Replacement question

[Mikey]

The time is fast approaching when I must replace my ageing iMac. I can't complain, I bought it second hand from Chris ( TunnerUK ) years ago. It's old and creaky and you can hear it thinking.

So here's the question. Do I buy a 21 inch iMac for about £850 ish or do I go for a mini mac with a fusion drive, which is cheaper. I've got a perfectly good monitor and keyboard.

 

[Pukmeister]

A difficult choice. Are you buying new or used ??

1) Is your current monitor capable of displaying images as good as the new iMac displays ?
2) Do you want an integrated look to your computer?
3) Is the Mac Mini as capable as the iMac at doing what you use the computer for ?
4) Will the new kit you buy be 'future proof' / upgradeable ?

For example, I bought a 15" Macbook Pro (Quad i7) in 2011, added an 500GB SSD drive and 16GB Ram and I still can't see it being outpaced by anything else for a long time so for me it was money well spent although expensive. Despite having a choice of high spec PC's I seem to spend most of my time using the Mac.

Whatever you buy, consider replacing the HDD with an SSD, the performance increase is incredible and the price of SSD drives has dropped greatly. For example a Samsung 850EVO 500GB SSD is currently £129.98 inc vat.

 

[cookie]

the answer to 1) is almost certainly no.

definitely no if it's attached to a mac mini.

 

[Mikey]

A difficult choice. Are you buying new or used ??

1) Is your current monitor capable of displaying images as good as the new iMac displays ?
2) Do you want an integrated look to your computer?
3) Is the Mac Mini as capable as the iMac at doing what you use the computer for ?
4) Will the new kit you buy be 'future proof' / upgradeable ?

For example, I bought a 15" Macbook Pro (Quad i7) in 2011, added an 500GB SSD drive and 16GB Ram and I still can't see it being outpaced by anything else for a long time so for me it was money well spent although expensive. Despite having a choice of high spec PC's I seem to spend most of my time using the Mac.

Whatever you buy, consider replacing the HDD with an SSD, the performance increase is incredible and the price of SSD drives has dropped greatly. For example a Samsung 850EVO 500GB SSD is currently £129.98 inc vat.

I) probably not, it's a high grade wide screen, but not a retina

2) not really bothered, it's upstairs in an "office" so I'll only see it when I'm using it

3) probably, it's used for photos and photoshop type stuff

4) not sure if I'd be capable of digging around in the innards of a mac.