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Old 10-20-2017, 05:39 PM   #41
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4) What do you think is the expected useful life of a reasonably loaded new iMac?
Of course "it depends"™

My last Mac was a mid-2010 iMac 27". It has served me very well over the last 7 years. I bought it just before FIREing and it was nicely decked out - SSD and i7 processor. The GPU hasn't aged as well (GPUs have advanced more than CPUs). It's still a pretty good computer - runs the latest MacOS and has no real problems.

But I really wanted to step up to a big beautiful retina 5K display. The colors are so vibrant and there is no trace of fuzziness. Once that as available, I waited for USB-C. I really didn't want to be stuck for 5-10 years with old, slow USB A ports. This year's upgrade delivered the USC C ports (it also still has a couple of A ports).

I expect this iMac to last me another 10 years.


One last thing. I like it quiet in my office. My old iMac was certainly not noisy (I previously had Mac Pros which had big fans in them). While the old iMac had an SSD as it's primary drive, it also had a spinning HD and that makes some noise.

My new iMac is SSD (1TB) only and it's silent. There is a fan, but it doesn't normally run unless I'm doing something like transcoding video (rare for me now). I love the silence.
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Old 10-21-2017, 08:11 AM   #42
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But I really wanted to step up to a big beautiful retina 5K display. The colors are so vibrant and there is no trace of fuzziness.
OP - here's something to try with your new retina display. Every so often go to Bing to see what the image is. They are almost all downloadable and they automatically download at a very high resolution. Gorgeous as desktop wallpaper.

My iMac 27 retina display doubles as my streaming video TV.
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Old 10-21-2017, 08:49 AM   #43
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Lots of experience with both Mac & PC. For the most part, I love the mac operating system OSX.

As others have said, you "must" get it with an SSD instead of the stock hard drive. The 256 G SSD is a $200 upgrade. It is a shame current Imacs still have hard drives as stock.

If you buy the imac stock, with standard hard drive, you can always upgrade yourself with an SSD in an external enclosure run off of the Thunderbolt port (faster, more expensive) or even usb 3 (cheaper hardware, but slower).
I agree that OSX is a very good operating system and pretty solid, though certainly not perfect. What I like is that Apple watches over it very closely and patches security issues efficiently. In fact security is the #1 reason I continue to pay the 'Apple Tax' to have their equipment.

I also think that Apple needs to recommit to the Mac as part of the Apple Ecosystem. Things like not having a least a 256 Gig SSD for running the OS and the major software are a problem, IMHO.

As mentioned in a previous post, I added an SSD drive to my 2011 iMac via a Thunderbolt 2 port (not as fast as the newer Thunderbolt 3). The increase in boot up performance and the speed of the software was nothing short of amazing. Boot up times went from 3-5 minutes to about 30 seconds. Starting software like LightRoom or Photoshop went from several minutes to maybe 20 seconds.

IMHO, all iMac should come with at least a 256 Gig SSD for use by the OS and Software, and then a 1 Gig hard drive for storing data. I would love an all SSD machine, but that may still be to expensive to be realistic.
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Old 10-21-2017, 08:56 AM   #44
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Some questions on iMac (desktop, not laptop)

1) What about those ports on the backside? Aren't they going to be a pain to get to if one does not have a desk that allows one to walk around to the back side?

2) Is it easy to get use to the OS if one has only worked on PC's ? I've got an iPad and think I have it figured out but was puzzled a bit at first.

3) Does Excel run well on iMac's ? I have a lot of Excel files and want to stick with Excel. Any gotcha's ?

4) What do you think is the expected useful life of a reasonably loaded new iMac?
An accessory that's is nice to have concerning Item #1 is the Rain Design i360 (i360 | Rain Design) which puts the iMac on a swivel base. I have one for my 2011 21.5 inch iMac and it's very handy. They cost about $40-$45 on Amazon.
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Old 10-21-2017, 09:11 AM   #45
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An accessory that's is nice to have concerning Item #1 is the Rain Design i360 (i360 | Rain Design) which puts the iMac on a swivel base. I have one for my 2011 21.5 inch iMac and it's very handy. They cost about $40-$45 on Amazon.
That looks cool. Ergonomically I'd like to adjust the height. I have noticed that a small inch or two height adjustment can help my neck and back.
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Old 10-21-2017, 09:13 AM   #46
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Thanks to those who gave some answers to my questions. My Win 10 system is 7 years old and still works well. But I might need a new system or can give this one to DW.
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Old 10-21-2017, 09:21 AM   #47
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Thanks to those who gave some answers to my questions. My Win 10 system is 7 years old and still works well. But I might need a new system or can give this one to DW.
Just so you know, Ubuntu comes with office software LibreOffice, and it works fine with excel files.

