012 with a Pentium i7 3770k and over eight years later the only things which has failed is the fan on the CPU heat sink which took me about 5 mins to pop the OEM one back on until I replace the 3rd party failed one and the PSU started to play up, but that may have been to do with the upgraded graphics card needing more power.

Meanwhile, I have upgraded the GPU, increased RAM to 24GB, upgraded the primary SSD drive and added extra storage over SATA 6. Each upgrade only took a quick slide of the side window and a minute or so, except for the primary SSD because it needed the OS to be installed again. All in all the upgrades didn't really cost very much. I run Lightroom 6, Photoshop v21, ARMA 3 on max settings etc without any issues and all this on a huge 34" Ultra Wide monitor. She boots up in about 5-10 seconds and is nice and quiet. I've no intention to replace the computer any time soon, she just seems to handle anything thrown at her.

Will probably go pop now that I've said this! lol
 
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FWIW my XPS15 came with a 500GB/32GB HDD/SSD combination, now uses 1TB SSD and 2TB HDD for image storage after 6 years.
 
LongLensPhotography said:
Macs are moving to own ARM architecture and these will soon become obsolete and in best case run on Windows. For the money you could do so much better elsewhere if running windows is the intention otherwise wait, wait, wait.
Click to expand...
They won't be obsolete.
Unless you mean the narrow definition of obsolete as "no longer produced", and if you do then that word can be used for every single computer in the word that isn't now being manufactured.

And, as for "for the money you can do so much better elsewhere", classic.
 
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That will last you years Dave, mine is 5 years old with 32GB and it handles everything I throw at it, still performs like new.

Make sure you calibrate the screen or at least turn the brightness right down for accurate editing, mine is on number 4 brightness after calibrating.
 
imattersuk said:
That will last you years Dave, mine is 5 years old with 32GB and it handles everything I throw at it, still performs like new.

Make sure you calibrate the screen or at least turn the brightness right down for accurate editing, mine is on number 4 brightness after calibrating.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the tip on the brightness Pete, will do that when it does arrive. As I payed for most of the add on`s I have a three week wait.
 
Mr M said:
Hi there

I bought into Apple's "it just works" tag line some years ago (having had may years of PC/Windows experience prior to that) and lived to regret it in due course (well documented fault with it's graphics card). iMacs are truly lovely machines with gorgeous displays, but when a fault develops, the whole machine is out of action. They are not built for user maintenance the way PCs are, you can't upgrade parts after the initial build (can you still upgrade with aftermarket RAM? That feature was removed on MacBook Pros and Mac Minis a few years ago IIRC) and Apple deem anything beyond it's 6th birthday to be "legacy", so won't even offer a repair.

If you are happy to replace the machine after 4 or so years (by which time it will be groaning under ever heavier OSX updates) then it will be great fun, and lovely to look at (even when switched off!) Much as I still love the notion of another iMac, it'll be back to Windows the next time round.

Just my tuppence worth!

Cheers

George
Click to expand...
My late 2009 iMac is working fine and not groaning under any strain, as for the (well documented fault with it's graphics card) I'm presuming you're talking about the vertical lines on the screen issue. Well this happened to me this years (so an 11 year old machine) had to but some tools and thermal paste totalling around £40 and just followed a youtube bake your card tutorial and all working fine again.



Now I will join others and say get as much Ram as you can, but not from apple, also if you can hold off the new iMac using apple instead of intel CPU can't be that far off release.
 
Looks like you are having a ball Dave, welcome to the world of Macs. PS, did it ship with Catalina ???? 32 bit apps do not work with that OS, that is why I'm still on Mojave.
 
Nikon f1.8 said:
Looks like you are having a ball Dave, welcome to the world of Macs. PS, did it ship with Catalina ???? 32 bit apps do not work with that OS, that is why I'm still on Mojave.
Click to expand...


I have not a clue, as still trying to find things I payed for like the Ram and Storage.
 
Pound Coin said:
They won't be obsolete.
Unless you mean the narrow definition of obsolete as "no longer produced", and if you do then that word can be used for every single computer in the word that isn't now being manufactured.

And, as for "for the money you can do so much better elsewhere", classic.
Click to expand...
Agreed they will not be Obsolete but software manufactures will stop developing software for the intel based architecture and concentrate on porting their products to the new "M1" ARM architecture that lends it's self so well to photo manipulation. The new MacBook Pro has 8CPU cores, 8GPU cores and 16 core neutral engine, ideal for AI. Adobe, Serif Affinity, Luminar are all on board and working on new optimised versions (Lightroom is already out)
 
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