Customer Reviews

Apple iMac MC511LL/A 27-Inch Desktop (OLD VERSION)

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

BURNED DVDS:
My big concern is that the DVD drive would not play burned DVDs. (Out of the box, my MacbookPro did NOT play burned DVDs very well, if at all. After a couple OS updates, that seems to be a thing of the past, but a new concern for this drive.) DVDs tested that worked on the new iMac are: Imation DVD-R 8x; Taiyo Yuden white; Verbatim DVD+R DL; Verbatim DVD-R; Memorex DVD-R 4x; Princo DVD-R 'white star'.

MEMORY SLOTS and UPGRADING MEMORY:
Upgrading memory on the iMac is easy. There are 4 slots for memory: 2 'upper' and 2 'lower', as Apple calls them, but they are really 4 side by side slots on the bottom (behind the Apple logo.) The 2 upper slots are populated by Apple's memory, but the 2 lower slots are open (unless you upgraded already.) The 4 memory slots are accessed by unscrewing 3 screws with a Philips screwdriver (a normal size will do.) Apple recommends "For the iMac (Mid 2010) models, use 2 GB or 4 GB RAM SO-DIMMs of 1333 MHz DDR3 SDRAM in each slot." Removing the aluminum screen is a one-screw deal, then push in the memory, and power the iMac back on. That's it. If you are planning on running VMWare, or playing games, or doing video, you will likely need to upgrade to another 2 or 4GB. I recommend 2 cards of 2GB each. VMWare running Win7, while OSX is running PS and a browser takes up about 60-75% of the 4GB installed memory. And remember: saving a little and buying janky memory is like putting used, dirty oil in your car - what are you really saving by doing that?

REMOTE CONTROL:
The older remote control for my MBP worked just fine. That is until we started watching some streaming video through Safari. For some reason that video knocked out the ability to use the remote, and I had to restart the iMac to get it to see the remote again. Don't know why, and it was only for video being played through todocast.tv website. May be a rare issue.

LOADING HARD DRIVE:
It only took 63 mins for me to move 93GB of data from an external drive using USB 2.0 cable. Loading Mac Office took less than 10 minutes to load from DVD (default config) - fastest I have ever seen, yet. One thing I noticed is that I can hear this hard drive writing to the disc, whereas I cannot here my older iMac's drive at all. I have to put my head up near the screen, but I can hear the thumping more prominently than I can on the 2-year old iMac. This might be due to the way the housing/area around the drive is designed: might be creating an echo chamber? Don't know why, just do.

WIRELESS KEYBOARD and MOUSE:
Whoa! The wireless keyboard worked from over 50-feet away! I walked through a thick wood door, down the hall (cinderblock walls) and around the corner and it still worked! I have no idea how far away I can go, but across the room is no problem. Same goes for the wireless mouse. The mouse does not have the right-click set up as a default. I also found that the left-right swipe action was dangerous while browsing websites, for a left-swipe is the same as the 'back' button - and when filling out an online form hitting the back button (or accidentally swiping left on the mouse) can erase your inout data.) The vertical swiping action of the mouse is just like the iPhone, smooth and screen slides to a stop. Best mouse ever made.

WIRELESS CARD:
This card is definitely showing a stronger signal than my MBP sitting the same distance from the router (which is a G-band). It also shows a lot more networks to choose from than the MBP.

UDATES:
Out if the box, the iMac needed to be updated. Nothing ridiculous, just about 7 updates (Safari, Java, AirPort, iTunes, OSX security...) with a half hour of download and updating.

RETAIL BOX CONTENTS:
People new to Mac, and those that haven't bought one in years, will find the contents of your retail box sparse: keyboard, iMac, mouse, 2 DVDs, small booklet, power cord and batteries for the keyboard and mouse (installed.) That's it. PC users/converters will be shocked at how little documentation there is in your box: no yellow pieces of paper screaming out warnings and 'do this first!' type messages. This is true plug and play.

