misterzee Loc: N'Georgia Mountains

I keep my macs as long as possible, and have fun rescuing older machines so they still work acceptably with modern software. The i7 processor, max memory, and SSD will give you a longer service life, plus a speedier machine, as new OS versions come out and further tax the system. "Just the web" still benefits from the fastest processor as your machine works to being the data to your screen. Don't spend money on a huge internal HD, but buy at least one, or more, external, and store your images there, also back up with Time Machine to external hard disks.

happy sailor Loc: Ontario, Canada

His there, actually on the 27 inch there are four memory slots, two of them are taken with the factory 8 gb, two 4 gb modules, you can buy after market 8 or 16 gb modules to put in the other two slots and have 16 or 24 gb and of memory, the pairs of chips have to match not all four.

As for the other upgrades Trix was suggesting if those are internal ssd upgrades forget having anyone other than Apple do it or there is no warranty. And on this release you want the warranty.

One of my iMac 27's 5k had the 2tb fusion drive die, well at least the 2tb hard drive portion which left me with only the 128gb portion. Apparently while they were repairing the hard drive they have blown the display away and now it is being replaced as well. Been in the shop for seven days and I am not too happy about it!

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

That was my initial reaction. In many cases, paying the extra money gets you more bragging rights than performance.

The only difference seems to be the video card. Since you're not into gaming or editing video, save your money.

http://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/imac

If GFLOPS are important to you, spend the $200.

http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Radeon-R9-M390X-vs-Radeon-R9-M380

leftj Loc: Texas

The bigger issue is don't buy from a local brick and stick store. The sales tax will kill you. Buy from an Apple authorized online dealer like MacMall or Abt who doesn't have to charge you the sales tax then you don't have to fret over $1799 versus $1999.

Alpix Loc: Cambridgeshire, UK

Last year I upgraded to the 5k 27" version with fusion drive, and am very pleased. The fusion drive makes it a bit faster.
It starts up really fast!
That would be the version I would recommend, if affordable. I upgraded my memory 32GB, which was a more debatable upgrade in my oppinion. It was pretty fast to start with, but I work with HD video.
Like it has been mentioned, additional storage space is always a problem. The Mac has 2 thunderbolt connections, which makes for a very fast connection to an external drive. I opted for a 4TB WD RAID drive which is fast enough to edit video from in real time.
Good luck! Hope you enjoy the new machine for years to come, whatever you opt for.

JennT Loc: South Central PA

Make sure you have plenty of space for ALL your images, and images you will make in the future--- Perhaps buy the cheaper version and an external hard drive to be used for image storage only!

Picture Taker Loc: Michigan Thumb

If you have Apeture on it beside to transfer it. you won't be able to get it if you don't move it from your old Apple.

preamm Loc: Minnesota

I made a similar upgrade 2 years ago and regret selling my old mac. My new mac does not work with my CanoScan which I had used for digitalizing old slides. A new mac is wonderful and the technology leap is worth it but I highly recommend keeping the old device for a while just to be sure your new device will do everything the old one did.

Corsica fox

As a new day unfolds your suggestions are great and are perfectly fleshing out my decision path. Here's my likely direction, the basic 27" and add at least 8GB RAM and hook up an external hard drive. $$$'s aren't a deal breaker at around 2 grand. I'd like to stay with Apple as a comfort factor as all my kids have them so I have some built in coaching. 20 years ago I might have built up from scratch and I appreciate how much I could save with better performance new gadgets don't fold in as well as earlier. Very helpful and thanks again.

warrenvon Loc: Ellicott City, MD

Why do you feel that you need to replace your 2010 iMac 21.5"? You are not even coming close to pushing it with your present working methods and software. If your are considering the use of an application that may push it, then that is another matter.

Careful . . . . any firewire external peripherals that you may already be using will not connect directly to the new iMac. You will need to buy an interfacing adapter to make them communicate with the new machine. You will not have a cd/dvd drive built in to the new iMac. That will lso be purchased separately.

I would very much suggest that you purchase a used but guaranteed iMac from macsales.com. I've purchased many items from them and have never been disappointed. They provide lots of support at no extra cost. You being in an outlaying area would love their delivery and support.

Incase your are wondering, I have one of their used MacBook Pro portables from mid 2010. I bought because it is one of the last portable Macs that can be fully updated. I've updated everything within it to the max all from macsales.com with not one problem and that was one year ago.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

There's nothing magic about Apple memory and there are no problems with duplicating the existing memory devices - well known manufacturers such as Crucial and many others have memory upgrades for MACs that match the original devices. Given the same pin-out, type/class of memory, speed, voltage specs, and ECC or non ECC, DRAM is DRAM. Apple doesn't make their own any more than they make their own CPUs, they buy from the same suppliers that you can purchase from. I have added after-market memory to IMacs and it works fine, and I'm sure there are other members that have as well.

leftj Loc: Texas

That's all great if you are comfortable doing that but don't tell someone that's what they should do because they may not be comfortable with that. You might suggest they consider it in case they haven't however if they are comfortable buying used or refurbished chances are they have already looked into that. I'm certainly comfortable with buying used or refurbished camera equipment however I would probably never buy a refurbished computer simply because I want it to be new with the latest technology. There are some things you do just because that's what you want to do, not because it the most reasonable and economically feasible to do.

RickL Loc: Vail, Az

I am a Mac user and suggest you spend the additional $200, in the long run you will be happy you did. If you can afford the additional ram, go that route as well

Martino Loc: Northwest Florida

As a long time Mac user, I'd suggest going with the best spec you can. You know it's going to last.

I'd also suggest looking at refurbished models direct from Apple. I've never had a problem with them and they are cheaper. In fact, as they are refurbished they probably have had a good check over by a good engineer before you get it!

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I did that with two Macs, a 27" and a MBP.