All free of course, and free to try.
It's a graphical system, like apple computer software, or windows 10.

People often don't consider the software ends up costing much more than the computer,

Apple sells the office software for $229 or you can rent it yearly for $69

https://www.apple.com/shop/mac/mac-accessories/software
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Old 10-21-2017, 09:25 AM   #48
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There is really no reason to purchase Microsoft Office unless you are using the computer for work and need integration with Microsoft Exchange.

The operating system includes a very good word processor, email client, spreadsheet, and presentation software. It's as good, if not better, than MS Office...and free.
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Old 10-21-2017, 09:40 AM   #49
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I have several Excel files with complex (for me anyway) charts and such. Porting this stuff would be no fun. So unless there is a clear testable path to porting, I'd like to stick with Excel.
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Old 10-21-2017, 10:02 AM   #50
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Well, I did it.
Went the the Apple store and spent more than planned. I ordered a:
21.5-inch iMac with Retina 4K display
With the following configuration:
3.4GHz quad-core 7th-generation Intel Core i5 processor, Turbo Boost up to 3.8GHz
8GB 2400MHz DDR4
512GB SSD
Radeon Pro 560 with 4GB video memory
Magic Mouse 2
Magic Keyboard - US English
Accessory Kit
$1,799.00

Also added AppleCare for 3 years. Interestingly, the two techs I spoke with did not recommend upgrading the RAM, especially because dw and I don't run multiple complex programs at the same time. Store does not even stock any 21.5 inch iMacs with above 8GB RAM. They both said getting the SSD was much more important. So I followed their guidance and took the plunge.
I recall buying a computer back in 1992, I believe a 486SX that had about 16mb of RAM. I think I paid about $2500 on sale. Yikes!
Congratulations! Have fun with your new computer. It sounds great.
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Old 10-21-2017, 10:55 AM   #51
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Numbers does a pretty good job of importing Excel files. Otherwise Excel is available for the MacOS.
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Old 10-21-2017, 10:59 AM   #52
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Numbers does a pretty good job of importing Excel files. Otherwise Excel is available for the MacOS.
I use Numbers for mostly personal finance, tracking my spending.

It was from one of the templates which comes with the software so I adapted it.

There are sites with other Numbers templates.

Of course there are a ton more for Excel, which is more geared towards enterprise than consumer use.

But people who used Excel a lot at work may be more partial to it.
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Old 10-21-2017, 11:04 AM   #53
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I have several Excel files with complex (for me anyway) charts and such. Porting this stuff would be no fun. So unless there is a clear testable path to porting, I'd like to stick with Excel.
You can download LibreOffice for free and test your excel spreadsheets on your current computer right now.

https://www.libreoffice.org/

It runs on all the common Operating systems. So no matter what computer you end up getting, this might save you some $$
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Old 10-21-2017, 01:42 PM   #54
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Originally Posted by cbo111 View Post
Well, I did it.
Went the the Apple store and spent more than planned. I ordered a:
21.5-inch iMac with Retina 4K display
With the following configuration:
3.4GHz quad-core 7th-generation Intel Core i5 processor, Turbo Boost up to 3.8GHz
8GB 2400MHz DDR4
512GB SSD
Radeon Pro 560 with 4GB video memory
Magic Mouse 2
Magic Keyboard - US English
Accessory Kit
$1,799.00

Also added AppleCare for 3 years. Interestingly, the two techs I spoke with did not recommend upgrading the RAM, especially because dw and I don't run multiple complex programs at the same time. Store does not even stock any 21.5 inch iMacs with above 8GB RAM. They both said getting the SSD was much more important. So I followed their guidance and took the plunge.
I recall buying a computer back in 1992, I believe a 486SX that had about 16mb of RAM. I think I paid about $2500 on sale. Yikes!
Very nice!

