Finally getting an iMac, after a bajillion years. Lead me?

Get an external hard drive and set up Time Machine from day one. It's not perfect, but for a set-it-and-forget-it backup solution it's incredibly painless.

I just want to say congrats!!! I left Windows in 2010 and never looked back. (My first Apple was a MacBook Pro and I bought a new MacBook Pro w/ retina display last August.) It took me about 3 days to get used to the Mac, but wow. So much simpler. A few tricks that I learned early on (and forgive me if they've already been mentioned, TLDR); To screen shot a portion of your screen: Shift+Command+4 Backspace is the Delete key Fn+Delete deletes everything after the cursor To display the emoji keyboard while typing, Command+Control+Space

Belated additions: - Thunderbolt is a really, really fast data connection. It's like FireWire or USB3, except even faster. Unfortunately, it hasn't really caught on outside of Apple's products, and it's pretty expensive too. The Thunderbolt port also doubles as a video output (Mini Displayport). - Before you skimp on the memory intending to buy it for cheaper afterwards, know that Apple likes to permanently install memory in their systems these days, so they can't be upgraded. I know for sure the Retina Macbooks are like this. I think the older-style, non-Retina Macbooks are still upgradeable though. The new Retina iMac is definitely not user-serviceable at all. - "Flash memory" is really an SSD (solid-state drive). SSDs are ridiculously fast compared to a regular hard drive. It's seriously the best upgrade you can get for a computer these days. It's also a fair amount more expensive than a hard drive, as you've noticed. - Fusion Drive is a fancy Apple thing that has both an SSD and a regular hard disk. OS X automatically moves your most-used stuff to the SSD for better performance. Personally I'd skip the Fusion Drive, go for the SSD-only option, and use external hard drives for extra storage, but I'm stubborn like that.

Food for thought: You can get desktop functionality by using an external monitor and hooking it up to a laptop. That way you can get however big a screen you want but still be able to carry a laptop around if necessary. I've recently transitioned from a 24" iMac to using my work laptop more or less like this and it's easy as pie. (I am on my second MacBook Pro at home.) All of those programs (well, I've never used MediaMonkey) will work on a Mac. Macs are pretty standard with the designers I know; I work in communications/creative services and our whole office is on Macs. I am looking at the newer iMacs and it doesn't look like they have CD/DVD drives, but an external one will be fine if you need it. I've never bought antivirus software for a Mac. I run Disk First Aid and something like MacKeeper or whatever my computer lady tells me to run every so often, but nothing like Norton. Mouses and keyboards are fine as is. I have a coworker who does that same laptop setup I have but uses a trackpad (aside from the one on the laptop itself) and I have no idea why. Yes, you should probably get AppleCare. Sometimes there's some weird jiggery thing with a port or something (note: this has only happened on my iPhones) and it's just worth it. My brother got his laptop screen replaced for like 20 bucks instead of $200. You might consider a USB extender cable. There are two little hidden USB ports on the keyboard, but sometimes the space is too skinny for some cables, for some reason. But there are at least two other USB ports on the back. The sound of an iMac is pretty darn good. With my laptop, I use an external speaker -- my husband got me a http://www.bestbuy.com/site/bose-soundlink-color-bluetooth-speaker-black/7902883.p?id=1219300342793&skuId=7902883 for Christmas, and it's pretty nice for the size. I don't know where you're planning on getting your computer, but definitely consider the refurbished ones. There's absolutely no reason to pay full price, although you may have to bide your time a little bit to see if one will come up with the features you want. Shouldn't take too long, though. If you do get antsy, do you work for or attend a school or university of some sort? You may be able to get educational pricing. The refurbs are cheaper than that, though. You will LOVE this machine. One of us! One of us!

If you just need to read files from CDs I believe you don't need to buy an external optical drive since you're keeping the Windows 7 laptop. OS X Yosemite supports http://support.apple.com/kb/PH18698 with a windows 7 machine, but it carries some http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203973 on the types of media.

32 GB is probably overkill. 1. A fusion drive is exactly what the text you quote says it is. Flash storage (in the context of primary storage for computers, it's also called a solid-state drive or SSD) is much faster than hard-drive storage, and uses less power, but is a lot more expensive. A fusion drive combines a regular hard drive with a small SSD, and moves your most frequently-used files onto the SSD so you have faster access to them. You would need a thunderbolt cable if you had any thunderbolt devices. Thunderbolt hard drives are very fast, but you don't need to get one. USB 3 is fine. Time Machine is Apple's backup software and it just runs automagically every hour and you should almost certainly enable it. Time capsule is a hardware product that combines a wifi node, ethernet hub, and target disk that Time Machine can back up to. A Mac mini is a small, self-contained Mac. You can check it out on Apple's website. Lower power but sufficient for lots of people, cheaper.

Thanks everyone for your responses. I've a lot to chew on. Right now leaning towards a 27" retina display, at max RAM (32GB). Apologies, but I have more questions. I've read up on a lot of stuff but these still confuse me: 1. In terms of storage, what is the difference between a fusion drive and flash storage? My idea of "flash storage" is the thumbdrive. So I'm confused. In the configure page it says "Your iMac with Retina 5K display comes as standard with Fusion Drive, which combines a high-capacity hard drive with high-performance flash storage. For even greater performance, choose flash storage." I'm wondering if the 1TB Fusion Drive is enough or should I upgrade to 3TB? I also don't get why the 1TB Flash storage costs like a much-needed kidney in the black market? (Right now I have gotten by on 640GB storage on Windows. I supplement it with three 2TB external hard drives though...so yeah.) 2. What do I use the Thunderbolt cables for? Is it just compatible with external hard drives with Thunderbolt capability? Meaning - if I continue to use my Western Digital hard drives, then basically these are useless, right? 3. What is Time Machine and Time Capsule? From what I've read it has something to do with backing up devices. I backup my stuff manually...is that primitive and with Apple there's a better way of doing it? 4. What the hell is a Mac mini? Is it like a CPU? 5. Yes, this http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00FR795WA/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ is something that I'm looking for. Thanks for the suggestion. My friend has recommended http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00N38TQJC/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/, too. What do you guys think? 6. Dammit on MediaMonkey not supported by Mac! I'm just--I really loathe using iTunes on Window because it eats up a lot of my memory. I'll explore Clementine, but in the meantime have you guys had any issues with iTunes? Do you use any other software? (I like MM because I can organize music files by batch + add plugins). Thanks.

MS Office for Mac blows. Another option for you, besides Bootcamp, is to install something like Parallels and Windows 7 to run programs that you absolutely need but are not well supported on the OSX side. However, you will need to really max out the ram and SSD so that it is smooth. I went with third party all the way for the upgrades. I chose very carefully the model of macbook pro on the capability of being upgraded. Also, if you go this route you will need to run anti-virals on the PC side. I went refurbed, and glad that I did so. You can get a i7 duo core macbook pro enahanced to 16GB or RAM and sweet SSD to a killer external monitor for not much more than an imac. You definitely want Applecare if you go the laptop route. There is also the option of getting one-to-one service so that you get a face-to-face with an Apple genius every week to hone the skills. Chrome on the Mac is problematic but you could run in the virtual machine, if needed. The magic pad is pretty slick but I am more a trackball person and Logitech is reliable on that front. If you go laptop and want to do presentations be sure to get the correct set of dongles for it.

1) I like a Macbook pro and an external monitor. 2) Get the slowest processor on whatever you choose. There's not much real life difference, this is where Apple makes their money. 3) Def get one with a SSD--makes a HUGE difference 4) Get your ram from a third party, like OWC 5) Def get Apple care. I've always come out ahead with it.