iMac 21 inch

[eytonxav]

I bought a 21" iMac about 4 years ago, and it was my first Apple computer since owning a fat Mac years ago. Its been very reliable, with none of the issues I'd run into with windows machines. The only thing that took some effort was porting my emails over to Apple mail. Bought a cheap software from Little Machines to accomplish that.

 

[W2R]

I am interested in getting the basic 21.xx inch iMac, currently on sale for about 1k. We mainly do surfing, email, and skype, no real gaming stuff. I have iphone and ipad and have seen flawless performance from Apple. This would be our first non-pc.
Anybody care to talk me out of it?

Since you like your iPhone and iPad, you will probably love it. The only (slight) negative aspect I can see (other than the fact that it is an Apple and I prefer Windows myself), is that it costs so much. Personally I am happier spending about half that much on a new computer, which is still more than some people will pay. But if the price doesn't bother you, then I'd say "Go for it!"

 

[explanade]

Heading to the Apple Store this afternoon. I must admit to having a bit of anxiety similar to car shopping. I'm thinking the 21" iMac with SSD and 16GB Ram.

Apple charges a lot for RAM upgrades.

The 27-inch iMacs have a little hatch that you can open without dismantling the thing to access the RAM slots.

I paid about $160 to add 16 GB of RAM to my 5K iMac so that I have 24 GB total.

I think Apple charges like $200 for each 8 GB.

 

[target2019]

This page shows just how complicated the configuration can be for various iMac models:
https://everymac.com/systems/apple/...aq/how-to-upgrade-imac-ram-aluminum-2012.html

If the 21.5" is a mid-2017 model, the RAM upgrade is beyond the average tinkerer.
See:

 

[mpeirce]

If the 21.5" is a mid-2017 model, the RAM upgrade is beyond the average tinkerer.

Apple doesn't consider RAM as user upgradable on the current iMac 21.5" models.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201191

Memory isn't removable by users on ... iMac (21.5-inch, 2017), and iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch, 2017). If the memory in one of these computers needs to be replaced, contact an Apple Retail Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider. If you’d like to upgrade the memory in one of these models, an Apple Authorized Service Provider can help.

Memory on the iMac 27" is very easy to upgrade. Even my parents can do - and have.

 

[target2019]

Apple doesn't consider RAM as user upgradable on the current iMac 21.5" models.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201191


Memory on the iMac 27" is very easy to upgrade. Even my parents can do - and have.

Thank you for confirming my point. If looking at this model, one should get the memory upgrade when purchased from Apple. Max out the built-in memory for another $200. Add hybrid drive, etc., and it gets pricey - no longer a $1,000 decision.

 

[FreeBear]

I am interested in getting the basic 21.xx inch iMac, currently on sale for about 1k. We mainly do surfing, email, and skype, no real gaming stuff. I have iphone and ipad and have seen flawless performance from Apple. This would be our first non-pc.
Anybody care to talk me out of it?

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.

It you need more room for your stuff (tons of photos and, esp., videos), then buy an external USB 3 hard drive. If you have anything worth keeping, get another external drive USB 3 to run Time Machine, Apple's excellent built-in auto backup software.

Over the last decade, most of my friends with imacs lost their internal hard drives. One person lost 2 drives in 4 years. So I strongly recommend getting the internal SSD, for much improved speed & reliability. If you need more space, again, just use an external drive and backup on a second external drive.

As for RAM, I'd max out to 16 GB for an extra $200, but I don't think it's essential if you have a SSD.

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).

 

[FreeBear]

My 2011 27 inch iMac works great since I attached a 400 GB SSD drive to the Thunderbolt port and started booting it and running the software from the SSD drive. Before that it took 3minutes to boot up, longer really since it was still very slow for a few minutes after that, and starting software like Lightroom or PhotoShop also took about 2 minutes. Now, it's all done in less than 60 seconds.

Nicely done! I wonder how much slower this would be over usb 3 instead of thunderbolt.

We love old Macs, mainly because the new stuff is so expensive. We have several Mac Pro towers from 2006 and 2010. With SSD boot drives, they all boot in less than 45 seconds; Photoshop loads in seconds.

My 2009 MacBook Pro is still decent with an SSD upgrade. The video capability is certainly dated, but good enough. I'm surprised this setup is even functional with only 4 GB RAM, as delivered.

Running El Cap version of OSX, perhaps even faster than early OSX version.

 

[Sunset]

I am interested in getting the basic 21.xx inch iMac, currently on sale for about 1k. We mainly do surfing, email, and skype, no real gaming stuff. I have iphone and ipad and have seen flawless performance from Apple. This would be our first non-pc.
Anybody care to talk me out of it?

don't do it....

Before you do it, slap an unused hard drive in your PC and install Ubuntu
https://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop

It's free, so why not try it ?

You will find it runs a lot better than Windows, gives you incredible power over the machine as you can write scripts to automate things, and it has a TON of free software that is used by lots of Companies.

I've currently have been using Ubuntu for a few years now.

Issue's I see with the Mac are: it's expensive, and super expensive to upgrade or fix, this does not bother companies as all that is deductible.

But a PC desktop is easy and cheap to upgrade, and it works great with Ubuntu.

 

[Lsbcal]

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?

 

[cbo111]

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!

 

[nash031]

Dangit! I meant to suggest checking out the Apple Refurb store. I bought my new 21" iMac from there about a month ago, same as yours except with the 1TB hard drive, and had it in home delivered for $1395 incl. taxes. My bad... worth a look for others.

 

[target2019]

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?

1) You can easily turn the entire unit to more easily see the ports. Or use a mirror. The ports are laid out in a way that you really don't need to see them to insert cables.
2) I used Macs a lot before OSX. I find I need to search for answers more than on a Windows PC. That's par for the course.
3) If you have a basic sheet, it probably will open and run as it did on a PC. VBA involved?
4) I am operating a mid-2010 iMac model. It has various problems I am trying to solve. One huge obstacle, IMO, is that the coin battery can not be easily replaced. That will come to haunt you. Bad drive, etc., when out of warranty, or not supported, it is a deep pond. If you max the memory now, you'll get 5-7 years.

 

[nash031]

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?

1) No. iMacs are light weight and it's really easy to just swivel the whole unit if you can't reach the back. Besides, most of the time you plug things in once and never worry too much about it. You could also get a USB port expansion to plug in and have on your desk for the stuff you plug in/remove frequently. I do this at home.

2) I've always had an easier time with Mac OS, especially OS X, than Windows. To me, it's always been more intuitive. But there will be a learning curve, of course.

3) Yes. Microsoft compatibility is basically 100%. I run Excel files from Windows 10 at home on iMac just fine with no issues.

4) I got nine years out of my first one. Seems like most folks I talk to get at least 6. It just depends on how often you want the latest/greatest.

As I mentioned in the post above, check out the Apple refurb store. I saved more than $250 on my new iMac a month ago. Warranty coverage is the same, and Apple care is available. (I wouldn't recommend Apple care. I had it twice, covering a total of six years, and only used it once. It probably would've been the same to just replace the backlight on the laptop that went out. YMMV.)

 

[socca]

What kind of external monitor?

An older HP using the HDMI port IIRC. If my 2nd book is a huge financial success (unlikely), I might spring for a better monitor. Until then, it's cheaper just to complain.

 

[mpeirce]

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.

 

[misshathaway]

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.

 

[Chuckanut]

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.

 

[Greg V]

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.

 

[Lsbcal]

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.

 

[Lsbcal]

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.

 

[Sunset]

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

 

[Ready]

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.

 

[Lsbcal]

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.

 

[W2R]

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.