Apple Imac Questions?

avfc4life

Im looking for a new computer have had the old one for about 4/5 years and its on its way out. Ive been looking into different computers and have been told by alot of people that apple Imac's are the best even though they are abit more expensive.

The cheapest imac i have seen is £675 on the pcworld website. It is £679 on the apple store website but it is only $999 (roughly £500) on the apple stores american website with money off a printer. Why is it £175 cheaper in america when it appears to be the same computer?

I have seen a couple of refurbished models of the same computer online for £579. Are these worth it as they only have 1 year warranty. How many years warranty do new imacs have? Are refurb models ok?

Are imacs really the best in the price range? I heard from a few people that they get alot less viruses off the internet and the screen quality is much better. Is this true?

And lastly and most importantly is there anyway i can get a discount off an imac or is there any websites that do imacs cheaper? I saw a few months back on the pc world website an older Imac i think it was the last years model for under £500 but it seems to have gone now. On the american imac store you could get $100 off a printer but they dont seem to be doing this is on the UK website which is a shame as this would lower the cost abit.

Any help is appreciated

Thanks

seaweasel

Firstly, the differences between US and UK prices can be misleading as we have fairly high VAT, but pretty much any electronics product will be cheaper over there, it's just the way it is.

The iMacs are pretty good all round, all the new Intel based Macs (and the slightly older G5 machines too) are fast and OSX is a great OS. You're also right about viruses, while no OS is perfect, OSX is more generally more secure than Windows and there are no OSX viruses in the wild (there are some proof of concepts and Word macroviruses but in practical terms the spin is correct).

Any new Mac will have a 1 year warranty, although you can also get AppleCare which is considered to be one of the very few extended warranties to be worth the money. AVOID PC World extended warranty.

I got my last Mac from PC World cheap as it was an ex-demo, you can sometimes get good deals there but it's better to go with someone who knows their stuff if you're not used to buying computers as the sales guys will try to screw you. Apple sell refurb Macs and other products on their online store on Wednesdays, you can get some really good deals (and I think a 1 year warranty but can't remember). You can also use Quidco with the Apple store.

If you already have a monitor, keyboard and mouse, you might also want to consider the Mac Mini.