iMac 27" i7 OR HP touchsmart all-in-one i7? -- both ~$1700

Some differences between both:

27" vs 23" monitor

4gb vs 8gb memory

Mostly for home use and not serious work...our home computer is dying. We dont NEED such a powerful system, but I want to splurge a little for a nice computer at home. I'm a PC guy, my wife is a Mac person, but we are both able to use either systems. The only thing we both need to be able to use is office word and excel.

My thoughts are that the HP is a little overpriced and the iMac is a little underpriced.

What do you think?

With the iMac, you can run both Windows and the Mac OS... so it would satisfy both needs.

mac and you will never look back.

If you really want an all in one, then go for the Mac.
Apple have been doing it longer, and quite simply are better at it as I think they better understand the concept.
An all in one is not meant to be a work station, it is not meant to be a power house of productivity. They are meant for casual use and entertainment, and are designed to have a small foot print with a low impact on your home environment.

But, don't bother with the i7. Save a bit of money and get the i5, then spend the saving on a bigger HDD, because it is not something that you can easily upgrade later on.

korrektor wrote in post #11361889
mac and you will never look back.

Unless you're a serious gamer or need a hard core GPU; then you'll be looking back the entire time wondering why on Erf you ever wanted an AOI, but other than that, I generally concur!

Moppie wrote in post #11362212
If you really want an all in one, then go for the Mac.
Apple have been doing it longer, and quite simply are better at it as I think they better understand the concept.
An all in one is not meant to be a work station, it is not meant to be a power house of productivity. They are meant for casual use and entertainment, and are designed to have a small foot print with a low impact on your home environment.

But, don't bother with the i7. Save a bit of money and get the i5, then spend the saving on a bigger HDD, because it is not something that you can easily upgrade later on.

WTF? For reals? Fore go the faster CPU for a user upgradable component rather than spend the money on a definitely non upgradable component and get something you can either do yourself later on or add on external storage?

I don't see the point.

OK, I think I'll scratch the all-in-one idea. Now looking at dell xps 9100 with 24" monitor for ~$1550 shipped; much more powerful computer.
specs:
i7 930
9 gigs ram
ati 1gb video
1 tb 7200 HD

watch think? good deal?

Did you get the 2.8 gHz processor? Is that 24" display a TN?

40dbaby wrote in post #11371683
OK, I think I'll scratch the all-in-one idea. Now looking at dell xps 9100 with 24" monitor for ~$1550 shipped; much more powerful computer.
specs:
i7 930
9 gigs ram
ati 1gb video
1 tb 7200 HD

watch think? good deal?

more powerful PC doesnt mean it will be faster. Macs are more efficient, and stuff just works and loads quicker. There are no viruses and spyware, no registry bs... There is a reason why they are expensive. I just switched to a macbook pro (still use a powerful PC workstation to edit, and boy, i want a mac pro badly!)))

well it is 2.8 ghz, and the monitor is not an IPS monitor....maybe not such a great deal?

It's a fine computer, Dell just put more in the CPU and RAM and less on the body and screen while Apple put more into the sceen and body. Like others have stated, prices are about even when you match parts. The one thing you can't do with the Dell is run OSX and you cannot upgrade the Apple CPU (but few people do anyway). It comes down to what your needs and wants are.

Just a note regarding the HP touchsmart series - they have had heat issues that HP have never acknowledged with many people reporting failures just after the warranty ends. Also issues with failure of nVidia video cards.
Not surprising that they overheat - they have a laptop sized fan in them blowing (weakly) across a copper heatsink that draws heat from both the cpu and the graphics card through 2 pipes that radiate heat inside the machine.

Well, I ended up ordering the i5 version of the HP Touchsmart all-in-one PC with a couple minor upgrades, ~$1370 to my door.

Sometimes I develop tunnel vision when specing out PCs; I only look at specs and start getting grand ideas :P My wife just reminded me of what we need: simple, quick and uncluttered computer for home use only and minor photo PP work.

Thanks to all that replied

Thats incorrect, they are not as easy to exploit , but they're not immune from virus' either.

That's incorrect. Currently, there is no known virus on Mac OS X. There are trojans which require user interaction/authorizat​ion to run, but there is no self-replicating by nature, a virus on OS X.

You are correct that Macs are no immune, but they are much more secure just by the inherent nature of Unix.