Imac 21.5 inch 3.06Ghz

[barrymobiel]

hi


A friend of me is going to buy a new pc, he wants to buy the imac. He's going to use it for photoshop, video editing, word, schoolwork.
It wil cost him € 1230. Is this smart or should he built a pc with that money? For that much money you can built a nice pc dont you think?

 

[rwpritchett]

Well, asking mac vs. pc is flame bait. I'll try to give you some objective advice. I have a mix of Windows based PC's and mac's in my own home.

If all of the software your friend needs is available for mac, then that strikes out the biggest advantage pc's have over macs.

With that said, a pc will be cheaper and it will be more upgradeable. You could build a killer windows based pc for €1230.

An iMac will have a small desktop footprint, and apple quality is very high. They come with very nice displays and have that "mac-factor" that some people find attractive. For windows based pc's, you need to do your research to sort the good from the bad. You can have a pc that is a complete pile of crap, but you can also have a pc that exceeds the quality of a mac. Building your own assumes you can spot the good from the bad when it comes to hardware.

In summary, if your friend is looking for a sleek all-in-one computer, all software is available, and money is not an issue then an iMac will suit him just fine. But for high-end power, flexibility, upgradeablilty, and bang-for-buck you can't top a Windows based custom built PC.

If your friend wants an iMac, then he'll probably get an iMac and there's nothing wrong with that.

It's funny, because macs are actually pc's. It's really Windows vs. OSX that is the debate.

 

[barrymobiel]

It's funny, because macs are actually pc's. It's really Windows vs. OSX that is the debate.

Woops my mistake, isn't 1230 a bit much for a iMac with intel i3 3.06 Ghz and a 4670 as gpu. This is what i was planning for the windows pc:

Amd 1090T
Asus AM3 M4A87TD USB3 870
Kingston DDR3 4GB 1333MHz
Samsung 1TB SATA2 Spinpoint F3
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus
Samsung SH-S223B DVDRW
Asus nvidia GTS450 Direct CU 1GB DDR5 voltage tweak ed.
Corsair PSU TX ATX 650W
case
win7

This all for like €930

 

[rwpritchett]

There's also the overclocking angle. You can't overclock an iMac.

 

[barrymobiel]

he won't be overclocking.

 

[rwpritchett]

Why the aftermarket cooler then? I guess it could be for silence and/or CPU longevity.

 

[barrymobiel]

its for better cooling and more silent

 

[barrymobiel]

Best answer selected by barrymobiel.