Buying my first Mac today

Ant84

Ant84

Ant84

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Picking up a 24in iMac from the Apple store this afternoon after wanting one for the last 3 years. Went for the lowest priced option of the three as I'm not really a huge power user. Web, word processing, web and graphic design every now and then, music, films; the usual really.

My better half is in the final year of her university studies now so we'll qualify for the education discount. I've seen plenty of people use the discount on here in recent times and they've mentioned the Applecare package to go with it. Is it common for Apple to throw this into the deal when you use the HE discount, or does it come at extra cost, albeit discounted from the usual retail price? Any other extras I should be attempting to get thrown in?
 
The HE package includes hardware Applecare for three years as part of the deal. If you want to upgrade that to full telephone support as well it's another £50 or so, depending on the hardware you're buying.

/edit - I've just checked and it shows as being £43.70 for the base 24" model.
 
Thanks guys.

Can anyone let me know how much I'm looking at for the specified model iMac through HE, both with and without the extra Applecare support?

Also, I'm not very experienced with Macs whereas I know loads on here are, so are there any generally recommended upgrades, or are the standard (keyboard/mouse etc) options decent enough?
 
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Ant84 said:
Thanks guys.

Can anyone let me know how much I'm looking at for the specified model iMac through HE, both with and without the extra Applecare support?

Also, I'm not very experienced with Macs whereas I know loads on here are, so are there any generally recommended upgrades, or are the standard (keyboard/mouse etc) options decent enough?
Click to expand...

The keyboards are excellent, but the Mighty Mouse isn't as good I'm afraid. :( Best just trying both out in store and see what you think.
 
Yeah, heard some horror stories about the Mighty Mouse but that wireless keyboard looks great. Might have to upgrade to that at a later date.

Anyway, thanks to everyone for replying and I'm sure I'll have plenty more questions for you all later when I'm up and running. ;)
 
Base 24" iMac
With three years hardware Applecare - £1,055.70
With three years hardware and telephone Applecare - £1,099.40

Base 24" normal
With one year hardware and telephone Applecare - £1,199.00
With three years hardware and telephone Applecare - £1,335.00

Buying with HE discount and full three years Applecare will save you £255.60

Personally I think I'd spec it with the 1Tb drive instead of the 640Gb version and with the full telephone Applecare which works out at £1,169.55.

 
Have you got it yet?

I got mine on thursday, and its fantastic, I still cant get over the screen quality let alone all the rest of it, Im loving the whole mac experience right now :D

C.
 
Yeah I got it a few hours ago, not long since finished getting to grips with it and setting up. Astonished by the quality of the panel and, although there appear to be a couple of tiny bits between the glass and the screen, I can't notice them when in normal use.

Ended up purchasing the Applecare package at an extra £45 as a couple of guys in the store insisted the warranty was only 12 months unless it was purchased through a university network online. Not sure how true that is? Also decided to go with the wireless keyboard and mouse at £35 extra, which I was quite happy with as now there are no visible leads and it just looks amazing.

I'm hoping to set it up better soundwise as the built in speakers, albeit very good for in-monitor ones, don't really deliver any bass and I listen to a lot of music. I've got a receiver and speaker system in the room, so I'm wondering how easy it would be to connect to those and which leads I'd require to do so?
 
It isn't true. Someone on the phone tried to blag me as well in the week. It's definitely 3 years hardware support when buying using the HE discount.
 
That's what I thought. My better half wasn't very pleased with me getting a bit arsey with them in the shop when I challenged them, so I just bought the extra cover.

All in all though, I honestly couldn't be happier. The quality of this thing has completely blown me away.
 
May I ask what graphic software are you planning to use with your iMac as I have been looking into getting the same iMac as you which I beleive is the base model 24" you got
 
Probably just Photoshop CS3. I do a bit of graphic and web design on there. Promotional material and website work for my business, and it's about all I need. Doubt I'll be upgrading to CS4 any time soon as this runs like a dream.
 
The bottom end imac (with 2gig) runs OK. I had last years and it's fine for single image image editing in CS3. Even at stupid dpi.

The next mac up the line (4Gig/24") is better though if you're not on a strict budget.
 
Mighty Mouse and wireless keyboard have frozen up twice now, once yesterday and once just now. Haven't got a clue how to fix it or what's wrong. Today I had a mess around with the slider underneath the mouse and it worked after a couple of minutes, yesterday that wasn't working so I had to shut the power off without shutting down.

Any ideas how to resolve this or, indeed, what the problem is?
 
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