My $$$$ Upgrade to iMac

I've always wanted a Mac of my very own, but I've always been too cheap. Then I found out that my new iPad is faster and more stable than my desktop PC. Now, Apple is my personal crack.

I drooled over the 27" iMac online, but when I saw it at the Apple Store it made me wall-eyed and half blind from the high gloss glare. My frugal husband suggested the Mac Mini. He also pointed me to the Refurb page. The 24" iMac disconitined refurb models come with faster chips and larger hard drives than the Mini. Plus, there's the big built-in monitor-speaker-mic-camera, keyboard and mouse. All included for just a couple hundred more than the higher end 2.53 GHz Mini with a 500GB hard drive. The trip to the local Apple store didn't let me actually see any discontinued models, but I did look at the 24" LED Cinima display. It had plenty of desk top real estate, without making me feel like I was sitting in the front row of the movie theater.Oh yeah, did I mention that the iMac is way sexier? I'm so shallow.

I just placed the order for my new computer and printer. Here's the damage:

Refurbished iMac 24-inch 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo24-inch glossy widescreen display

4GB memory
640GB hard drive
8x SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M with 256MB memory
Built-in iSight camera
Comes with Snow Leopard OS and iLife, Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard and Mighty Mouse
Total: $1099 ($400 off original price of this discontinued box of fun)

Epson WorkForce 615 All-in-One Printer
Wi-Fi and Ethernet Printer/Scanner/Copier/Fax with Autofeeder
Total: $199

The Apple phone sales guy says I will be able to print from my iPod Touch, iPad, and iPhone too when I download the free ap from Epson. Nice. I didn't get to see this in person, as the Apple store only carries HPs. No, I don't know why. Guess they needed the space for the iPads which people were snapping up left and right. In fact, the Apple store was the only store that seemed to have people in it at the entire mall. Guess I'm not the only one that prefers shopping online.
Free Shipping

Cash Paid Out: $1412.12

- $100 Printer Rebate after my order ships

- World Points Cash Back (Bought via that credit card mall, but directly from the Apple online store) $12.50

Total After I get the Rebates: $1299.62

It will be worth it, right? Right?

And in five years, I'll have to pay the dump to take it. So, I just need to have a little over $250 worth of fun with it every year, assuming it lasts that long.

Still on my shopping list:
Quicken for Mac
iWork (After the 30 day free trial)
Mobile Me (After the 60 day free trial)
Bento (After the 30 day free trail)
AppleCare (I'm not much of an extended warranty fan. Guess I'll wait and see how the included 90 day/1 Year warranty goes.)

That should keep me busy for awhile.

iMac Delivery Count Down: 12 Days (3-5 days to ship, then 6 days max in shipping, should mean April 27th delivery at the latest, or so the email I just got from Apple says.) They've already shipped the printer. That was fast.

Update Saturday 4/17/10: My iMac shipped and has a scheduled delivery date of Tuesday 4/20/10!