Choice of an Apple IMac

[AstrophysicalComputing]

I know I'm gonna have some people say just get a pc, but im not going to use it for gaming because i buy into dedicated consoles. It's just so I can do my main stuff and code and do some learning as in white hacking. I'm going to use virtualization so i know the specs i kinda want to get on it, but just not what I should get overall. Reason why not to wait on apple silicon is because I know arm is gonna be better but its not gonna be suitable for what I want to do and since everything is x86 except for some arm items, i want to go where the industry is going. buying an all in one to me is my best choice because i wouldn't like to have to deal with all the parts. dont get me wrong, its amazing to build a pc and it looking nice and everything but I just have an eco base around apple ( apple watch , apple phone, apple macbook pro 2019 base) so yeah. 

 

I have two choices. 

 

 current iMac 21.5 upgraded cpu and upgraded graphics (ram and storage not gonna be an issue since everything is going to be on external drives and ram can be upgraded by me)

current iMac 27 with base specs (ram and storage is the same as imac21.5)

 

I have an old rig that serves the purpose but its really old. Especially the i7-3960x. So i think it's time i go up.

 

I know screen size is a factor , but if someone can tell me what i will gain and lose from each other that will be awesome.

[Warin]

The 21.5 just isn’t enough screen real estate to be useful. Also, the 27” display is beautiful. Go to a local shop if you can and try them both in person and you will see what I mean.

[Applefreak]

If you must, get the 27 inch model. The 21.5 is too small. The old 24" was a great choice, sadly that is no longer an option.

[AstrophysicalComputing]

19 minutes ago, Warin said:

The 21.5 just isn’t enough screen real estate to be useful. Also, the 27” display is beautiful. Go to a local shop if you can and try them both in person and you will see what I mean.

Makes sense but for what im trying to do, is the choice of the 27" worth it ? or is the maxed out (cpu and graphics) on the imac 21 worth it?

[Warin]

To me, the screen is the most important factor for your use case. I can't imagine trying to do anything productive on a 21" screen.  And for coding and virtualization, I would think the GPU isn't going to make a huge amount of difference.  Also, the top 21.5 iMac is using and 8th gen processor, but the base 27" is a 10th gen.  Both are i5.

[Lord Vile]

7 hours ago, AstrophysicalComputing said:

I know I'm gonna have some people say just get a pc, but im not going to use it for gaming because i buy into dedicated consoles. It's just so I can do my main stuff and code and do some learning as in white hacking. I'm going to use virtualization so i know the specs i kinda want to get on it, but just not what I should get overall. Reason why not to wait on apple silicon is because I know arm is gonna be better but its not gonna be suitable for what I want to do and since everything is x86 except for some arm items, i want to go where the industry is going. buying an all in one to me is my best choice because i wouldn't like to have to deal with all the parts. dont get me wrong, its amazing to build a pc and it looking nice and everything but I just have an eco base around apple ( apple watch , apple phone, apple macbook pro 2019 base) so yeah. 

 

I have two choices. 

 

 current iMac 21.5 upgraded cpu and upgraded graphics (ram and storage not gonna be an issue since everything is going to be on external drives and ram can be upgraded by me)

current iMac 27 with base specs (ram and storage is the same as imac21.5)

 

I have an old rig that serves the purpose but its really old. Especially the i7-3960x. So i think it's time i go up.

 

I know screen size is a factor , but if someone can tell me what i will gain and lose from each other that will be awesome.

Why don't you just get a display and connect your MacBook to it? 

[Donut417]

To add on to @Lord Vile. I have a 2020 13" MacBook Pro with 2 external displays. Works great. I use a 24" 21:9 display as my main, and a 23" 16:9 display for media. Both of my displays are 1080 but you can easily do multiple 4K displays on a MacBook Pro.