SPEAKERS:
These speakers sound just the same as the 2-your old iMac I am comparing all of this to. Maybe a little less tin/bright... Still not the best, most amazing speakers out there, but are far better than the majority of embedded computer speakers. I still recommend you buy a set of desktop speakers if plan on watching movies, playing music loud, or want a rich deep sound.

SCREEN:
Still not super-stoked about the glossy screen, but I think I am starting to get used to it. Bright rooms (especially where the light behind you is brighter than the light behind the iMac) just suck to work in. That's when I break out the MBP and it's matte screen. The 178-degree viewing angle statistic is ONLY for the most optimum viewing conditions! Again, a bright room where there are reflections on the screen will just turn it all to a kaleidoscope: colors are seen but good luck figuring out what you are seeing! In a pitch black room, yes, you can benefit from the 178-degree viewing angle and all is good.

QUAD CORE, THE BASICS:
While having the quad core CPU makes for a very snappy and almost lag-free iMac, it does NOT speed up your old programs. It's NOT like Office programs are suddenly using all four cores to compute your Chemistry spreadsheet or create that graph. It just means that there are more pipelines for your programs to run on. In short, the program has to be written to utilize the multiple cores at the same time. Not even my Adobe CS4 is using all four cores.

THINNER PEDESTAL:
The new thinner pedestal ("foot") is great for pushing back the keyboard/work. The old iMac had a 1/4 inch tall foot, almost brick-like, whereas this one about an 1/8 of an inch or less. Works like a ramp.

All said, I have to say that this is the best iMac so far. I know that should go without saying, but you can't always take this for granted. If you have a 1-year old iMac, I can't see upgrading unless you are having problems with it. If you have a 2+ year old iMac, or even a G5 rig, I can easily say that you should/could upgrade to this one. You will not be disappointed.

Will update this review as I come across more revelations.

First things first: the iMac offered on this page has the quad-core Intel Core i5 processor. A configuration with a dual-core i3 processor is also sold by Amazon. A more powerful quad-core processor, the i7, is available as a build-to-order option from the online Apple Store. Be sure you're looking at the configuration you want. Apple makes four 27" Aluminum iMac processor setups in all: an i3, two with the i5, and an i7 (see the Comments on this review for a link to Apple's official tech specs).


Now then, on with the show. Many reviewers of the previous release of the 27" Aluminum iMac have already discussed the essential hardware and software features. So, rather than repeating stuff that has already been said, I am going to focus this review on my experience of upgrading from a G4 igloo iMac that was running System 10.5.8 .

Migration Assistant
*I used a Firewire 400 to Firewire 800 cable to move the contents of my old computer to the new machine with Migration Assistant.
*The process was virtually seamless, with only a few minor adjustments necessary to the transferred data. Only four applications required reinstallation: ClamXav, iTunes (due to the Soundflower plugin--in any case, no music was lost or damaged), Microsoft Expression Media 2, and a Juniper Networks remote access program (part of a corporate telecommuting package).
*Rules for Little Snitch, a third party utility, need to be reestablished.
*Customized preferences for Spotlight must be reentered.

Magic Mouse
*iMacs now come with a wireless mouse as standard equipment. The Magic Mouse is a vast improvement over the Apple Mouse (aka Mighty Mouse) because it doesn't have a roller ball that eventually stops working. In fact, there aren't any external moving parts on the Magic Mouse, other than the on/off switch.
*Exposé and Dashboard functions are now on the top row of the keyboard, not on mouse buttons.
*If you're interested in the new Magic Trackpad, you'll have to order it separately. It doesn't come as standard equipment right now.

Keyboard
*The chiclet style keys took me a little while to get used to, but now I prefer them to traditional "long stroke" keys.
*For some reason, Apple has made a compact laptop keyboard the standard iMac keyboard (Steve Jobs must be nostalgic for the original 1984 Mac keyboard). Anybody who relies on Page keys for navigation or on a numeric keypad for data entry is out of luck.
*An extended keyboard with Home/Pg Up/Pg Dn/Delete keys and a number pad is available as a build-to-order option, along with additional memory and other treats, at the online Apple Store.

