I'm getting ready to buy my first Imac. Price is an issue for me as I am going to be buying a lot of gear in the next six months. I will be doing mostly general lightroom editing for weddings senior shoots ext. So I'm leaning toward the 20 inch 2.4Ghz $1200 model. Is this a bad choice? Will I regret this decision? I really want a 24inch model but can't justify the price right now.

What do you think?


Thanks,
Mark

Also I am considering going refurbished. http://store.apple.com/us/product/FA878LL/A

What do you think?

Mark, I use the 20" iMac daily for all sorts of tasks, including heavy production. It's perfect for me. Just be sure to load in as much RAM as you can afford, minimum 2GB. Unless you might be doing serious video editing, more than maybe 4GB wouldn't be advantageous considering the cost.

And get your additional RAM (other than what comes with it) somewhere other than Apple. You'll save money.

works for me!

We love the Apple refurb store! I've owned 8 different refurbed machines, and have never had a single issue with a machine. The iMac is awesome, but I'd highly suggest spending like $200 more and get the 24" the extra screen space is soooo nice, and definitely fill that sucker with as much RAM as you can.

Well, being as apple was sued over the screen's color accuracy on the 20" I would consider that you go with the 24" and you won't regret it.

Wow, I didn't know that! I've had no issues with mine.

The refurbished 24" (link above) is only a $100 dollars more than the brand new 20" $1200 model. But the guts are a little different. I'm not much of a geek so I'm not sure if it makes that much of a difference. Here are some of the differences. What do you think ?


ram 1 gig @ 800 MHz vs. 1 gig @ 667 Mhz
Hard Drive 250 gig vs. 320 Gig
Graphics 2400xt W/128mb ram vs. 2600 pro w/256mb ram

Thanks for your help!

Go for the 24"... Honestly you will love the real estate of the 24" over the 20". Especially when working with apps utilizing palettes (which ones don't anymore?). The faster bus (800MHz) weighs in better then the 20" 667MHz. 6MB of frontside cache weighs in better then 4MB.
Of course this all depends on what you can afford.
You might want to give some thought to an Applecare plan too. You can always purchase it later as long as you do it before the one year warranty expires. You will have a better sense about that purchase down the road anyways... no need to jump on it right away.

No matter what you decide I am sure you will be happy with your purchase and that is what matters.

I have spent the better part of 16 years installing, setting up and servicing Macs. If you need help or have questions down the road I would be happy to help you.

Last note... get the 4GB of RAM whichever machine you get. Think about a backup drive too... not an expensive Apple Store model but just a firewire or USB drive from Fry's or OtherWorldComputing.

They were sued over the number of colors the monitors can display... in the 20" model's case it was significantly less than most normal LCD monitors, and a lot of people have had a hard time calibrating the 20" models accurately from what I've heard.

As far as what Bill said, TONS of good reasons there to get a 24" - I think you'll be much better off.

As far as RAM though, purchase the computer from apple with the bare minimum of RAM then buy the rest yourself from http://www.transintl.com and you'll save yourself TONS of money. RAM is easy to install in the new iMacs, and instructions can be found on apple's support website.

I think the faster bus and the frontside cache weighs in better on the 20''. I think you might have been confused. Am I wrong? Thanks so much for your help!!!! If you were confused would that change your decision?

20'' w/ram 1 gig @ 800 MHz vs. 24'' w/1 gig @ 667 Mhz
20'' w/Hard Drive 250 gig vs. 24'' w/320 Gig
20'' Graphics 2400xt W/128mb ram vs. 25 w/2600 pro w/256mb ram

24'' refurbished link $1300 http://store.apple.com/us/product/FA878LL/A
20'' BHphoto link $1200 http://tinyurl.com/3owwwu

Thanks for your help!

Hey Mark... thanks for poking me in the eyes. Yeah... I was looking at bus speed rather then the speed of the RAM. The 20" is the faster machine and my apologies for my mistake. I am glad I detailed a bit what I was seeing so that you could see my confusion.
There is enough of a difference, despite equal processor speeds, for you to experience the 20" as noticeably faster. It is now a matter of what is really important to you if you set aside the $100 difference in price. Does a marginal, yet noticeable, speed difference outweigh the importance of a large screen? I work on a 20" display at home and it works for me. Would I like a 24"? You betcha. You have a good little struggle on your hands... regardless you would not be unhappy no matter which way you went. Good luck with your choice.
Thanks for pointing out that while I have a few years under my belt in the Mac world it is still easy for me to overlook something or gloss over it. Wake-up calls are good :-)

I don't know the exact differences between the 20" and 24" displays, but the 20" are not up to par and the 24" screens are far superior.

Is there an Apple store, or any place near you that would have models of both the 20" and the 24" out. Check out the differences between them. Look at all angles. In the 20", form what I could tell, you can see brightness shifts as you change your angle, and it is not uniform throughout the entire hight of the screen. This to me is a show stopper for the 20".

Now, if at an apple store, also check out the cinema displays. Since price is an issue you probably aren't thinking this, but one option would be to pick up the 20" now, knowing its limitations and dealing with it, then adding a cinema display later on and use that as the primary monitor for photos and keep your controls/thumbnails on the built in monitor.

Since there are people reporting that they are happy with the 20", maybe it's enough to get you by until you can save up for a second. Go to the store and check them out, and if you can't notice a difference, then there must not be one as far as you are concerned.

I went with the 20" I am really loving it. Thanks for the help everyone.