This isn’t so much a review as much as its my story on how I ended up choosing an iMac over a custom PC. I thought 2001 was the year I would purchase a new computer. The task at hand ended up being a lot harder than I originally thought because I had already made the hard decision to beak-up with Apple® after being a loyal user since 2005. In the end I ended up reversing my original decision to ditch Apple and being surprised by how happy I did.
One, when I went ahead and decided to get a Mac back in 2017, I got one of the newer (yet basic) MacBook Pro®. Ever since I owned that computer though, I had nothing but issues with it. On top of that, not only did I have to get major hardware replacements on the motherboard but also with two new mac (A powerhouse of a Macbook Pro and an higher-end iMac) bought in 2016 and 2019 respectively at my place of employments. Both ended having tremendous issues right out of the gate, even with having a good amount of RAM and being optimized as best as possible to carry my video workload. I still was constantly having issues with hard drives, disk recording failures, as well as just basic memory RAM issues.
Now before you blame the user, remember: I used to sell and fix Mac computers and I wasn’t abusing them like a typical user would. Even with trying to apply best practices, I feel like I spent more time on the phone with Apple care most days than I was able to with customers. (BTW, if you buy a Mac product and you don’t get Apple Care – major bad decisions. Apple Care is such a life saver and is worth the investment) Even the tech support and Apple Care reps had been having trouble with the new Intel line, so it just seemed Mac was losing its hold on the stability it always promised. (Not to mention the crazy amount of new lawsuits coming out about many of them lately) Either way, let’s just say I was spooked.
Let’s fast forward back to the present now. It’s 2021, and I’m now out trying to heal up from my work injuries and needing a computer to start building my skills on. And I think to myself, well, I should get a PC this time around. That way, when I am ready to go ahead and start creating again so I can launch my own media presence, I’ll be a setup with a computer that can do it all. With a PC I can get more functionality out of it as a workstation, game host, and live streaming powerhouse. It would be a fun project that my partner and I could build and finally have compatible machines to play together on. Hilariously enough, that wasn’t the case.
I started doing my really big research in March. I knew the trouble about graphic card stock for the NVIDIA® 3800, but I was finding that the NVIDIA 3900’s were a little easier to come buy if I had a company custom build one for me. Cool, I thought, I’ll just have to start researching the other components to build a computer: processor, ram, motherboard. I also needed to pick monitors – and that took me a good month to research too as I wanted a set that had a high refresh rate for gaming, but a true color palette for artwork. I built my list of new creative programs as well, since many of the ones I used on the make weren’t transferable. It took time, but I finally came up with the perfect computer, within budget, and completely could stand up to the current (now discontinued) iMac Pro.
Well, as we know in the world of tech, things can change fast. By the time I was ready to hit the purchase button on a PC, the prices had jumped up about $1500 by mid April alone. Now anyone who has been actually following any type of tech and computer news right now, know that computers PC parts have been inflate for quite some time due to demand, scalping, and chip and labor shortages shortages during the pandemic, so this priced me out. The wait times before getting the computer were as long as 6 to 8 weeks, so this didn’t fit the timeline my doctors were hoping to get me back up to. To throw me off even more, Apple discontinued their iMacPro. So now, unless I wanted to purchase an iMac, I’d have to get it refurbished or try and find hidden stock somewhere. So now I was weighted down by my own goals: Trying to purchase a comparable PC to the iMac Pro I needed was now MORE expensive than just buying the iMacPro and I would miss being able to start training for PT. That’s of course when Mac announced the new iMac M1’s.
The Apple M1 iMac computer announcement didn’t really give me a lot of time to second guess the purchase, but maybe that was a good thing. If you pre-ordered, you could instantly get a computer or get it by mid June. Was it the end-all powerhouse I needed? No. But for the price and the functionality for what I needed to be able to do over the summer into fall, it was perfect. The price was also low enough that I could still afford to buy the PC I wanted with a little bit of saving to recoup what I lost buying this. So I jumped on board the Mac train again and put in my order.
For your reference: I got the 24″ Apple M1 chip with 8-core CPU with 4 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores, 8-core GPU, and 16-core Neural Engine. It has 16GB Ram and 1TB SSD – In Purple (Fun!)
Since I’ve gotten this computer, it behaves far more stable than the previous three Mac’s I’ve have in the past five years. Of course, since my arms aren’t quite ready to do video editing yet, so I haven’t really been able to test it out on that front, but in terms of being able to run multiple programs that suck up RAM like Illustrator or Photoshop it’s been great. Oh, and of course, who forget to mention how many tabs on my browser it lets me keep open so I can multi-task the way I need to. To my surprise this computer actually works out really really well for me. Again, I was ready to break up, so if felt weird going back and ending with a feeling of confidence with my purchase.
In terms of use-case: I’m specifically using it to practice typing and doing work related tasks due to the atrophy caused by delayed PT toward my overuse injury. Being able to sync my iPhone® and iPad® allows me the freedom to create and conduct business from anywhere, which gives me a much needed break from repetitive motions. I’m also using the iMac to go back through older work so that I can work on my archived projects that need to be published. Since this computer has proved to be stable as well, the blessing of being able to open up old back-up hard drives and not have to worry about corruption is fantastic. It’s also a lot easier to open files back up and not have to worry about finding programs to help convert some files over to PC, because obviously, by design, once you go Mac, they make it really hard for you to go back.
Truth be told though, I haven’t been able to benchmark it with any of my video program – which is probably the most important task I need to do on this machine once I am ready. There are plenty of reviews online though that show how the M1 performs and my of my colleagues that use their higher-end M1 Macbooks or Mac minis to edit videos on have been happy. Once I get back into videos, I’ll let you know how this computer fairs crunching them. I still have nightmares over the issues I had with the last Mac last year, so I think I’ll be able to compare them even with so much time passing between them.
Cosmetically, it is also can hold up to the PC I wanted to buy. Obviously, it doesn’t mean anything to buy a computer just so that it looks cool, but I do appreciate the fact that they manufactured it in a lavender color. One functional cosmetic choice is the weight, the fact that the 24″ iMac just so light is actually useful. It is really easy to travel with. I wouldn’t suggest using it like you’re on a laptop, but it means if I need to travel for a long extended period of time, I could bring the computer with me. This will make future work such as live-streaming or just previewing creative work much easier on location. It does make me want to upgrade my phone (since mine is read), but I won’t let them peer pressure me into that.
Some of the downsides of course is the fact that the screen is smaller than I’m used to, many of the programs that I use are still optimized for the Intel chips, and game companies of all don’t always put out a mac version. There are workarounds such as the external monitor I bought for the new PC (HA!), exploring new programs (or just waiting patiently for the updates), and of course Cloud Gaming. Once my arms are fully healed, I am really excited to try out cloud gaming on the iMac such as NVIDIA’s, Stadia, or XBOX’s XCloud. Of course I’ll cross that bridge when its time for it.
While I am happy with my new iMac, I am still diligently watching PC prices and stock to even themselves out. Some of the custom PC companies I was working with before mentioned it could take at least until December before prices make sense and I haven’t found any luck buying parts at cost even after joining several stock watch groups. So if you are looking to upgrade your Mac or still trying to hold out for a new PC, I hope this helps you make an informed decision. Either way, I am happy I decided to give Apple a chance again, let’s just hope they don’t disappoint me this time around.
What do you think about my decision? Would you have waited till PC parts started to go down in price? Would you have waited for the new M1X® or M2® chip coming out? Or was I just not creative enough to figure out how to make a PC work? I’m interested in hearing your thoughts so comment below or course, reach out to me.