Audio System
*Optical digital audio input and output requires cables or cable adapters with 3.5mm plugs. Standard size TOSLINK connectors won't work. Also, digital audio I/O is run through the microphone and headphone ports. It is consequently impossible to use headphones or an external mic when the computer is setup for optical digital audio use.
*The speakers are a weak point in the design. They are small, underpowered, and sound tinny. I think the igloo iMacs had much better sound. If I recall correctly, they had a specially tuned amplifier--plus the speakers were fairly large and were not built into the computer housing. Users who use their iMac as their main music source or who work with music and sound will want to buy a separate pair of speakers.

Using the computer: screen, fan noise, heat, Rosetta
*This iMac is all about the gigantic 27" screen. It's incredibly sharp and bright, with better-than-HD resolution. Excel users will love being able to see columns A-AE and rows 1-95 all at once at 100% zoom. No more wasting time scrolling around and splitting windows. Photos, movies, and graphics all look absolutely fabulous.
*I initially thought I would hate the glossy finish on the screen, especially after seeing how much glare demo models at the Apple Store showed. But, as it turns out, the shiny glass isn't distracting at all in my home office. That said, anybody who hasn't ever seen a glossy screen computer in person should go check one out before placing an order.
*Something that I miss from my igloo iMac is the ability to move the screen both from left to right (x-axis) and up and down (y-axis). Aluminum iMac screens can only be swiveled up and down, in a fairly limited range.
*Under most conditions, the computer runs very quietly. Fan noise is normally inaudible.
*The top of the computer can become noticeably hot to the touch. Not hot enough to cook the proverbial egg, but definitely warmer than most other electronic devices (except for the original PlayStation3, otherwise known as the Sony Spaceheater).
*PowerPC applications run well under Rosetta. Once it is downloaded automatically, upon demand, it runs invisibly.


Bottom line: it's the screen, the SCREEN, THE SCREEN!! Massive amounts of screen real estate, combined with fast performance, make the 27" Aluminum iMac a true joy to use for both work and play. One star penalty for not making an extended keyboard standard and for the terrible built-in sound system.

I got this to replace my three year old iMac. Transfer of files,settings and apps was easy. It took me less than ten minutes to pull the new iMac out of the box and set it up for transfer. The transfer took about 2.5 hours and occurred perfectly while I was away.
The 27 inch display allows me to have as many as three large pages open in the same view. The resolution is incredibly high.
Photos appear like I'm looking through a window.
I use a lot of video and photo software. The processor speed is high. I can render videos about three times faster than I could with my older iMac that I thought was pretty fast.
A bonus for buyers of Macs is the high quality service you get from Apple Care. Wait time is reasonably short and the competence of the tech service staff is higher than any computing organization I've had experience with in the past 45 years. Apple Care covers you for three years and costs about 170 bucks from Amazon. Most of my questions were answered on Apple's website, but Apple Care bailed me out a number of times.
Hardware reliability is unknown because the machine is so new. My past experience tells me that, if something doesn't work, then Apple Care will either figure it out or help me get service without the hassle I used to get from HP and,especially, Dell.

I'm a long time PC/Windows user who started learning computers back in the early 80's on Apple's. I had never owned one until now. After three days of owning and playing with the iMac, I'm wondering what took me so long to convert.

I ordered the 27" iMac with the i7 processor and 8 GB of memory. Got it from the Apple Store, but I do use Amazon for numerous purchases. I also purchased Parallels 6.0 because I just wasn't ready to toss away all of my Windows programs just yet. I know that I will transition off of Windows, for the most part, over time. Windows 7 screams through the virtual machine.

I use a lot of Adobe software (Captivate, Audition, Production Premium CS4) for Windows and wanted to keep that functionality, but utilize the full potential of the iMac CPU and memory. All Adobe products are working fine with Parallels. I do intend to gradually switch over to Mac versions, as I get the money and as the Mac versions are made.

I also have a Motorola Droid that I sync with. That transition has been good as well. The calendar was very easy to setup. For the browser, I was running Safari for Windows already. Bookmarks easily transferred and work fine.

