iMac Discussion

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
Alextronica
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iMac Discussion

Post by Alextronica » Sat Sep 04, 2010 4:42 pm

So I think about getting an iMac but I dont know what is the best processor to get.

I'm using Ableton Live 7 and Native Instruments 5

I'm looking at a

3.2 ghz i3 Duo Core or
Refurbished 2.8 ghz i7 quad core or
Refurbished 3.06 ghz Core 2 Duo
Refurbished 3.33 ghz Core 2 Duo

Anyone have any thoughts on pros or cons for each of these models?
Black Mac Book 2.16 4gigs of Ram > Ableton 7 Suite > Komplete 5 > APC40 > Novation Remote SL25 > Allen and Heath Xone 92 > Korg Kaoscillator

www.soundcloud.com/Alextronica

Rave
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Re: iMac Discussion

Post by Rave » Sat Sep 04, 2010 5:38 pm

I7 ftw however if u are skint go for the new i3 . You can see how it rates in the performance thread. FYI I have the new i7 tis fast as fook.

dum
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Re: iMac Discussion

Post by dum » Sat Sep 04, 2010 7:28 pm

I loved my iMac until I had to service it out of warranty lately.
very expensive, and that wasn't even a logic board failure. my friend, the coast of a new logicboard is somewhere in the region of $800

between Macbooks / iMacs / Mac Pros .... I reckon the iMac has to be the biggest nuisance/most challenging to DIY repair. if you DIY repair, you cut costs drastically between savings on labour and buying used parts. If I'm OK with DIY repairs I'm also more likely to buy used, more savings.

Not sure whether my next mac will be a lappie/tower, but it certainly won't be an iMac despite thoroughly enjoying it in use. Only possible way I'd get another iMac is if I was certain to sell it after 2 yrs (making the sale more attractive by leaving 1yr of warranty for the buyer). But nah, for me personally not worth the hassle. I suggest you strongly consider selling your iMac after 2 years if you go for it, or at least do a feasibility study to make sure you're A-OK with DIY repairs on your model. Or you can just pay to have it serviced when it inevitably breaks in some way out of warranty. And of course the extended 3yr warranty is a must.


that's my tuppence!
Pasha wrote:Thanks dum for being so precise.

Rave
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Re: iMac Discussion

Post by Rave » Sat Sep 04, 2010 8:49 pm

Thanx Dum, I will get the warranty this week or should I wait?

dum
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Re: iMac Discussion

Post by dum » Sat Sep 04, 2010 9:18 pm

Rave wrote:Thanx Dum, I will get the warranty this week or should I wait?
Rave man, I'm surprised you don't already have the extended warranty!?

But as far as I know you can buy the extended warranty any time within the first year of ownership and whether you extend the warranty from day one, or day 364, it's still just going to be 3 yrs coverage from the date of purchase. So.. follow your heart homie.

You should double check that though, that's how it was when I bought mine some moons ago.
Pasha wrote:Thanks dum for being so precise.

Rave
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Re: iMac Discussion

Post by Rave » Sat Sep 04, 2010 9:31 pm

Thanx man :) I had always considered it just didn't think I needed to rush into it :)

dahlailama
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Re: iMac Discussion

Post by dahlailama » Sun Sep 05, 2010 2:33 am

dum wrote:I loved my iMac until I had to service it out of warranty lately.
very expensive, and that wasn't even a logic board failure. my friend, the coast of a new logicboard is somewhere in the region of $800
a few weeks ago my logicboard has died from macbook pro (late2007). The DIY repair would not be a problem for me. The apple service provider told me the price is 1200EU for a new one. i was shocked about the costs. The $800 sounds very nice against 1200EU. Then i have bought a new one. The costs for DIY repairing are total unrentable.


@Rave
On my IMAC i was lucky to extend my warrenty to three years. After buying i was angry about me for first time. pay a lot money and on the end i never need this shit. But a year and a short time later died my HD drive. I called the apple support. they had give the contact from next certified service provider. I called the provider he send me one from UPS on the same day to collect my IMAC for repairing. Two days later my IMAC was back @home. After that there goes nothing without a apple care protection plan. Support and Service was really amazing

Pasha
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Re: iMac Discussion

Post by Pasha » Sun Sep 05, 2010 6:04 am

Got an iMac 2008 model + Apple Care bought an year later.
So far, crossing fingers the only problem I had was with the mice.
Substituted in 24 hours. Now I'm approaching the last year of AppleCare.
Next June iMac AppleCare will expire. If I'm lucky it will broke before the end
and I'll get a fully serviced iMac so that I do not have to buy another one... ;-)
Two years ago I have spent 1400 Euros for the mid model, now 1449 with built in 4GB Ram,
3.2 Ghz i3 CPU instead of 2.66 Core 2 Duo and 1TB of HDD while I had 320 GB.
The entry level at 1199 is way better than mine. So yes, getting the new model every two yearsis a good idea. However I think that AppleCare is a must even if perceived as a tax... The thing that is sure to broke is the HDD. Replace one on a Macbook is not a problem but on an iMac, forget it. Even going for the entry level every two years will be a risk without AppleCare for the ones like me not very good in DIY, especially with very complicated hardware like iMac. Today hard drives have a 3 years 8 hours a day MTBF but when temperatures are high this timespan might vary and Hard Drives are not built like tanks like they was. Personally I would never get a Mac Pro Tower. Too expensive and too many problems with Live as it seems from this forum posts.

