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SK computer recommendation
Jan. 20th, 2008 09:30 amCopied in part from the GT list, moved here for historical purposes:
OK, so I just recommended to my MIL that she go out and buy an iMac. Her old Dell monitor croaked, and rather than buy a new one, she'd rather go with a new, smaller computer because she's now in a small apartment instead of a house.
She came over thinking "laptop" but as she has no interest in ever moving it from its home on a desk, I didn't think that was the best; you'd have a mouse plugged in anyway, and the keyboard would be a compromise.
We looked at the Mac Mini, but in the end it looked to me like the base iMac, with a 250G drive, 1G of RAM and a 20" screen was a better value. She'd have to bump up to the $799 Mini to get a DVD recorder, which she wanted, so at that point, plus monitor, kb, mouse, it's about the same anyway and it's more clutter than the iMac.
Apparently the office software is another $80. I said "yeah, use it for the 30 day trial but if it's any good at all, and I'm sure it is, it's worth $80." I pointed out OpenOffice, but said since it's running under X11, I'd probably just go ahead and buy the iWork package instead.
A couple of guys at work have also put their extended family into iMacs without ever having used one themselves, and they're all happy with the decision.
After she left, she drove to the Apple store, and wound up with a Mini. The 20" minimum monitor size of the iMac was just too big (I think the same thing; a 19" monitor is too big IMHO, I think 17" is the perfect size). So she got a Mini and went and bought a generic 17" monitor from Best Buy.
OK, so I just recommended to my MIL that she go out and buy an iMac. Her old Dell monitor croaked, and rather than buy a new one, she'd rather go with a new, smaller computer because she's now in a small apartment instead of a house.
She came over thinking "laptop" but as she has no interest in ever moving it from its home on a desk, I didn't think that was the best; you'd have a mouse plugged in anyway, and the keyboard would be a compromise.
We looked at the Mac Mini, but in the end it looked to me like the base iMac, with a 250G drive, 1G of RAM and a 20" screen was a better value. She'd have to bump up to the $799 Mini to get a DVD recorder, which she wanted, so at that point, plus monitor, kb, mouse, it's about the same anyway and it's more clutter than the iMac.
Apparently the office software is another $80. I said "yeah, use it for the 30 day trial but if it's any good at all, and I'm sure it is, it's worth $80." I pointed out OpenOffice, but said since it's running under X11, I'd probably just go ahead and buy the iWork package instead.
A couple of guys at work have also put their extended family into iMacs without ever having used one themselves, and they're all happy with the decision.
After she left, she drove to the Apple store, and wound up with a Mini. The 20" minimum monitor size of the iMac was just too big (I think the same thing; a 19" monitor is too big IMHO, I think 17" is the perfect size). So she got a Mini and went and bought a generic 17" monitor from Best Buy.
