iMac vs. Asus Zen AiO

[Ice_Dragon]

Given Apple's treatment of the mini, it looks like if I want to enjoy the Mac I have to go to an iMac. The 4k iMac (when it get announced presumably in October or so) seems like a good bet but will Apple release a good system by default or will they gimp it with yet again 8 GB of memory and a slow as molasses hard drive?

Meanwhile you have the Zen which while being a Windows machine will be on Skylake vs. Broadwell, have DDR4, nVidia graphics, and flash storage seemingly by default. I kind of want the Zen.

 

[mmntech]

Apple has long gimped their systems to try and upsell you overpriced RAM and storage upgrades. The issue is worse now that they solder everything to the motherboard. I'm not a fan of the direction they've been taking their traditional computers lately.

That said the iMacs are still solid, reliable systems with great displays on them. Probably the best all-in-ones on the market. If I had to guess on potential upgrades, I'd say Skylake i5 T-series 35 TDP chips, AMD Radeon R7 M360 graphics, and 8GB of RAM.

I don't have any experience with ASUS's all-in-one systems. Specs seem good but that's for the top model, which is likely going to command a top price. If you need the performance of an i7, it may be worth it. Personally, I'd just build a custom mini-ITX system if you need something compact and powerful. That way you can upgrade it, and use any monitor you want.

 

[Ma_Deuce]

Sounds like you made up your mind already. It's hard to compare specs when 1 side of the comparison hasn't been released.

I purchase my macs right after a major revision and usually buy the top end models. The price is usually pretty close between comparable systems for the early buyers.

I haven't gotten a new imac in 5 years though. Im not a fan of how thermally constrained they are. The G5 imac I got 10 years ago is still going strong with original internals. We also have a 5-6 year old 27" i7 that's still running great. I rarely see PCs last that long and the resale value of apples are way better.

 

[sbpromania]

The Zen would be best, but if you want the Apple ecosystem, you have no choice. I'm sometimes sorry for Apple fans, they don't have any alternatives for their products.

 

[Ma_Deuce]

I'm sometimes sorry for Apple fans, they don't have any alternatives for their products.

Most of them have a much better experience than they would with a PC. I don't feel sorry for anyone, but for most people with just a basic understanding of computers it has to suck dealing with all of the problems of Windows and cheaply built PCs.

 

[Oyeve]

Most of them have a much better experience than they would with a PC. I don't feel sorry for anyone, but for most people with just a basic understanding of computers it has to suck dealing with all of the problems of Windows and cheaply built PCs.

Go away. Far away. You make my brain hurt.

 

[Kadarin]

I think between these two, I'd rather have the iMac. Though tbh I have the 27" iMac (high end model, one generation before the retina version). I prefer the OSX "experience" over Win 7 (I'm NOT dealing with 8.1); I just built a gaming PC and had to go through driver install hell along with Windows Update hell. Yay.