New PC or Used iMac... Dilemma

Spiderdudeuk

Spiderdudeuk

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My faithful old PC is now struggling so time to invest and upgrade.

Dilemma is, I have a budget of about £1k and I'm struggling with what to do.

I have a good monitor, I require no operating system if I go PC route... So funds can go on the machine itself.

For this money I can pick up a 2013 27" iMac that's well spec'd.

Or I can go for something new from say Overclockers built for gaming and very powerful.

I used to build my own PC's, so not averse to doing that either.

I've seen plenty on forum about Mac v PC, but really I'm looking for thoughts on what would prove best value.

Of course recommendations of machines, suppliers, specs gratefully received.

This is a once in 5 year investment and I do edit a lot of photos from football in Lightroom & once decision on machine is made Photoshop.

Thanks in advance.
 
A further thought, the thing that really makes modern machines fly is SSD drives and that is something the 2013 iMac won't have.

SSD's are still expensive for large sizes so a typical modern PC will have an SSD for programs and maybe this years photos with a larger standard drive for archive and storage of things like films and music.

Don't get me wrong, I love iMacs (just bought a new one) and a 2013 will happily last you for 5 years with Photoshop but if you're talking outright performance value building your own PC is hands down the way to go.
 
Well, I've had PCs for 30-years now and a £1k budget should get you a very nice system unit to go with the monitor you already have.

However I bought a 27" Mac in 2013 (late 2012 model) and find that it works very nicely for me. Use it for music (GarageBand, Reaper), photography (Lightroom 5, PSE11) and normal office stuff (MS Office for Mac). I still use a Windows 10 laptop from time to time, but to me it feels clunky compared to the Mac.
 
When I was looking at the PC self build or even bespoke build from a company. They seemed to recommend an SSHD drive as the primary, with a standard mechanical HD as the storage.

I'm not familiar with the SSHD, but can see benefits of running an SSD.
 
wave01 said:
If you have a screen why not a Mac mini
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The thing with Mac mini's is that to have some grunt (as opposed to a media box/office machine) you want a high end one but by then iMacs are starting to look much better value.
 
PC and run Mac software on it ;)

Seriously money wise although I hate PC much more performance per £
 
Nawty said:
You won't get better value than building your own PC - £1k will get something that will easily last 5 years.
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And be significantly faster than the best Mac out there or indeed out in the next 5 years!

But wouldn't you rather be hip and trendy? ;)
 
Spiderdudeuk said:
I used to build my own PC's, so not averse to doing that either.
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Things are even easier these days. And smaller. And you can build an almost silent one if you look at places like silentpcreview.com. I didn't even bother fitting a graphics card, as the on board graphics is more than enough for photography.

A mini case can be cool too.
 
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This should be really easy; if you want a Mac get a Mac...If you want a PC get a PC or build one yourself. Anything else is just conjecture
 
ianp5a said:
Things are even easier these days. And smaller. And you can build an almost silent one if you look at places like silentpcreview.com. I didn't even bother fitting a graphics card, as the on board graphics is more than enough for photography.

A mini case can be cool too.
Click to expand...

Thanks, the website you've given me is great... I think I'm pretty much set on which direction to go. Spent a far bit of time reading today...

The self build seems to be the better value... Would still love a Mac for the design, but looks aren't everything I guess....
 
And you get more choice. You can choose a nice looking case. And choose a nice OS too.
 
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Before you decide work out how much you will spend on each option. Then decide
 
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