As for the actual iMac, this is one slick and sleek machine! Seeing the "chiclet" style keyboard was a concern at first. Now that I've used it, it feels very natural and responsive. I prefer it over my old Dell keyboard, which I thought was decent to begin with. I ordered the USB wired keyboard because of wanting the number pad and larger keyboard. With the two USB ports on the keyboard itself, this will be very handy to plug in various jump drives, peripherals for audio and video, and so forth. I do not know if the wireless keyboard offers USB ports on it, but having these on the wired keyboard is a huge blessing for me. The Apple Mouse is sweet! I don't know how the previous versions were, but this is so nice to use coming from the Microsoft internet style mouse. The swiping motions are very easy to use and make sense, making them easy to learn.

Once I had transferred what I was going to, and making sure the external HD was working, I shut down the old Dell and was immediately struck by how quiet the room got. Someone mentioned hearing the internal HD doing read/writes. Still very minor, and welcome, compared to the noise that the Dell produced.

You cannot write a review without mentioning the display. I still have found few words that adequately describe the clarity and "zing" that the display offers. I think it compares to the first time I had seen an HD television. It is that dramatic of a difference to me, going from a 23" HD monitor to this 27" LCD HD monitor. I'm looking forward to beginning audio and video production on this beast!

I appreciate the information that Apple has on their website, the documentation for those like me that are going from Windows to Mac. That in itself helped me plan my transition and made it much easier to understand the lingo. I wasn't all that enamored of Apple for many years. Coming back and giving them a try was one of the better moves that I have made. I know that I have far more to learn and I have to believe that I will be just as impressed for the rest of the ride!

As a photographer, I was really looking forward to the great 27" screen to edit on while also websurfing, chat, email etc.

Unfortunately I got intense headaches using it, due to the brightness & glossy surface, even in a rather dark room. The screen may look great under the bright lights in the AppleStore - where the high contrast and color saturation still makes things "pop" - the reality of extended use I found to be something entirely different. If you dial the brightness down to a more reasonable level [for me less than half] it takes away the color saturation, and you still have all the reflections to deal with.

At the suggestion of a couple of AppleStore employees with photography/video editing experience, I bought a connector to add my old 20" matte cinema display. While not having the resolution or newer technology of the iMac screen, the color differences [even after both were calibrated] are quite clear. But more importantly, the comfort factor difference is astonishing. Apple Help has no idea what the native brightness standard should be prior to color calibration, and am awaiting a response from engineering to find out as at max brightness, it's enough to burn holes in your eyes :) If calibrated to that standard, then dialed back for eye comfort any photo adjustments will then be off for printing or web use.

If you're primarily using the machine to read/write text, play games, and watch DVD's in very controlled lighting - then I can imagine this screen would be something you'd be interested in [however "overpowered" it would be to get the i5/7 version for that]. But if you are using it for media production, I have to reluctantly tell you to stay away unless you already have worked with this screen before.

The experienced AppleStore employees told me that I would never be happy with the glossy/bright screen [where were they when I was shopping - and was told it would be "incredible...perfect...fantastic" by others?] and should consider going with a matte screen [build-to-order option] with the MacBook Pro 15" or 17" and combine it with a matte monitor [I'm looking at Dell's 30" for $900 as Apple's old 30" is far more even on clearance]. Not exactly what I had in mind, and a lot more $$ - but at this point I know I can't comfortably work with this screen.

Yes - the machine appears to be very fast [i7] even without the additional 8GB of RAM I bought but haven't installed yet. And yes - eyesights are different - but now that I have the Issue, and have been doing a lot more reading about it, it appears I'm with the majority of users who do media work.

While wanting to avoid too much detail - transfer from my G5 Tower using Tiger was very seemless, with one glaring exception: there were 3 .dfonts that came up that the i7 said I should trash [lucinda, geneva, helvetica] in order for the new OS to work properly - which I did - resulting in most displays on the computer, from the browser to the screenbar being unreadable with capital "A's" instead of the text...until I dumped them back into a font folder. AppleHelp still believes this will cause other issues down the road - but at least I can read the text on my screen now.

