iMac

Ferris_Bueller

Hi guys, my family badly needs a new desktop computer as the current one is far too old, and my father was thinking about purchasing an iMac (21.5" screen) http://store.apple.com/ie/browse/home/shop_mac/family/imac?afid=p219%7CGOIE&cid=OAS-IE-KWG-IE_CPU-IE

If I'm being honest none of us really have a clue about computers, but everyone we know who has a Mac swears by them and thhinks they are brilliant machines. However last night I just took a quick look at a Dell Inspiron One, and they generally seem the same (although I was just comparing numbers, have no idea what they all mean) except the Dell was cheaper.

Basically what we would want out of a computer would be the odd bit of gaming (Football Manager/Sims etc.), a fast machine, GarageBand or a similiar programme, and Microsoft Office which we understand can be bought for the iMac.

Any help would be greatly appreciated guys, thanks in advance.

Freddie59

Ferris_Bueller wrote: »

Hi guys, my family badly needs a new desktop computer as the current one is far too old, and my father was thinking about purchasing an iMac (21.5" screen) http://store.apple.com/ie/browse/home/shop_mac/family/imac?afid=p219%7CGOIE&cid=OAS-IE-KWG-IE_CPU-IE

If I'm being honest none of us really have a clue about computers, but everyone we know who has a Mac swears by them and thhinks they are brilliant machines. However last night I just took a quick look at a Dell Inspiron One, and they generally seem the same (although I was just comparing numbers, have no idea what they all mean) except the Dell was cheaper.

Basically what we would want out of a computer would be the odd bit of gaming (Football Manager/Sims etc.), a fast machine, GarageBand or a similiar programme, and Microsoft Office which we understand can be bought for the iMac.

Any help would be greatly appreciated guys, thanks in advance.

Hello there.

I moved to an iMac from a PC in June 2010 (after 12 years of PCs). The Mac OS is a bit different to the Windows one, but if you stick at the learning curve it's super fast - and reliable. I now have the machine 6 months and it's STILL 52 seconds to having a fully-working OS - and just 7 seconds to shut down.

I bought Parallels so that I could retain my Windows option also. Works very well.

If budget isn't a problem, go for the 27" if you can afford it). You won't look back. You get what you pay for. And believe me when I say I'm not an Apple 'fanboy'.

I won't buy an iPod because the software is too restrictive. But the iMac is a different kettle of fish. The resolution on the monitor has to be seen to be believed.

Deano12345

I presume your talking about the Inspiron One with the i3 370 right ?

If you are, and also talking about the base model iMac (the 3.06 GHz) then I'd probably be inclined to go with the Mac, Ive owned one now for nearly 3 years and I can say the quality is brilliant.

Now, on to comparing the two. The processor in the Mac is a i3 540 by the looks of it, and is better than the 370M (more cache and a much faster clock speed)

The graphics are about even, despite the bigger VRAM on the Dell's 5470, its a less gaming oriented card than the Macs 4670. With both screens being 1920x1080, neither card will game at native resolution very well at all, so all things considered both cards are about equal.

Dell has bigger HDD, 750GB vs 500GB.

Both have 4GB Ram.

Now the big thing is the quality of the screen, unless Dell are using some very very high end touchscreens (which i doubt given its price) the iMac's screen will wipe the floor with the Dell in terms of image color and contrast.

Gaming is also something than is supported way more on Windows than Mac, although most big releases are available on OSX as well.

The iLife software suite is excellent on Mac and I dont think it would be anywhere near as easy to find an easier to use, nicer looking package of creation software. iMovie + iDVD is much better than windows movie maker, speaking from personal experience here

Office is available for Mac, but having used both Office and the Mac equivalent Pages I'd prefer pages, I do know Office is the industry standard though.

Hope this helps !

Snowbat

OpenOffice is available for OS X. There is also NeoOffice, an OpenOffice derivative with OS X-specific tweaks and improvements.

Deano12345 wrote: »

I do know Office is the industry standard though.

Perhaps not for much longer...

OpenOffice tops 20% market share (in Germany)
"For OpenOffice, the number of 21.5% is already impressive. But even more telling is the trend showing that during the last year OpenOffice steadily gained 3 percentage points. But what surprised me the most is that the authors hardly found a difference between home and business users. These observations mean nothing but OpenOffice is rapidly making inroads into Microsoft's #1 cash cow!"