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Installation & update
About program installation and update, hardware, operating systems, setup, etc.

Is iMac 21" enough for residential projects ?

Anonymous
Not applicable
Can anyone tell me how well the iMac 21" will perform on AC16 ? I was planning on maxing out all the options and get the 21". I know there has been a lot of talk about the 27" but I can't find any discussion for 21". The 21" seems like a nice size for me. Its good for desktop and still small enough to take home occasionally.

I plan to take it home once in a while using a carrying case called the iLugger. It takes 15 seconds to put the thing in. This is the spec for it for $2,397:

3.1GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.9GHz
16GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x8GB
1TB Fusion Drive
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 512MB GDDR5
Apple Magic Mouse
Apple Wireless Keyboard (English) & User's Guide
AppleCare Protection Plan for iMac - Auto-enroll
Apple USB SuperDrive
Accessory Kit
4 REPLIES 4
Anonymous
Not applicable
I have imac 21" couple of years old running AC17 and it works great. The one you have spec'd out will be a rocketship. Screen size is ample
Karl Ottenstein
Moderator
the 21" would be fine - although the 512 video will be a problem in the long run. Need 27" to get better options - 2gb or 4gb.

Personally, I cannot imagine NOT working on the 27" though and recommend it instead. The 27 has easy user installable memory, so cheaper to up the memory via macsales.com, crucial, etc. I added 16 GB to our late 2013 27" imac to give it 24 GB total.

Refurbished is essentially new at a good discount - and still eligble for AppleCare:

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/mac

inventory chnges daily. Took me a week or two before the loaded iMac I wanted appeared.
One of the forum moderators
AC 27 USA and earlier   •   macOS Ventura 13.6.9, MacBook Pro M2 Max 12CPU/30GPU cores, 32GB
aahatimo
Newcomer
karl is quite correct, refurb is the way to go. i have purchased my last 3 macbook pros that way.
here is a refurbished 27" iMac that has great specs except needs a ram upgrade:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/G0PG4LL/A/refurbished-27-inch-imac-35ghz-quad-core-intel-core-i7
$400 savings!
tim hanagan
aaha! design studio durango, co
27" retina 5k iMac 4ghz i7 os 10.13.6 m395x 4 mb, 32gb ram, 512 gb ssd ac 22 current
15" retina mbp 2.6ghz 1mb 16gb ac 22 current[/size]
Stress Co_
Advisor
+1
With what I saved, I was able to upgrade to the Fusion drive
(27" model).
Marc Corney, Architect
Red Canoe Architecture, P. A.

Mac OS 10.15.7 (Catalina) //// Mac OS 14.5 (Sonoma)
Processor: 3.6 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9 //// Apple M2 Max
Memory: 48 GB 2667 MHz DDR4 //// 32 GB
Graphics: Radeon Pro 580X 8GB //// 12C CPU, 30C GPU
ArchiCAD 25 (5010 USA Full) //// ArchiCAD 27 (4030 USA Full)