A keen disappointment, with many wasted hours and many yet to go before resolution, but I wanted to alert others who may be considering a purchase now.

Update: I've gotten a MacMini, hooking up my old 20" matte Cinema Display until I decide on the new monitor. Transition was seemless, once I figured a way around the restart-holding-t-down that didn't work using the wireless keyboard [Support said that happens with all wireless keyboards - something they should tell you with the transition script]. Speed of Core-Duo Mini vs i7 iMac is noticeable, but it's more about RAM memory [same type on older iMac's/newer Mini] which I maxed out at 8G from OWC, so don't think most users would notice speed differences then.

Apple support, while being superior and more personal in comparison to most others, is slipping in their willingness to followup and make the customer happy. Still no answer from engineering over brightness/calibration issue after 3 weeks and 4 followups.

Update 2: Engineering finally "answered" that they didn't know the calibration point, and linked to some individual blogs with posting about calibrating the screen - hardly showing much confidence in their product for calibrated use. I ended up getting a Dell U-2410 matte screen, calibrated with a Spyder3Pro in sRGB mode, to use in 2 screen mode with my old 20" Cinema Display and the MacMini. While 2 screens isn't ideal [eyes constantly adjusting to the different levels/clarity] - it's still better than the headache the 27" iMac screen was. Running Lightroom 3, PSE9, a browser and Mail sometimes taxes the Mini, but still overall a better solution if/until Apple produces a matte display for the iMac [it appears they may be listening: rumors have it all 3 sized MacbookPro's will have the matte option]

[cross-posted under previous version as 27" screen is identical]

This review is coming from a 23 year old male ICU nurse, and self described technology fanatic. My house is filled wall to wall with gadgets and I keep up on my tech news with a passion. This is my 3rd apple computer, 1st desktop experience. I debated on going for the i7 vs. the i5 for quite some time. Although the tech nerd side of me was screaming for the i7 simply because I could, I decided for what I need the computer for the i5 would suffice (i.e. word, excel, power point, web browsing, music, video etc.) I am more into media consumption than creation. Why not go for the i3 you ask? Well, as my biology professor said upon buying his iMac, it is to weather the computer future as gracefully as possible. You should never buy the dirt cheap model (although I imagine 1699 isn't exactly dirt cheap to most), but rather decide what you really need a computer for and maybe go one above that to help it stay relevant as technology continues it's breakneck pace (darn you Moore!). Anyway, the computer itself is terribly fast, there is no real lag between clicking and doing on this machine. Video playback is smooth and looks wonderful on the huge 27 inch screen which is really the selling point on this computer. The resolution is quite astounding and makes my samsung 55 inch 1080p seem drab in comparison. The speakers are about as good as to be expected in an all-in-one device (seriously, if you are looking for extreme base in this kind of set up, you are fooling yourself). The computer does seem to run a touch hot on top, but only when really putting those quad cores to use. While I haven't done much gaming, I have read great reviews on it's ability to run all the steam stuff available. What makes this thing really nice though, is the fact that the entire computer is powered by a single power cable. Sitting on my desk you see a huge, crisp, beautiful 27 inch display with wireless mouse and keyboard, and a single cable. That is really a site to behold compared to my desktop PC which has wires for speakers, monitors, keyboard, modem, wi-fi, etc. Overall, this is a truly fantastic machine that will please most in my opinion.

