I was a long time supporter of all things PC and by this I mean Windows, Linux, Build it yourself desktop machine and so forth – Apple were (and still are) expensive for what you actually get considering now they use the same hardware as a desktop PC. What you may also have noticed was wrote about and Owned a top of the range iMac – so how come this post? Let me explain all.
My Nephew has been an apple fan for many years and no amount of showing and telling me how good they were would get me to part money buying one. He spotted on the Apple refurb store a top of the line 24” iMac 2.8GHz and bought it online for one of his children but for one reason or another he changed his mind of her having this item and instead of cancelling the order – he diverted this machine to my house and then emailed me telling me what had happened.
On the said email though in very small red writing – he made mention of me maybe paying him back one day, I had no requested this machine, had no plans to buy this machine – so why should I feel I should have to pay him back? Was this not a present as he mentioned in various other conversations? Time moved on and depending on his financial situation – this machine was either a present or on loan until I paid him money. I was not happy about this and told him that it was his and if he wants it back – take it, I would rather spend the money on a top end PC.
18 Months passed, I had already chucked the boxes out by now and due to the fact it had the biggest screen, fastest CPU and so forth – it became my main machine. He finished his current contract and was broke – so much so that he had to ask for this back or I pay him – whichever. Now I had a quick think about this (ignoring the fact about him needing money fast) and should I invest £800 – £1000 on this iMac or should I let him sell it, get whatever he can get and spend my money on top end PC Hardware?
To give an example – On Dell Refurb Site they had the Core i7 2.66GHz Quad Core Machine, 6 GIG ram, 750HD for about £550 (give or take) with a half decent graphics card – far in excess of either what I have now or what is included in the Mac (ATI 2600) – add to that a 24” Monitor which comes in at £150 let us say (also from Dell) and we have £700. Operating systems aside – you can see that the Dell machine will blow the Apple away and can be upgraded later on. Yes the iMac is good as its all-in-one but that is also its main problem.
To round up them – I am now a Vista / Windows 7 Person back to playing my games, writing this in fact on Live Writer and I personally cannot see myself buying a Mac of any type – who has £4500 for a Mac Pro anyhow?
