Life expectancy iMac

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Level 1

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Life expectancy iMac

Hi all,

I'm currently looking at buying a new machine for our Church. We run with 2 projectors and a program called 'ProPresenter' which basically displays words and images onto the projectors. We also run Spotify.

The spec of the soon-to-be released ProPresenter 5 has the following minimum specs:

Processor: 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor or better
OS: MacOS X 10.5.8 or later
RAM: 2 GB RAM (4 GB recommended)
Video Card: Dual display with screen spanning capability (a dedicated graphics card with 512MB VRAM is recommended)

We want the machine to last a minimum of 3 years, and preferred would be 4-5. We need the machine not to 'struggle' with any of the programs we use (it won't be anything more power intensive than ProPresenter).

I know it's hard to predict the future and all, but from past experience and with the way things are going, what sort of machine do you guys recommend for us to buy? We aren't flooded with money but equally we're happy to spend what we need to in order to get the right product.

The options we're looking at (screen size isn't important) are the following:

iMac 21.5"

2.5GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5
4GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB
500GB Serial ATA Drive
AMD Radeon HD 6750M 512MB GDDR5

£999

iMac 21.5"

2.7GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5
4GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB
1TB Serial ATA Drive
AMD Radeon HD 6770M 512MB GDDR5

£1249

iMac 21.5"

2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7
8GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x4GB
1TB Serial ATA Drive
AMD Radeon HD 6770M 512MB GDDR5

£1569

Hard drive is of no relevance as we'll be pulling all our files off of shared drives, so basically I'm looking at the processor and RAM.

If the £999 machine will last us 3 years for example, but the £1569 machine will last us 5 years, then it makes financial sense (and sense as in not having to replace the machine half way through).

I know no-one can totally accurately predict the future and what applications will demand from computers, but if any of you have any experience that could shed light on this it would certainly be appreciated.

The other option would be to go for a Mac Pro, but I don't see how it's worth the extra money (One 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon “Nehalem” - 3 GB (3 x 1 GB) - 1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s hard drive - ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB).

Any help is much appreciated!

iMac, iMac 2.5ghz 2.7ghz 2.8ghz quad core

Posted on Nov 24, 2011 6:42 AM

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Answer 1

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,624 points

Nov 24, 2011 6:56 AM in response to fredheimholm

Any current iMac you choose will easily handle the work you have without breaking a sweat. Most Mac's will also last 3-5 years easily too. I am typing this on a 4+ year old 2007 iMac which has never given me any problems. For the RAM I would buy it with the basic 4GB configuration and then upgrade the RAM yourself (it's an extremely simple 10 minute job) to 12GB to future proof it. The vendors I'd recommend using are www.macsales.com (OWC) or Crucial. OWC is my prefered vendor because they specialize in Mac, have great support including many how to videos and are priced competitvely. Crucial is also excellent but doesn't specialize in Macs or offer quite the level of support OWC does. OWC is a US company but will ship internationally. Currently an upgrade to get to 12GB will cost about $52 vs about $200 from Apple.

As far as the HD, buy what you need because HD's are not considered user upgradeable and the upgrade cost from Apple is small. It can be done by a user but it's complex and you risk invalidating the warranty.

Because you intend the machine to last 3-5 years I would also recommend AppleCare which extends the warranty to 3 full years and also includes telephone support. Again do not buy this directly from Apple, in the UK that would cost you about 139 pounds, if you buy it from Amazon you can get it for as low as 89 pounds!

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Answer 2

fredheimholm Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 24, 2011 7:04 AM in response to rkaufmann87

That's really helpful thank you rkaufmann. Good shout on the RAM I'll look into that, and also with the applecare support.

Which processor would you recommend? Are you saying that it doesn't really matter, it's just I know that upgrading the processor isn't a walk in the park so we want to buy the right one to get us through 4-5 years, and the last thing we would want would be to have any projections through ProPresenter stutter or struggle.

Obviously we're happy to upgrade on the Mac OS X when they come out, just making sure the hardware is good for now.

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Answer 3

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,624 points

Nov 24, 2011 7:15 AM in response to fredheimholm

Your welcome.

The processor is really of little consequence these days and as I mentioned earlier any of the current CPU's will easily handle the work load you intend. Upgrading the CPU on an iMac is not possible so once you bought the machine that is the CPU you will live with for the life of the machine. If you were using the machine for doing 3D renderings such as complex gaming or CAD/CAM or artistic work then I'd look more closely at the processor however for your needs spending the additional money isn't necessary.

On my current machine (remember it's 4+ years old) it originally came with OS X Tiger and I have upgraded it to Leopard, Snow Leopard and now am on Lion. With any OS upgrade it's always wise to follow some basic common sense such as backing up prior to the upgrade and ensuring the machine is running well prior to upgrading. As a rule of thumb I'd recommend using these Update Instructions another poster has suggested.

If you or any other user is new to OS X I'd also recommend bookmarking and using:

Mac 101

Find Out How Video tutorials

List of Useful URLs for switchers

Switch 101

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Answer 4

fredheimholm Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 24, 2011 8:42 AM in response to rkaufmann87

That's great thanks rkaufmann, really appreciate your help.

If anyone has any other thoughts (or agrees with rkaufmann) about the processor feel free to chuck it in! Still undecided about 2.5ghz and 2.7ghz if I'm honest, I'd rather we spent a little more and it lasted longer, but if it is the case that it's wasted money as the 2.5 ghz will run everything fine for the next 5 years then we'll go for that.

Thanks guys.

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