- My 2 Cents
- Pasha

PS : Unexpectedly, my first Black Macbook (Nov 2006) is still alive with Snow Leopard and Live 8.1.3 but I feel the HDD is dying.. is getting slower and slower...
Mac Studio M1
Live 12 Suite,Zebra ,Valhalla Plugins, MIDI Guitar (2+3),Guitar, Bass, VG99, GP10, JV1010 and some controllers
______________________________________
Music : http://alonetone.com/pasha

dahlailama
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Location: rlp

Re: iMac Discussion

Post by dahlailama » Sun Sep 05, 2010 10:41 am

Jep, I would be lucky if had need a new HDD and not a new Logicboard for my Macbook Pro. That saved me a lot of money in this manner. The reason why the Logicboard died is the graphic processor as it told to me. By the series from 2007 was this not a small problem. a lot of people had many trouble with the Logicboard. Changing the Logicboard by older macbooks is not a big problem. Only you must be careful is the electrostatic sensitive. It is relevant to use according ESD clothes.

In meantime on my new MACBPRO and IMAC you can't repair so things easy and fast. But i had many luck as the HDD from my IMAC died. I could affort rescue the most of my data over firewire. Since then i always making back up's to a external HDD. I guess to everyone!!! For beeing solved against those HDD problems

JMFOne
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Re: iMac Discussion

Post by JMFOne » Sun Sep 05, 2010 12:02 pm

Are you guys saying that the iMacs are highly likely to break? I'm tempted to get an imac but when you are spending £1k on a product you expect a premium quality. It seems crazy that for such money, you are also putting your money at such risk. With a PC you spend big, a part breaks, you just replace it.
15" Apple Macbook Pro, mid 2012, 2.6GHz 8GB RAM 750GB HD, Ableton Live 9.2, Virus TI Polar

dum
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Re: iMac Discussion

Post by dum » Sun Sep 05, 2010 1:52 pm

dahlailama wrote:
dum wrote:I loved my iMac until I had to service it out of warranty lately.
very expensive, and that wasn't even a logic board failure. my friend, the coast of a new logicboard is somewhere in the region of $800
a few weeks ago my logicboard has died from macbook pro (late2007). The DIY repair would not be a problem for me. The apple service provider told me the price is 1200EU for a new one. i was shocked about the costs. The $800 sounds very nice against 1200EU. Then i have bought a new one. The costs for DIY repairing are total unrentable.
Ya, I'm not certain but it was in the higher regions of $800. Like $875, but I didn't want to overprice it either when I was giving advice. After EU customs duty and shipping, the cost in euro on ~$875 would be about ~840-850euro. At today's exchange rates. Another thing I noticed when I was googling apple logic board retailers, was that depending on the year, model, and type of mac there was big differences in the price of logic boards. They were ALL super expensive - too expensive - but some like yours were at the highest tier of expense.

Can you explain this to me "Then i have bought a new one. The costs for DIY repairing are total unrentable." ... Then you bought a new what ? A new logic board or new machine ? ... and 'the costs for DIY repairing are total unrentable' doesn't make any sense in english, what do you mean ? I've read reports of folks buying used logic boards on ebay, and fixing their mac DIY style. That's affordable. Are you saying DIY repairs are also out of the question ? If so I don't agree...

Sincerely not trying to be picky, just want to know exactly what you're saying.
dahlailama wrote: @Rave
On my IMAC i was lucky to extend my warrenty to three years. After buying i was angry about me for first time. pay a lot money and on the end i never need this shit. But a year and a short time later died my HD drive. I called the apple support. they had give the contact from next certified service provider. I called the provider he send me one from UPS on the same day to collect my IMAC for repairing. Two days later my IMAC was back @home. After that there goes nothing without a apple care protection plan. Support and Service was really amazing
Agreed, when anything goes wrong WITHIN WARRANTY the service is top notch. and of course, 'free'
Pasha wrote:Personally I would never get a Mac Pro Tower. Too expensive and too many problems with Live as it seems from this forum posts.
Agree with the rest of your post, and ya new mac pros are too expensive. I wouldn't buy a new one either, at least not on my current earnings!

But regarding Mac Pro problems with Live, the only problems I noticed were when folks tried to push Live to take advantage of the tonnes of RAM that are common in Mac Pros. It seemed that problem was easily rectified by reducing the amount of RAM available to Live. It also read like it could have been a Live 8 problem. And I've also read positive posts by Mac Pro users who didn't report any issues..