This machine was purchased to replace an aging 2004 vintage 24" white Intel iMAC that was beginning to have some video display problems after 6 years of continuous operation. That machine and now this new 27" iMAC are used to run our official National Weather Service weather station hardware and OSX native weather software. In addition to our main weather software application, this machine also runs a LIVE webcam and server, crunches huge climate prediction data packages for "climateprediction.net", also runs web editing software, Photoshop and the usual email client and web browser. All opened and being used simultaneously. A computer being used for weather station operations needs to be up and running 24/7/365 and have the reliability and power to handle all of these various duties unattended without crashing or requiring human intervention. Our previous iMAC pulled this off without a single problem for nearly 6 years without turning it off or putting it to sleep, so when the time came to replace it with a new machine, there was only one brand and model we would even consider. You guessed it! Another Apple iMAC! ;o)

Since other reviews here have gone into all the various details of this machine's long list of features and performance, we are not going to bother recapping all of that. Considering the level of cutting edge power, performance and features you get out of this model for the price, in our opinion there is not another personal computer on the market that even comes close to matching this product's overall value. For our specific application, a Windows PC just doesn't provide this level of quality and reliability to basically be left alone to run continuously for literally years at a time without any significant maintenance requirements or uptime issues. Believe it or not, ANY Apple Macintosh running OSX has absolutely no problem pulling this off right out of the box! It is no wonder that many famous scientific organizations such as NASA and JPL employ Macs any time they need a computer to run unattended for extended periods of time without shutting it down.

So far, our new 27" Quad Core i5 iMAC has been up and running like a top since the day it arrived! All of our various weather data software applications have never run so fast and so smoothly as they do on this impressively FAST machine! We have had as many as 15 separate applications up and running on this machine at the same time without any noticeable slowdown or performance hits.

WHY WE DIDN'T GIVE IT 5-STARS...

Our only complaints about this particular model is the high gloss screen that Apple began using a few years ago on all iMAC models. Our previous iMAC used the traditional "Matte" screen which was much, much better at eliminating distracting reflections from lights and objects placed behind and to the right and left of where the user is sitting at the screen. We frankly can't understand why Apple would replace something that worked so well, with something that literally is so highly reflective that you can actually watch TV from the reflection of our 52" Sony Bravia HDTV that sits on the opposite side of the room. Unlike the MacBook Pro series which gives new buyers the option to purchase the superior color accuracy and low reflection finish of a Matte screen, the iMAC series is still only offered with this high gloss glass cover over the display.

The other issue with the 27" display is that it runs at a very high 2560x1440 resolution that while great for watching HD movies on, makes everything on the desktop VERY small and often times very hard to read. Most applications provide a way to increase font sizes and such to make text more readable, but the current 10.6.4 version of OSX still does not allow the user to increase the font sizes of the user interface items themselves. This means that pull-down menus, System Preferences and all other system specific sections are VERY small on this screen and often times very hard to read. If Apple eventually provides the long requested "Resolution Independence" capability to the next major release of OSX, then this problem can be easily corrected by increasing the size of all the OSX user interface items.

Although the screen still looks fantastically sharp and the colors vibrant, the reflection issues created by the glossy glass cover over the display surface coupled with the very high resolution which makes some day to day activities hard on the eyes, we were not able to give this product a full 5 Stars.

Still... If you are looking for a computer that can give most professional graphics servers a serious run for their money along with one of the most impressive computer/video displays on the market, you will be hard pressed to find another computer out there for under 2k that even comes close. I'm talking about either Mac or PC.

I've been a PC user forever. I don't know if there's always been such a big difference between PCs and Macs, but after 30 days I can say that the iMac MC511LL/A 27-Inch Desktop on this product page outperforms any PC that I've ever used in almost every (important) area.

My Dell Dimension 8300 desktop is a 2003 dinosaur, so comparing my new iMac to that really just isn't fair. But I will say that the iMac absolutely blows away the performance of my old Dell: like comparing a 2011 BMW to a Model T. Really. That dramatic.

As a more fair comparison, I also use an HP 8530w laptop that's only 2 years old and pretty powerful, but the iMac makes it clear that it's OS X operating system is just much better than Windows.

First there's the load times. Turn on the iMac and it's ready to go. Turn on any PC and it loads for sometimes several minutes before it will operate flawlessly. Start ANY program on the iMac and it's ready to go. Start certain programs on a PC like Microsoft's own Zune or even Internet Explorer and wait times vary from several seconds to up to a minute in Zune's case.

