Help followup HP or Imac

Hello,

I went to the Apple Store yesterday and they were out of the MBP 17".
They have an 24" imac for 1499.00
I looked at an HP m9515y at Best Buy for 1080.00+400.00 for HP 24" Monitor
Is it still worth it to get the imac?

Thanks

Apple Pros:
OSX
Intel Duo
NVidia 9400

HP Pros:
BluRay Drive
TV Tuner
AMD Quad
Nvida 9600

 

That depends on what you are going to be doing.

Graphics are much stronger on the HP plus the blu-ray and tv tuner

OS X and the beauty of the iMac are the draw there.

What are your main uses?

 

Some gaming (Metal of Honor), Finances, some programming
Netflix streaming movies and TV shows in HD

 

I might spend more and get the imac 3.06 ghz & GT 130

 

Mac Mall has this one cheaper

The graphics card is def a step up and should handle all your uses well

 

Your talking about the GT 120?

 

My friend this is all you have to watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS4Pt6hhECY&feature=channel_page

 

I'm just saying its a step up from the 9400 and the price is close to what you are originally looking at

 

I would still say go for the iMac, any of them over the HP desktop

 

Thanks for the help and the video link.
Looks like the imac is a better deal.

 

Get the Imac with the Ati card. Much better graphics option. And I belive it's only 50 bucks more.

 

Agreed. +1 for the ATI card. It will have much better performance compared to the GT130.

 

Please do not buy a desktop PC. If you are considering a desktop PC build one yourself. If you spend that same amount of money, $1080, you could set yourself with a core i7 rig.

It really depends what you want to do. If I had to pick between an HP desktop and an iMac hands down the iMac. Pick between building my own and an iMac? Tough call. Might toss a coin.

 

The beauty of the iMac is the fact that it's an AIO. It runs all OS's without hassle. With the HP you will have a power brick for the 24" monitor, a power connector for mini tower, so far that 2 wires. Then you will need another wire to connect the monitor to the tower plus peripherals. Then you have to set the tower in a convenient place so it will be easy to access the optical drive as well as the back of the computer while at the same time keeping it out of the way.
The iMac is much easier to access the back of the computer for connections since it's sitting right in front of you, there's no power brick, it takes up about the same amount of room as the HP monitor itself. Your web cam and microphone are built-in and it works with both Mac OS X and Windows. As far as TV tuners you have choices for the iMac, you can buy the Elgato EyeTV which plugs into the USB port.
Specs are good on both machines. Today's computers all run quite fast and the Nvidia 9400 is decent card for light gaming. If you are a heavy gamer with demanding needs in terms of frame rates even the 9600 is not going to cut it. At that point you will need the higher end iMac or a different computer.

 

I agree with the statements, the iMac is in most cases better off, and if you're going for a desktop PC in nearly all cases it is easier to build it yourself, or at least buy the parts and have a techie friend build it!

 

Do you want a laptop or a desktop? Does the added portability and mobility of a laptop add much value for you?

Agree with that.

You can do all that stuff fine on a $600 PC.

(EDIT: Okay, now that I look around the net some more, I'm reminded that there are a lot of overpriced PCs out there. That doesn't mean there aren't also some decent deals though. You could go to hpshopping.com or dell.com... you can configure a midrange HP PC for around $600 at hpshopping.com, or a seriously powerful Dell Studio desktop for around $1000 from dell.com. Or pick up the best buy Studio XPS w/ Nehalem quad-core i7: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9180423&type=product&id=1218046802234)

The video has a point, in that the iMac really is competitively priced compared to all-in-one PCs. However, it is not competitively-priced compared to regular desktop PCs. If the all-in-one form factor doesn't add much value for you (or if, as with me, it's actually a negative), then the iMac is not competitively priced compared to non-AIO desktop PCs.

I disagree. Sure, there are advantages to building a PC... cost, flexibility, and the learning opportunity... but for people who don't want the added complexity and headaches of that, buying a pre-built PC is just fine. (EDIT: I have to agree though that building gives you better pricing and flexibility for gaming systems.)

No, that is definitely not easier. Cheaper, yes, but not easier. It is clearly easier to just buy a pre-built computer.

EDIT: Never mind, I don't know what I was thinking... I forgot that none of this stuff matters... OS X uber alles... just get an 8-core Mac Pro for $3299, I'm sure you can find some way that it's worth it anyways... it is 8-core Nehalem Xeon after all, I mean who can touch that?