Basic questions from new iMac owner

What exactly should I buy for Time Machine backups (I have 27 inch iMac with 8 gb memory).  Also can I migrate data directly to my iMac from my Dell All-in-One, including Itunes music library?  What type of connector best to use?

You should buy an external disk that uses the usb3 interface (assuming your iMac is new).  Use the disk first with your Dell.  Format it as NTFS if required, put your itunes folder on it, put your documents folder on it, put your pictures folder on it, .....basically get your stuff on the drive.
Move the disk to the mac.  Now, copy the iTunes folder in the Music folder.  Place everything inside the documents folder inside the iMac's documents folder, put the pictures folder inside your iMac's pictures folder, ...basically move your stuff to the appropreiate iMac folder.
Now start up iTunes and it will see the old library and all will be fine.  If any of your album, apps, movie artwork looks weird, simply close iTunes go into the cache folder inside the iTunes folder and delete the old cache files. Restart iTunes and the artwork will look OK.
You can also open iPhoto and import all the photos from your old picture folder.
Finally when you are happy that all your stuff is in the right place.  Reformat the drive as hfs journaled, name the drive Backup, and point time machine to it from system preferences.  You can format the drive using disk utilitiy which is inside your applications/utility folder.
It's really not that hard to convert.  Don't worry about applications you had on the Dell.  They won't work.  You just need your data files.  Data is data so all will be well.
Good luck

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