Post 27

The most important equipment for a photographer is their camera. Any good photographer will then take the images they have captured with their camera and proceed to post processing. All of the current photographers I looked up to and learned from seemed to use Macs, so I followed suit.

At first, the idea of getting a Mac, more specifically an iMac, was a little off-putting. Compared to other desktop computers, the price for an iMac is significantly more. I figured I'd look into other brands and get something good enough. Besides, how much better could an iMac possibly be? I was certain I would be able to find a similar product from another manufacturer for much less.

(Quick note: the reasons I opted for a desktop were I almost always edit my photos sitting at home, anyway, desktops have larger displays, and desktops have more power for around the same amount of money.)

Currently, the most inexpensive desktop I could find was the HP Pavillion from Best Buy. This desktop has a 20" display, a 1.4 GHz dual core processor, 4 GB of RAM, and a 1 TB harddrive. Seems decent enough to me, especially at $500.

But take a look at the most inexpensive current iMac, and one realizes where the extra money is going to. The most inexpensive iMac comes with a 21.5" display, a 2.7 GHz Intel i5 quad core processor, 8 GB of RAM, and a 1 TB harddrive.

So between these two models, the only things that are similar are the display size, and the amount of harddrive space. Space is important, but external harddrives can be had for almost nothing. I picked up a 1.5 TB harddrive for less than $150, which will last me for who knows how long.

So let's try to find a model with similar specifications to the iMac.

The Asus 23" Touch-Screen All-in-One Computer has the exact same specifications as the iMac, power wise, and clocks in at $1,150. I'm sure Asus is a fine brand, but I'd rather go with a brand that is well established, especially for only $150 more...

Another thing I would like to point out is that, at least my iMac, has a glass screen and aluminum housing. I have the 27" model, with a 2.7 GHz Intel Core i5 quad core, 4 GB of RAM, and 1TB of harddrive space. When I was looking at computers a year or so ago, I came across similar findings that I did today. Computers from other brands were cheaper, but once I found computers that had similar specifications, they were almost the exact same price. Sure, you can get a computer with half the amount of processing power and a quarter of the processing power, but which one would you keep longer, and which one would you want to use everyday?