Perhaps a lot of the speed of my new iMac has to do with a virus program NOT taking over the iMac like Norton Antivirus takes over my PCs. If you're a PC user, you're probably familiar with an annoying slowdown that seems to regularly occur where your hard drive light comes on and indicates that it's working hard at something even though you're doing nothing? A lot of the time that's your antivirus software doing its thing in the background but crushing your computing power while it does.

The iMac is natively secure and may not need third party virus software that takes over your computer, and, oh by the way, antivirus software costs a pretty penny and requires an annual subscription. I researched this a fair amount and no one recommends installing 3rd party virus software on an iMac. According to a 12/29/2010 article in the Wall Street Journal by Walt Mossberg:

"No computer is inherently invulnerable to malicious software, and that includes the Macintosh. However, nearly every malicious program known is meant to run on Windows and simply won't operate on the Mac operating system. The handful of Mac viruses and other malware that have been discovered are either proofs of concept, or have spread to very few users and done little or no damage. Most Mac users I've known don't run third-party security software and haven't had malware problems. So I don't routinely recommend Mac security software."

That's good enough for me, friends and neighbors...Thanks, Walt.

If I had to come up with a complaint about my new iMac it would be that it won't play Sirius XM. Now that's not really a problem for me since I'll still have my Dell Dinosaur set up to do that if I need it. But it is an annoying glitch. Upon calling Apple about it they recommended that I contact Sirius XM. Sirius XM said, "Yeah, Macs can be problematic; our stream is WMA based and we recommend installing a program called Flip4Mac that converts WMA & WMV files to be played on Quicktime." I checked with Apple about this Flip4Mac program and they verified that it was a decent program (the tech I spoke with even suggested that it was installed on his own iMac). But unfortunately, Flip4Mac did not fix my problem and I still can't get the new iMac to play Sirius XM. (PLEASE comment to my review if you've had this issue and fixed it!) EDIT 3/14/11 - Sirius XM fixed the problem with a new and updated web site and streamer. Hooray. Now I have absolutely nothing negative to say about my new iMac!

A quick couple of words about Apple customer service: they're great and the 3 folks that I've spoken with so far were US based and spoke clear English! Rare for a customer service department these days. Hand in hand with this I would also recommend, especially for first time iMac users, the AppleCare Protection Plan. It extends your free iMac phone support from 90 days to 3 years and extends your warranty from 1 year to 3 years...AND it's cheaper here at Amazon than it is at the Apple Store.

Have I said enough? I think so. Oh, two more things: 1) Set up couldn't be easier. The iMac is the epitome of plug & play. No giant warnings inside the box about "do this or do that first or else". It comes with a wireless mouse and keyboard already paired through Bluetooth wireless. 2) Whether you're a business person or not, get the latest version of Microsoft Office for Mac. People will likely email you documents and trust me...they'll never be in iWork; they'll always be Word, PowerPoint or Excel documents and your iMac won't open those without MS Office installed. I have iWork but I haven't even had the need to install it on the iMac yet.

You know what they say? Once you go iMac you'll never go back. From my personal experience so far, I think "they" are right.

While the iMac is a stunning performer with unbridled capability, ordering it through Amazon with one day delivery and knowing that any delivery or product problems would be handled without question from Amazon makes this a perfect choice for my needs.

Thanks Amazon from a bonified Apple junkie!

Personal computers are, well, personal. One man's panacea is another's doorstop. I have used DOS/Windows based PCs since the early 1980s, and built several. I was and still am one of Microsoft's biggest fans. But that said, I have begun using the 27" iMAC with the i5 processor and must say that it is the most impressive piece of hardware and software computer technology that I have yet used. Yes the screen is gorgeous. But it goes beyond that. Everything works the way it should, quietly and efficiently, with little in the way of Windows bothers eg disk thrashing, constant patching, buggy drivers, etc. I need to run some Windows only applications, and the system with Parallels handles those in a virtual window with ease. I really think this iMAC along with Snow Leopard represents the state of the art in desktop computer technology 30 years into the PC era. Kudos to the Apple development team, and believe me that is hard to say coming from a retired IBMer.