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Apple iMac MC309B/A
by MamaC
The All In One Apple iMac, was my first Apple purchase as recommended to me buy a musician friend about 3 years ago who assured me that Apple was the way forward. It wasn't too long after this that I became a complete Apple fan, so much so that I later upgraded to a Mac Pro 2 years later. This iMac was primary used for music ... programming, photo editing, word processing, Internet etc and has now moved from my studio to my office for mainly word processing, watching freeview. And it gets a lot of family use too.
SPEC:
The high res display is 1920x1080p which is full HD and simply stunning, and great for when I have to do my photo editing. Comes with 4 GB of RAM which I upgraded to 6 GB. The graphics card is a Radeon HD 6750M. Widescreen is 21.5 inches. Has a Quad COre processor, slot for CD's and DVDs to the right side of the machine. It has 4 USBs on the back (would have liked 6), 1 Firewire port and a Thunderbolt port which provides lightening fast data transer with compatible sources - and it really says what is on the tin. The hard drive is only 500 GB- I could do with at least 2 TB now. Wireless networking is carreid out with Apple Extreme 802.11n, and Bluetooth 2.1. Comes with keyboard, mouse and remote.
SOFTWARE:
It comes with all the software applications that you need to get you started(as with all Mac products) such as Garageband, Time Machine, iPhoto, iMovie, iCal, Address Book, Mail etc. . Safari is a great webrowser but I prefer to use FireFox. This lot saves you a bundle.
WHAT I LOVE ABOUT IT:
It looks amazing, the display is wonderful. Well packaged in a massive box. It's quick to boot and powerful enough to cope with all of the new and demaning apps that are coming onto the market. Backing up your data is very easy with Time Machine. I love the little remote that comes with it, it's so sleek and handy if you want to show a slide show or play some music. It comes with a mouse and keyboard with are beautiful and a joy to use. Needless to say I love the software and the fact that setting up the wireless was a dream, only took me 10 minutes, it was a little trickier to find my way around the email setup though. It's also guanteed for 2 years.
WHAT I'M NOT SO KEEN ON:
I really could do with a few more USB ports at the back. Instead I have to use an adapter. Setting up my wireless printer was a real pain and I still haven't got it to work after 2 years now. But I think it's more of a printer problem than an iMac issue. Slightly overpriced, but didn't really mind too much.
I will never buy a PC again.
Purchased from Absolute Music for £1250 (with 2 GB RAM upgrade)
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Apple iMac MC508B/A
by McBeer
Thou shall treat thy iMac with care
Thou shall organize all files and keep thy iMac clutter free
Thou shall always defend thy iMac in the great PC debate
These are just a few simple rules I live by on a daily basis. Abide to these rules and your iMac and yourself will live together in peace and ... harmony!
Apple's Zombie Nation
Okay, so whilst Apple aren't exactly a religion, they may as well be! They have an ever-growing following and an astonishing record when it comes to sales over the last 10 years. Apple seems to be taking over civilization with the amount of customers turning into zombies, constantly on their products! Almost everyone would of experienced an Apple product by now, be it an i-/Pod/Pad/Phone or Mac. I personally had several iPods on the past, which I kept on upgrading and still use this very day. Where would we be without Apple, hey?
The Reasoning
So amongst many of their successful products are the computers and laptops. I had never used a Mac until the age of 19 and to be honest, I never felt that I needed to. I was very happy with my Windows run, Dell computers! At college there would always be the same debate week in and week out, whether a Mac or PC was better. I always defended PC in this case, as the money saving difference was huge. Then all of a sudden my University dropped the big bombshell. "This year we will be using Logic for all of our audio assignments." For those unaware, Logic is an amazing piece of audio software, which is industry standard, but like much other of their software, ONLY available on a Mac. Great.
