iMac

[Neutron]

Anyone have the iMac 27” 5K released last year? How do you like it? My wife is using an aging custom desktop I built over 3 years ago and she’s desiring an all in one computer. B&H Photo has the 3.4GHz on sale for $1649.

She primarily uses MS Office, web surfing, and MS Publisher to create flyers for our church.

 

[Foxbat]

I have the Late 2014 27" Retina 5K iMac and it's been a great machine. I do miss the flexibility of the Mac Pro it replaced, but it's fast and the image is easy on the eyes. I think the 2017 screen is even better, plus has Thunderbolt 3 support.
The Apple Refurbished store has the 2017 3.4 GHz i5 27" iMac for $1,529 if that helps (scroll to the bottom of the Apple Store page to find the link.)

 

[Neutron]

Thank you! I’ll have to compare that with B&H. There’s no sales tax with B&H since I don’t live in NY.

 

[harshness]

She primarily uses MS Office, web surfing, and MS Publisher to create flyers for our church.

Microsoft Office seems to have become quite a hind teat situation on the Mac. This is most likely because of the popularity and usability (but absolutely not cross-platform compatibility) of the bundled applications that largely overlap what the Mac version of Office covers. Publisher has never been part of the Mac perversion of Office (and it is a absolute bearcat to convert from).

I've tried using the Libre Office equivalent and it wasn't pretty with Publisher files but it is perhaps the sole desktop application that offers to take a run at them. IMHO, the sooner everyone can get away from Publisher, the better.

For about 2/3rds the money, you can get a serviceable all-in-one Windows-based machine (and not necessarily have to run out and replace the mouse, keyboard and printer) but I'd still recommend departing from Microsoft Office wherever possible.

 

[Neutron]

She (and I) wants a simple platform. We’ve used a Mac before and liked it. I don’t like the forced updates that Windows 10 does and the all in one PCs just don’t look like they are built well.

I was afraid of that in regards to Publisher.

 

[Neutron]

Thank you for the idea of ordering a refurbished iMac! Just ordered one and saved $270 over a new one.

 

[harshness]

She (and I) wants a simple platform. We’ve used a Mac before and liked it. I don’t like the forced updates that Windows 10 does and the all in one PCs just don’t look like they are built well.

It doesn't really matter how much spit and polish there is if you have to start over from scratch with your applications software and woe be to anyone that tries to pawn off a Mac document on a successor.

Automotive analogy:

I'd like a Lamborghini Huracan Performante Spider, but it is largely unsuitable as a daily driver and chances are most excellent that I couldn't fit in it.

 

[Foxbat]

I just re-read your comment about your wife needing Publisher for church publishing. My Mother-in-Law had the same situation, she was handling finances for her church district, got an iMac and Office 2008, and then found out there were all these reports and documents that were in Publisher. That's when I learned how much Publisher locks you in and won't let you move your hard work into any other application, not even Word.

I'm glad it worked out for you, Neutron. I've purchased a number of Macs from Apple's refurbished store and only had an issue once when the Mac Mini arrived with a loose part. The Apple CSR I spoke with was very apologetic and they ended up sending the next model up as there were no more of the model I had purchased. So I have no complaints...

 

[harshness]

I'm glad it worked out for you, Neutron.

It may be a bit premature to declare it worked out when one of the primary applications hasn't yet been addressed.

 

[Neutron]

She has two Publisher files for church but I’ve read a few articles on how to convert them to allow the Mac version of Word 2016 to work with them.

 

[harshness]

She has two Publisher files for church but I’ve read a few articles on how to convert them to allow the Mac version of Word 2016 to work with them.

I've gone through the process on a handful of .pub files and while it looks easy on YouTube, it requires a lot of clean-up to actually get it to work right going forward whether you're using Pages or a more conventional page layout program.

 

[Neutron]

She’s going to rebuild both files from PDF copies she has and use Pages.

The screen resolution is awesome! Audio is great too! We ran into two issues last night where the system slowed to a crawl. Looking at the system monitor it looks like it was using close to 6 GB of the 8 GB of RAM. I may have to look into upgrading that.

 

[Foxbat]

At least with the 27" 5K iMac Apple still allows us to upgrade RAM. I find it surprising you ran out of RAM, I have never noticed mine (also 8 GB) running low in the four years I've had it.

 

[Neutron]

I’m wondering if it was due to the fact that it was a new machine and we installed several programs, migrated her documents from her PC, and it was trying to index everything? It’s running much faster now.

 

[mperdue]

At least with the 27" 5K iMac Apple still allows us to upgrade RAM. I find it surprising you ran out of RAM, I have never noticed mine (also 8 GB) running low in the four years I've had it.

Yeah, that's one feature I wish was included with the iMac Pro. The whole machine needs to be torn down to change the amount of ram. With 32GB on the base model it's doubtful I'll need more for what I do but it's nice to know it's easily addressable. -sigh-