27" iMac 5K

[Rosscow]

So, I ordered one of these yesterday for a shade under £2200.

Then I broke out in a cold sweat, crapped my pants and cancelled the order!

The wife really wants one, and if I'm honest I quite fancy one. I've recently invested in a really good HD camcorder ( http://www.canon.co.uk/for_home/product_finder/cam... ) which records in both 35mbps MP4 and 28mbps AVCHD. I've also recently got a Sony RX100 M2 that I shoot in RAW.

Now, obviously I need a machine that can handle the processing and editing of the above video/picture formats.

I've never been a Mac owner or user (despite having an iPhone for 10 years and having an iPad at home). But I quite fancy giving it a go.

But the price is what is making me pause for thought.

I'm sure I can get a top spec PC for half the price (probably with a 4k display). But the intrigue of having a Mac still exists, as does the future resale values.

I'm not really sure why I've posted this other than to get some perspective from you guys!

[Rosscow]

OK, I think we're going to go with the iMac.

One last thing - what external Blu-ray burner would people recommend? I need to be able to make HD back ups of family videos and photos.

Thanks!

[Rosscow]

marctwo said:

Rosscow said:

OK, I think we're going to go with the iMac.

One last thing - what external Blu-ray burner would people recommend? I need to be able to make HD back ups of family videos and photos.

Thanks!

I wouldn't bother with a blu-ray burner. Just back up to a NAS or use a cloud backup service like CrashPlan.

I still need to be able to burn Blu-ray discs to give to relatives!

[Rosscow]

audidoody said:

Rosscow said:

I still need to be able to burn Blu-ray discs to give to relatives!

Portable HD (around £35)

YouTube link

USB drive

Dropbox

etc etc

Hmmm... I suppose so. There's still something about physical hard copies that I like!

[Rosscow]

OK, I've ordered it. Christ, it's a lot of money! I hope we like it!

[Rosscow]

boxst said:

Mine arrives on Wednesday. Full 8 days after ordering.

What spec did you go for?

[Rosscow]

brickwall said:

How about going for the 'basic' 5K, with a 1TB fusion drive?

£2,200 is certainly a lot to spend on a computer, but I think you can get a decent enough spec for £1,600.

I've gone big!

i7, 16gb RAM, 4gb video card and a 3TB Fusion drive. Saved £200 via the Education Store. In for a penny, in for a pound!

[Rosscow]

ZesPak said:

Bikerjon said:

Yep, that's what I'll be doing if I go for the 27. Standard model but with the 256GB flash storage will do me fine and I'll upgrade the RAM myself for £40.

Can you still get to the RAM on the newer models? Apple have been phasing it out consistently with their entire model range... And if you can, can you do the same for the SSD?

Yes, you can still access the RAM. But only the RAM, not the SSD.

[Rosscow]

boxst said:

Rosscow said:

What spec did you go for?

This one:


27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display


Configuration

• 4.0GHz quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 4.2GHz

• 32GB 1867MHz DDR3 SDRAM - four 8GB

• 2TB Fusion Drive

• AMD Radeon R9 M395X with 4GB video memory

• Magic Mouse 2 + Magic Trackpad 2

• Magic Keyboard (British) & User’s Guide (English)

• Accessory Kit

Same as me, accept I went for 3TB drive and 16gb RAM - thought if I need to I'll buy some more at a later date and stick it in myself. In hindsight should have just got 8gb and saved £100!

[Rosscow]

ZesPak said:

8GB is prob 2x4GB
16 is 2x8

So upping to 32GB is easier with the 16GB config.

Good point

[Rosscow]

Digitalize said:

ZesPak said:

8GB is prob 2x4GB
16 is 2x8

So upping to 32GB is easier with the 16GB config.

Off topic: is this the most expensive "home computer" you can actually spec? And is the GPU a mobile one?

Fairly sure it only has 2 RAM slots but may be wrong.

I imagine it is, other than the Mac Pro but I'd be tempted not to count it as its industry grade.

The GPU is a mobile one yes, as is the CPU I believe, it's essentially a very power hungry laptop.

They have 4 RAM slots:

[Rosscow]

boxst said:

Mine arrives on Wednesday. Full 8 days after ordering.

Mine is now saying delivery 16th - 18th November

[Rosscow]

boxst said:

Mine is now here and set up. First impressions are WOW it's big. I had a 23" monitor before and 27" is a huge leap. And secondly the keyboard is a bit rubbish. I haven't had an iMac before (just a Macbook Air) and it is a teeny teeny little thing that isn't raised correctly to type.

Keyboard was a worry for me but luckily I don't have to do a great deal of typing.

[Rosscow]

boxst said:

Mine is now here and set up. First impressions are WOW it's big. I had a 23" monitor before and 27" is a huge leap. And secondly the keyboard is a bit rubbish. I haven't had an iMac before (just a Macbook Air) and it is a teeny teeny little thing that isn't raised correctly to type.

Any further update?!

[Rosscow]

boxst said:

Rosscow said:

Any further update?!

Everything is set up and installed. The quality of the screen is astounding. With just the default background picture the quality, depth and the ability to see so much is amazing. I am using the trackpad more than the mouse as it is more useful with gestures.

I've installed fusion and have windows 10 running in a window with my work stuff. Office 2016 is natively installed and everything runs smoothly. Haven't stressed it with anything processor intensive.

They keyboard is still annoying. As the person above said it feels like a laptop keyboard and a bit of a toy. I'm used to a 'proper' keyboard that I touch type on. And although I can do that it isn't in the right position and I think my wrists will take the strain.

Sounds great! Looking forward to it now. I'm intrigued to see how I get on with the track pad.

[Rosscow]

Our order is now 'preparing for dispatch.'

I have visions of someone with a large box of packing peanuts and a tape gun....

[Rosscow]

Dispatched!!

However, now saying delivery on the 16th. Do Apple really use the slowest couriers in the world to deliver their goods?! 6 days?!

[Rosscow]

boxst said:

You should have a UPS tracking number in there -- mine took two days to deliver from 'dispatched'.

Did you take the AppleCare? For some reason best known to themselves they posted in a tracked format the Applecare terms and conditions. Waste of time and money and that was dispatched quite a bit before the iMac itself.

I did indeed take the AppleCare option (crazy not to for £90!).

[Rosscow]

So do I!!

Still down as delivery on Monday, which for something worth the thick end of £2500 sucks a bit. The thought of it being knocked around for 6 days in transit is disturbing!

[Rosscow]

It appears that today is iMac day! Woken by a UPS text message at 6am saying it is out for delivery today!