The Purchase
I had to delve deep into my pockets for this purchase.. or so I expected. After browsing the Apple store (and entering my University details for an education discount) I found the iMac in a 'refurb store'. Priced with 18% off a new price I picked up my iMac for around £800. The specs were as follows: -
Core i3 3.06 GHz Processor
4GB DDR3 RAM
500 GB Hard Drive
Radeon HD 4670 Graphics
21.5" Widescreen Display
My PC Comparisons
My PC I purchased before was actually home made. I bought all the components separately to make a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation), which required certain specs. It was a hassle trying to work it all out and after several hours of my brothers putting it together I finally had a PC running. That was only the beginning however as everyone knows there are a lot of installations for motherboards, sound cards, graphic cards etc. This took many hours to complete and even at first there were several error messages. On contrary my iMac was perfect! I took it out of the box, plugged it in and it was complete. Within an instant I had a fully working DAW! I couldn't believe how simple it was.
The speed and smoothness of the iMac competes with some of the best PCs on the market. From a cold boot it can get into the login page within maybe 10-15 seconds! Even after 3 years of use this Mac still seems to be incredibly fast, in comparison with many PC, which slow down after time.
The software is the biggest difference. Everything seems in the right location. With features on their operating systems, which allow you to see, all open pages or minimize to the desktop at a swipe of a mouse. All of these features come customizable. As I practice Chinese in my spare time, installing a new keyboard language was practically done. Once I set up a hot-key to change languages I was away. On a PC I had several drivers and downloads to install and even then found problems.
For anyone wanting to preserve energy there are energy saving settings in which you can time the Mac to sleep or turn on or off at required times. When I was a student and money saving is a big issue, this came in very handy to save on the electricity bill! Plus the thought that you're saving the planet makes you feel a little bit more worthwhile. All software updates are checked regularly and swiftly done at the end of a session.
I have never experienced my iMac crashing due to programs failing or viruses. This is vital for someone in my industry who needs their software working 100% of the time. A crash during a recording project can be quite disastrous!
Anybody wanting to add external hardware will find it a doddle. There are 4 USB slots and a firewire slot on the rear of the iMac. To get the majority of products working it is as simple as 'plug and play'. I spent 18 months with a PC trying to get a MIDI keyboard to work in the USB. Countless times I replaced sound cards, motherboards and never did it work! My jaw virtually dropped when I plugged in the USB and saw the Mac recognize the hardware without any prior installations. All the time I could of saved!
As there are limited fans in the Mac there is very little noise, which becomes perfect for a music studio computer. However this did worry me as the top of the iMac seems to get very hot very fast! This just seems the norm with iMacs however and has never caused a problem for me. If anything it saves a little on that heating bill!
These days almost all products are available for the Mac as well as PC so there are very little restrictions when it comes to needing software. Like I mentioned, my problem was the very opposite where the product was only available for Mac!
Now if I haven't sold t his product enough on its fantastic ability and simplicity then wait until I get onto its appearance. The 21.5" widescreen is absolutely amazing. I put it side by side to a 22" Acer monitor I was running and it was quite incredible how much brighter and more crystal clear the Mac monitor was! This makes it perfect for people in the design industry. Also, I just love to watch my favourite films! But it does get better. Did I mention that the whole of the iMac and its hardware are built into the monitor? The iMac is simply just one big monitor which is about 1-3 inches thick! No needs to have two separate parts for a monitor and the main hub. It seems silly to think that was ever needed!
The accessories that come with the iMac are the wireless (Bluetooth) keyboard and smart mouse. Both of these are available to buy separately in the Apple store at £55 each but come free with the purchase of the Mac. The keyboard is very stylish, slim and short. It doesn't feature a numeric pad but this has never caused a problem for myself. The keys are a delight to type with as they are simply millimeters from being pressed. Why else would I write a review this long! The magic mouse is just one curve of pure style. It has no visible buttons as the whole top shell is a button. Clicking on the left or right side will still be separate clicks and swiping your finger along the shell, whether up, down, left or right, will scroll across documents, images or software applications.
Finally
So there is style simplicity and every software and hardware available that I desire. At the similar price of a desktop PC I don't see why I would ever go back. Safe to say I will be a long term Apple customer as long as the products keep coming out with this standard. I can now happily say I've been taught a lesson about putting something down without trying myself. I have definitely been converted!
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