Need a new computer.
Mine suffered a catastrophic crash.
Looking at the iMac.
Pros? Cons?

Thanks!
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I've owned the last 3 gens of the iMac

Pros:
OSX is a great operating system with limited crashes and viruses (I've never had either occur in 8 years of owning iMacs)
Easy to set up and very limited compatibility issues
Works well with almost any 3rd party main hardware
All major business software is supported
Time Machine is a great feature

CONS:
Expensive compared to comparable Windows machine
Not a great gaming machine
I had 1 HD failure in 8 years and 1 Power supply failure in 8 years. (both were fixed under warranty and I had backup)


I'd recommend them. New gen 27" has had some issues so I'd google it to see if they are fixed
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Thanks Shawn. The latest crash (all my PC's have eventually crashed) has me giving the Mac's a hard look. I like what I see. Thanks for your input.
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http://www.cigarasylum.com/vb/showthread.php?t=26039
Recent thread.

I have a 24" imac and the only problem I've had is a HD crash also. I also had everything backed up through the wireless Time Capsule and when I got my mac back (only 3 days after the crash) everything worked fine again. This was all covered under Apple Care so I paid nothing further out of pocket. The day I called with my problem I was able to choose where to bring it in to and got an appointment the same day. It's treated me well and far better than any of my old PC's.
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That thread makes me proud :-)
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Christos, I wanted to mention this to you also so I'm glad you have seen it here. When I brought it in to the Apple Store they were pretty sure the HD was the problem but they thought it might possibly be the logic board so they just ordered both in case. It was a good, painless experience.
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That's reassuring to hear Mario :-) I'm sold on an apple. Just waiting for them to put a quad core in the macbooks.
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Good!:-) I'm sure you've checked all of your options thoroughly. Is there an option currently for a quad core? I know that the pro desktop can take something like up to 16 cores.
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Oops! The Mav Pro can get 2xquad core. Thought it was 16, oh well.
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I have a 20'' iMac that is now a generation old with the release of the new ones. I really like mine. The screens on this generation have had a bunch of problems, but I think that has been fixed (may want to check on that)

If you have never used a Mac the transition may take a little time, but it really isn't that difficult as Macs are pretty intuitive and user friendly. They are great as far as automatically finding networks, printers, bluetooth peripherals, etc. They do not have the guts for hardcore gaming, but can still run windows well with bootcamp.
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Con: can't change the screen later on if you decide you want a bigger/different one. But as long as you know what you want...

Re: Windows - no need to bother with bootcamp, just get VMWare Fusion.
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I'm mister anti-macbooks because I feel they're outrageously overpriced for what you get

that said, the iMacs are a pretty damn good deal for the money (until you add a ton of stuff) all things considered. I want one later this year as my office computer
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On a similar note, does anyone know anything about the mac mini? I'm sort of in the same predicament, only my pc hasn't crashed (yet), it's just really old. I would use the mini just for internet browsing, the occasional text document, and storing temproary files as I have an external hd for permanent stuff. Don't mean to thread jack, just curious since it was the same type of subject.
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Running one here at home and one at work. No issue so far (4 years in at home, 3 at work), got one for my Mom, no issues there either. Both of mine are 24", home is 667 ghz, one at work is a gen newer. Would obviously recommend!
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The mini is great, may have expandability issues like the iMac, but those I know who are running them are happy
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Not really looking to expand, just something to last and not have viruses and such. Oh, also I'll be frequently burning dvds
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i have been using a macbook for the past 2 years almost and my family has had a 24" imac for about three years and they have not had any issues with it. personally I like having a laptop but if I was going to get a desktop it would be an imac for sure. I say go for it :-)
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(knocking on wood) no viruses, exposed occasionally to some Word worms from infected Word docs. I burn CDs and DVDs pretty regularly too.
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You might be waiting a while, and I see absolutely no benefit to quad core in a laptop.

Especially not for the price they'll want for it.
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Mac guy here and always have been a Mac guy but being a Graphic Designer my field tends to favor them. I have the 24" that is the last generation and have been very happy with it. Maybe this year I will upgrade to the 27" but that may have to wait as I just recently purchased a new MacBook Pro and right now my only reasoning for it is because the 27" screen would look bad ass so my reasoning is only superficial. Before the Imac I had a tower unit but when it came to upgrade I looked at the Imacs and figured, WTH. I knew that if I hated it that I could easily unload it to someone. The monitor is plenty big and I store most of my work on externals anyway so storage space is never an issue for me anyway and it provides everything else I could possibly need. Machine moves plenty fast for the work that I am doing. For example this morning I was working with a Photoshop file that was over 5gigs and although a little sluggish it was not painfully slow but I could use to max out my RAM which would have helped out a bit. They get a thumbs up from me.
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