[OSX-Users] Re: Purchase advice please

[Hugh Glaser]

Thanks Jules - to the points as always!
> On 15 Jul 2015, at 13:04, Julian Field <Jules at ecs.soton.ac.uk> wrote:
> 
> Hugh,
> 
> On 15/07/2015 12:15, Hugh Glaser wrote:
>> So, I’m a newbie, since I’ve never bought a Mac desktop before :-)
>> (Yes, really, I realise - I’ve had Mac Book’s since the 100, and before that I used to lug my compact Mac home and back. Almost 30 years of portable/luggable Macs.)
>> 
>> I don’t get out much now (!), so my 2011 Air will be enough when I do (along with the iPad); but I could do with a better machine than the Air plugged into my 30” at home (i particular more than than the 4GB)…
>> 
>> So, I think an iMac is on the horizon, since it gives a lot more bangs than Books do.
>> It has to be the bigger 27” one - I use a 30” twin DVI HP now, and it would be strange not to have something similar on the machine itself.
> Why not a Mac mini? Does your HP also do dual-link DVI or anything more modern than twin DVI?
Sorry - it does Dual-link DVI only - my looseness of phrase.
Good question - I sort of thought of the Mini as being just that bit slower in all departments (including memory capabilities for the future).
And I sort of fancy having the two screens - even though some would see it as overkill :-)
Also, I could do with a decent camera, and mouse and keyboard, so the value starts to tot up.
>> 
>> Synchro?
>> First question is about using 2 machines at the same time (iMac and Air). I think that the Apple synchro is better than it was, and may even be quite good now. I’m not talking hand-off here - more about having a bunch of files, and hopefully browser history and bookmarks all synched.
>> iCloud? Dropbox as well? Something else? Certainly not GDocs :-)
> I would go for Dropbox for the files, and iCloud for everything else. Then it will all sync with your iPhone, iPad, and so on too. Dropbox support is coded into 3rd party iOS apps more than iCloud usually is, so tends to be more useful.
>> 
>> Screen?
>> I’ll probably pay the extra to go for the 5K, just for forwards compatibility (my eyes can’t really see the difference of retina, I find).
>> I do worry that Retina makes more demands on the processor (and memory), since it needs to service 4 times as many pixels, although a lot of that will be taken up by the graphics card.
>> Any views?
> Don't see the point of paying extra for 5K if you can't see it. The graphics card ends up doing all the work anyway, so I wouldn't worry about CPU usage.
>> 
>> Memory?
>> I’ll want 32GB one day, I’m sure.
>> As usual, Apple charges an arm, a leg and a hand for memory.
>> So I think I buy the 8GB machine, and can upgrade to 32GB immediately or when I want, for the same extra money as buying the 16GB version?
> Yes. Last time I checked the RAM is behind a little panel you can remove from the back of the iMac, involves pressing a tiny button hidden by the mains connector.
>> 
>> Disk?
>> I’ve got plenty of external spinning rust around, with TBs of space free, and really don’t need some more, especially one that is only 1 or 3 TB (I’ve been running off a 128GB SSD Air for the last 4 years).
>> So I think 256GB SSD is more than enough for normal use, and the price of the 512GB SSD isn’t justified for me (I don’t edit large movies).
>> SSD and not Fusion because managing my own use of the SSD is no trouble, and going to guarantee things are in the right place.
>> So I think 256GB SSD is the best thing to do?
> Sounds good. The only reason you might want to think of going any bigger is if you might want to try out betas and such like (at which point you can just clone your existing partition into the other half of the space and put the betas on there while leaving your original alone until the final release is put out).
Or just stuff the betas on in any case and lean on Time Machine if things go pear-shaped :-)
>> 
>> External Display?
>> I will be plugging my HP LP3065 30” 2560 x 1600 in to it as well. At the moment it is plugged into the Air, via a Thunderbolt to Twin-DVI adaptor. As far as I can tell, this should be OK for Thunderbolt 2 too, but does anyone have any experience of this?
> Again, if you've got that monitor working off a Mac already, why not buy a much cheaper Mac mini in the first place? Do you want to use 2 monitors at the same time?
>> 
>> Clock?
>> Can’t imagine it is worth the extra spondulicks for the faster one?
>> Although that would also let me get a faster graphics, which I probably don’t need either, but could burn more money on :-)
> You're probably going to be good for quite a few years on a Core i5, but the new Core i7 CPUs are *very* nice and fast.
Sigh - just what I didn’t want to hear :-)
Since the main annoyance with my current machine seems to be memory (lots of apps, but probably not doing much, and browsers all seem to be leaking), I reckon I’ll have to resist the temptation. I could always buy a Mac Mini with the difference :-)
> 
> Hope that helps,
Certainly does - thanks mate.
> 
> Jules
> 
> -- 
> Jules Field MEng MBCS CITP CEng
> email+iMessage: Jules at ecs.soton.ac.uk
> Twitter: @JulesFM
> 
> Senior Tutor, Electronics and Computer Science
> Teaching Systems Manager, Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering
> University of Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK
> 
> 'When I read Shakespeare I am struck with wonder
> That such trivial people should muse and thunder
> In such lovely language.' - D.H. Lawrence
> 

--
Hugh
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