I bought a Samsung 206BW for my PC a couple of years back and quickly got used to the size to the point where it now seems small and I run out of space on the desktop doing anything with photos. When looking at the iMacs although the smallest resolution is an improvement (1920 vs 1680) the screen size isn't so much. Given that it's not upgradable in the same way as a PC monitor and this is now my system for years to come I bit the bullet and went with the biggest one.

With that decision made it was between the two 27" models on offer and given that I'd still like to play the odd game I went with the top spec for the 6970M 1GB graphics option.

I was lucky enough to get education pricing through the girlfriend which means I effectively paid for the top spec (approximately) the same retail price as the cheapest 27".

I did toy with the 2GB graphics upgrade as I worry that the spec I buy now will remain fixed with the non-upgradable nature of the thing and I wouldnt want to regret something down the line. In the end I just couldnt see me needing 2GB and an SSD was never an option anyway.

The only other thing I bought was 2x2GB from Crucial for £35 delivered taking me up to 8GB.

It comes today so if I can get a desk and set it up tonight I'll let you know my first impressions of the screen size.

Ooh, learn something new etc... iMacs used to only have two DIMM slots but at some point they (obviously) switched to 4 slots. Excellent!

i have the 20" iMac which i upgraded to 8GB of ram (2 slots)
i am still impressed with it as the first day i had it

enjoy your new iMac its a wonderful bit of kit ...

Just ordered a 27" i5 from Cancom - July 2010 2.8GHz i5 model with 8GB ram and only a slightly slower graphics card than this years 2.7GHz i5 4GB ram.

£1319 (8GB ram) compared to £1399 (4GB ram) if anyone else interested, only two left so be quick if you are:
http://www.cancomuk.com/Special-Offers/ ... d-MC511B-A

Also plumped for a LaCie d2 Quadra Hard Disk 2TB External Drive Mac/Win eSATA USB2 Firewire 400 Firewire 800 @ £181

Still waiting as it's a BTO. Not due to be delivered until this time next week. Bah! Want shiny!

UPDATE: It's shipped!
UPDATE :"We expect your order to be delivered to your shipping address on or before 31/05/2011"

I'm just being nosey - what do you use Final Cut for? Have you got the full version or express?

It's the HD 4.5 version. Used to harbour fond thoughts of making short films - it's most recently been used to make short clips for the last place I worked for their YouTube content. It was sometimes used if I brought work home as well.
I'm really looking forward to Final Cut X though - the pricing looks ridiculously cheap.

Let me know how you get on with it, been so busy haven't moved on the update, but I'm virtually sold on the 21.5" new base model at the moment..!

New iMac out today for delivery - good job I checked before I went to work, because they didn't bother telling me - some time between 9AM and 7PM (!) by UPS. Hasn't turned up yet. Am now slightly bored. Have resorted to doing housework. Yes, THAT bored.

Bah!

Update : it's arrived! Blimey it's big . Might be able to set it up tonight, otherwise it's the weekend.