Monitor recommendations?

[Jake]

Originally Posted by Phisch

Because to get a tower is considerably more money. With the budget I have, it won't work. I know of photographers who use iMacs and they're happy with them, but I am personally apprehensive.
.....

I have the i7 27" iMac with 12gb's of ram that works pretty good for me. I use it for photos and video and it run circles around my 4yr old mac pro.(I know, 4yrs is like forever in computer years)
The 27" monitor is awesome also.

I'm sure there is faster out there, but I love the small footprint it leaves on my desk and it's the fastest computer I've ever used.

P.S.- I'm not a gamer.

[Phisch]

Originally Posted by Jake

I have the i7 27" iMac with 12gb's of ram that works pretty good for me. I use it for photos and video and it run circles around my 4yr old mac pro.(I know, 4yrs is like forever in computer years)
The 27" monitor is awesome also.

I'm sure there is faster out there, but I love the small footprint it leaves on my desk and it's the fastest computer I've ever used.

P.S.- I'm not a gamer.

How long have you had it and which model? Have you ever had to add RAM or a hard drive for it? How easy is it to add any peripherals?

Indecision is a pain! LOL.

[Jake]

Originally Posted by Phisch

How long have you had it and which model? Have you ever had to add RAM or a hard drive for it? How easy is it to add any peripherals?

Indecision is a pain! LOL.

I had the 2.8 i7, but that got stolen so now I have the newest 3.4 i7. I added ram to both of them. That's easy, there's a little door with three screws on the bottom you take off and pop the new ram in. Takes about 2 minutes or less.
Adding an internal hard drive or video card would probably be a major pain. I've never done that.
But they offer a SSD drive as an option when you order one. I figure with FW800 and two Tunderbolt ports, I'll only add externals drives.

But I understand they are not for everybody. I hate working on/tweeking computers. I wanted something I turn on, do my work and call it a day. The iMac fits that bill for me.

[Phisch]

You modded them, but aren"t they out of warranty when you do that? I thought they had to go in to the store for that to happen?

[Jake]

Originally Posted by Phisch

You modded them, but aren"t they out of warranty when you do that? I thought they had to go in to the store for that to happen?

No, I didn't mod anything. Users can add ram, the little instruction booklet even shows how.

[Phisch]

Gotcha! Thanks :) I always assumed you had to take them to the store for things like that.

[Jake]

Originally Posted by Phisch

Gotcha! Thanks :) I always assumed you had to take them to the store for things like that.

I'm sure you would for the hard drive and video card, but not the ram.

[Village Idiot]

Originally Posted by Phisch

Ok fine, but I have a stigma against that, justified or otherwise. The case being the monitor bugs me also. I like the comfort of being able to pop open the case and looking inside without fear of killing the warranty. This is just me, though.



Tell me more! What was your budget and what did you build if you don't mind sharing?

It's nearing 3 years old in October. My major components are an i7-920, 6gb RAM, Nvidia GTX 295, 1000w PSU, Blu-ray burner, 2x DVD burners, ASUS P6T mobo, and a Zalman 120mm CPU heatsink/fan, a 10K RPM Velociraptor for my Windows & gaming partition and 2 500GB 7200rpm HDDs for OS X and a full drive clone, all in a full tower ATX case. I have the CPU OC'ed to something like 3.4-3.8ghz on air and it stays just south of 60C everytime I've checked. I spent $1,700 on it and a lot of that went in to Blu-ray and the $500+ GPU.

This was all built pre-OSX86 for me. I wasn't even thinking about putting OS X on it and that was an issue for me. Below is a link to the Insanely Mac forum that is all about putting OS X on non Apple hardware. If you're planning on doing this, spend some time there and look at the different builds. Some people have guides that work perfectly for an exact set of hardware. Some guides require and OS X installation (Apple or otherwise) to get the disk setup to install and some don't. Basically you format the drive to Apple's partitioning scheme, put an EFI emulator on (Gasp! New CPUs are coming out with an EFI boot loader already on them!), and install OSX and hope that it's compatible with your hardware or that some one makes a driver for your hardware. If you're like me and have a non standard build, you're going to end up editing kext (Apple drivers) and trying a billion different ways to get it working. It can be frustrating, but having the perfomance of a Mac Pro for the price of a home built PC is worth it.

InsanelyMac

[Village Idiot]

Originally Posted by Jake

I'm sure you would for the hard drive and video card, but not the ram.

The HDD can be changed, but I heard it's a real pain in the ass. IIRC, the GPU is part of the board and can't be changed. The only Apple with a upgradable GPU is the Mac Pro.

[Phisch]

I don't know that I'd want to change the HD, I'd be adding. Thanks for the info and the link. Gonna see if my pc-building half would put up with the inevitable debugging.