Apple iMac 21.5in 2010

Repair Costs

It's not so much the cost of repairs that annoy me, but the way they won't supply parts. They repeatedly claim not to have a price list! My guess that they pluck a large figure out of thin air and add £100 didn't go down too well...

All the Apple gear I've dealt with is overpriced and poorly engineered tat, despite what the fanatics believe.

So buy the damn drive

If you can get the drive for fifty quid, buy it for fifty quid and get it fitted: it's only a bloody computer. What's the worst that can happen? Your warranty has already expired, anyway.

Have you seen what Michael Dell will charge you, for 'Genuine Dell Components'?

@ Mick F

I agree, parts supply and restrictive practices is an issue I have with them as well. I believe such restrictive practices should be illegal - as they have been for a few years with the car industry. My last attempt to get the OFT to look into it was met with a "your arguments have merit but we're too busy" response.

But if your MBP is out of warranty, don't take it to a rip-off Apple place for repair. As long as it's a standard part (and the optical drives are off-the-shelf parts) then any half competent tech should be able to change it for you. If you are reasonably skilled, it's a DIY proposition, though it's not the easiest of machines to work in.

The last parts I needed came from The Bookyard http://www.thebookyard.com/ That's apparently a play on words, as in a scrapyard has scrap, and a bookyard has (mac)books.

It's called iFixit...

Go to IFixit.com - Has repair guides, spares, the lot... why fuss when you can do it yourself?

Or... stump up for Apple Care.

And no, I'm not an Apple Fanboi, before you try that insult on me.

Not actually what the review says

"The weakness in the iMac range really lies in the models that aren’t available" would seem more to mean that the models that are available are competitive against other machines at the same price points but that not all price points are available, matching the sentiments of the rest of the review. It doesn't anywhere make the point that what you get doesn't seem justified by the price point.

So, my paraphrase of the summary would be: "if you want to spend £1000+ then the iMac is a decent option, if you want to spend less then Apple don't want your business".

Well said

My parents' iMac needs replacing and Apple really aren't offering an entry level machine any more. Whether it's replaced by a Mini or an iMac it'll be the best part of a thousand quid and they'll end up with a machine much more powerful than they really need.

Surely its time to go back to the small cheap computer that the Mini started off as.

"the price point for what you get doesn't seem justified" — sure; that must be why…

…Apple's repeat sales to existing customers keeping tanking, their brand is so universally reviled as a promise of post-sales remorse, disappointment and abandonment; and they're struggling not to be de-listed on the stock exchange.

because the post-sales value experience is so disappointing.

thanks for the insight.

3" CD's work fine

They're grabbed wherever you shove the thing in and moved into the right place, ejecting is the same as before.

Occasionally get tempted to sell my Pro and buy one of these, even though mine's the 8-core model, as it's the 2008 model the new iMac's might be quicker for most apps and will come with a better screen.

That said it's quite nice having 12GB RAM and 4TB of storage.

Maybe I should just buy a new screen.

Re: Entry Level

I know. And an entry level Aston Martin costs over 60 grand.

It's an outrage.

Not usable, at least on my 2008 iMac

Although both the Wii and at least one of ye olde PowerPC G3 CRT iMacs could happily accept either 8cm or 12cm discs, my 2008 iMac definitely won't accept 8cm CDs. I'm not sure what the reasoning is or when exactly that feature was removed, though I'd imagine it's part of Apple's conscious attempt to sideline physical media. See also: BluRay.

CUDA is proprietary nonsense

Apple have chosen to embed GPGPU stuff directly into the OS as a first class component through OpenCL, a standard supported on ATI, Nvidia and Intel chips, on OS X, Windows and Linux. CUDA is just Nvidia's proprietary equivalent, though it deserves some respect for being on the market a lot earlier. In any case, Apple don't use CUDA but do and will offload plenty of tasks to your GPU anyway. They've also got some really good stuff for taking advantage of multiple cores as of 10.6, so those quad cores may even be worth it.

Re comments

If you bought a PC in 2007, you'd be lucky to get the scrap value for it now.

Well..

If you have to ask the price then you can't afford it.

Lets not forget the exchange rate isn't great for dollars to pounds at the moment. Apple doesn't change their price every week, it's there for the duration of the product's life no matter what exchange rates do.

Also, you probably don't want to run OSX or want an easier life.

They seem expensive when you think in "Wintel" terms. But Mac owners keep their machines for 5 years on average and still can get a few hundred quid for them when they are that old. There is no resale value for a 5 year old PC.