I agree that with the internal SSD the 8 GB RAM will be fine. It also looks like you have the upgraded video "card". This will help longer term as video becomes more common and bandwidth increases, but from website hosts and your home internet connection. I've found that even just surfing the web, video can become more of an issue than CPU speed.
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Old 10-21-2017, 02:39 PM   #55
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Originally Posted by cbo111 View Post
Well, I did it.
Went the the Apple store and spent more than planned. I ordered a:
21.5-inch iMac with Retina 4K display
With the following configuration:
3.4GHz quad-core 7th-generation Intel Core i5 processor, Turbo Boost up to 3.8GHz
8GB 2400MHz DDR4
512GB SSD
Radeon Pro 560 with 4GB video memory
Magic Mouse 2
Magic Keyboard - US English
Accessory Kit
$1,799.00



Also added AppleCare for 3 years. Interestingly, the two techs I spoke with did not recommend upgrading the RAM, especially because dw and I don't run multiple complex programs at the same time. Store does not even stock any 21.5 inch iMacs with above 8GB RAM. They both said getting the SSD was much more important. So I followed their guidance and took the plunge.
I recall buying a computer back in 1992, I believe a 486SX that had about 16mb of RAM. I think I paid about $2500 on sale. Yikes!
Yeah! That’s what we paid, so worth it!
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Old 10-21-2017, 04:47 PM   #56
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Microsoft has Office 365 for $69 a year.

Before I left Megacorp I got an Office license for $10 under the Home Use Program (HUP). Something that may be available if you are still working.

I use LibreOffice, which isn't as good as Excel, but for retirement purposes it is fine.
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Old 10-21-2017, 05:15 PM   #57
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Originally Posted by Ready View Post
There is really no reason to purchase Microsoft Office unless you are using the computer for work and need integration with Microsoft Exchange.

The operating system includes a very good word processor, email client, spreadsheet, and presentation software. It's as good, if not better, than MS Office...and free.
Eh, Numbers isn't as good as Excel, and there are compatibility issues if you've already got a lot of .xls stuff.
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Old 10-21-2017, 05:32 PM   #58
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I've mostly been a Mac guy since 1996. I did build a Windows PC for gaming in February, but I much prefer to use the Mac. A few months ago I added an external SSD to my nearly five-year-old Mac Mini and it really flies again. I also added an external GPU (new feature with High Sierra even though this model doesn't officially support it) and this old Mac is actually a decent gaming machine again since it doesn't use the crappy old integrated GPU any more.

It seems like I have issues with my PC every few days. Now I'm very technical and I can usually fix them quickly, but I almost never have to do that with my Macs.

That said, I don't do iPhone. Way too expensive.
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Old 10-22-2017, 07:38 AM   #59
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Funny how one's personal experiences affect these PC/Mac/Linux threads. In my past, I've used all three extensively, ranked in time like: 1) Windows, 2) Mac, 3) Linux. I really have no problem troubleshooting these systems. When it comes to recommendations, it seems that most users recommend what they are using, just purchased, and so on.

I try to add perspective to what people ask me, whether they have a broken-down Mac, or cantankerous PC.

First, when you buy new, it is almost always a 10x boost to your computing experience. The components and OS in a new box are light years ahead of your ancient clunker.

Second, if you are buying in the immediate term, and have no ties to the past, it's simply a matter of setting a budget range, and go off to the stores, forums, etc. Buy the experience you want, and don't look back.

Third, take a look at your inventory of apps and docs. Think about how you want to make use of the new system. If you depend on an app daily, and it isn't available on the next system, how will you adjust? On the old system you have there are many documents that may be critical. They probably open, and you can print or email the docs when it counts.

I see no distinction between the OS's mentioned, and would have no problem adjusting, converting, migrating, etc. I wouldn't expect anyone to be swayed by my recent experiences with iMacs (problematic, but it makes me money), or Windows 10 (best experience ever).
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Old 10-22-2017, 08:16 AM   #60
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A few months ago I added an external SSD to my nearly five-year-old Mac Mini and it really flies again.
I've been thinking about doing this for my wife's iMac. Did you use a USB3 case or TB? and how fast was the SSD.

Re the original post. I'm very happy with my 5k iMac. Main reason I've been on mac's is that it gives me unix plus all my photography programs. Trackpad with gestures is far superior (at least for me) to any trackpad I've used on a windows laptop. Before I picked my imac up (I have the most recent update), I was considering building a hackintosh but when I priced one out + the 5k monitor I decided against it.
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