I'm thinking about buying a Mac Pro in the next 6 months, so I'm interested in any negative mac pro user feedback. Do you remember where these negative forum posts/threads are ?
James Fowler wrote:Are you guys saying that the iMacs are highly likely to break? I'm tempted to get an imac but when you are spending £1k on a product you expect a premium quality. It seems crazy that for such money, you are also putting your money at such risk. With a PC you spend big, a part breaks, you just replace it.
They're no more likely to break than a PC, but the cost of servicing a Mac out of warranty ranges from 'very expensive' right up to 'wtf ? are you serious. fuck you. fuck you a thousand times fuck you'



So what I'm saying is:


the 3yr warranty is ESSENTIAL. They should just call it 'Retard TAX' because you'd be a retard not to pay it while you've got the chance (the first year of ownership)

your Mac is likely to need servicing out of warranty.

the cost of servicing out of warranty is stupid expensive. sometimes so expensive you just can't rationalise the cost and will end up buying a another machine (used?), and hacking your old machine for working parts to sell on-line.

DIY repairs are your best bet out-of-warranty for sensible costs. No labour charges, used parts, etc.

the iMac is the least DIY-repair friendly of the Mac range.

if you must use an iMac, and they are awesome to use, then the smartest thing to do would be buy new and sell it after 2 yrs with 1 yr warranty left for the buyer. And repeat.



Certainly not trying to scare you off, just give you some good long-term advice. I'm a certified macfag, but I'm not keen on haemorrhaging cash on crazy service costs so I've had to adapt. That's why my current iMac will probably be the last I own, if not, I'll absolutely be doing the 2yr cycle. My next studio mac is hopefully gonna be an older tower model.
Pasha wrote:Thanks dum for being so precise.

IP
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Re: iMac Discussion

Post by IP » Sun Sep 05, 2010 3:50 pm

dahlailama wrote:The apple service provider told me the price is 1200EU for a new one. i was shocked about the costs.
JESUS CHRIST!
1200 euros for a board is SO RIDICULOUS (Apple is saying "F*** you" to their customers and one day the costumers have to give this F*** back )

any part, or computer system you buy ... it will have MINIMUM 2 years of guarantee.

1.WhyTF apple is giving only one year? (to force you to buy apple care)
2.WhyTF apple is selling apple care so expensive? (profit)
3.WhyTF apple has a such expensive service? (to force you ... and to buy an expensive apple care and to sell fast your machine for a new one)

I may got my first mac in about a month ago (and loving it more day by day) but (irony) id feel safer with a pc :(

anyway ...


the cheapest place to buy apple care? (no ebay)
yes im in this boat too

Pasha
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Re: iMac Discussion

Post by Pasha » Sun Sep 05, 2010 5:46 pm

Apple care retail prices might vary. Do not buy them from Apple Website.
You have 364 days to look for a discount.
However, finance wise the Apple Care is an insurance that you can pay 1 year later.
Dell does the same...
For the remaining 2 years you pay:

249 Euros for Macbook Pro 13, Macbooks and MacBook Air or 35 cents per Day
349 Euros for Macbook Pros i3/i5 and above or 48 cents per Day
179 Euros for iMac or 25 cents per day
299 Euros for Mac Pro or 41 cents per day

That's the reason why I get iMac and Apple Care.
At the beginning I was upset of Apple giving 1 year but when I realize finance wise
then I understood that ok, they are putting a tax on you but you got very good service
in return.

- Best
- Pasha
Mac Studio M1
Live 12 Suite,Zebra ,Valhalla Plugins, MIDI Guitar (2+3),Guitar, Bass, VG99, GP10, JV1010 and some controllers
______________________________________
Music : http://alonetone.com/pasha

dahlailama
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Re: iMac Discussion

Post by dahlailama » Sun Sep 05, 2010 6:35 pm

[
Can you explain this to me "Then i have bought a new one. The costs for DIY repairing are total unrentable." ... Then you bought a new what ? A new logic board or new machine ? ... and 'the costs for DIY repairing are total unrentable' doesn't make any sense in english, what do you mean ? I've read reports of folks buying used logic boards on ebay, and fixing their mac DIY style. That's affordable. Are you saying DIY repairs are also out of the question ? If so I don't agree…
bought an new Macbook Pro (2.4GHz Intel Core i5). Spending 1200EU for new Logicboard is to much on this point. Bur for a few hundred euros more you can buy a new MCBPRO. Which i have done…

It's economically unviable and i'm not fail to see to make some repairs and won't lift finger on that point. my old one was 3 years old an it was the easier and better way to buy a new MACBPRO. In that case everyone would be do the same and buy a new one


many users who owned a macbook from the late 2007 series had have the same problems with the Logicboards especially by this model. but the bigger enquiry for this logicboards was the factor why the prices so high

http://support.apple.com/kb/SP13

earthloop
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Re: iMac Discussion

Post by earthloop » Mon Sep 06, 2010 4:40 pm

funken wrote:You bastards just got me paranoid, and made me shell out for a care plan!
Actually, they are secretly all working for Apple! :lol:

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