Will the current gen iMacs be enough, or should I wait?

Question

Hello,
My Mom wants to get a new computer, and she's been eyeing the iMac for sometime now. Since we're buying a MacBook for college, I thought I'd buy my Mom an iMac.
Personally, I would wait, because I want the lastest and greastest in my computer, but I'm not sure if my mom is the same way. She only goes on the computer once in a while to check Facebook, Youtube and do her banking. She is also big on music, so she'll most likely want to play it on her iMac.
My question is: Will the current gen iMac be good enough to last a minimum 5 years?
My mom will be doing the following:
YouTube (HD video streaming)
Facebook
Online Banking
Music downloads (legally of course)
And Music streaming (Playing it on her iMac, so she can hear it in the living room, kitchener, where ever she is)
And she will be putting music on her MP3 player, which is a Coby 8GB I believe
These are her requirments:
She will not spend any money on repairs for atleast 3 years. It must stand up to everything the dust can throw at it.
She needs it to be quick. Her current laptop (HP Pavilion 17 Inch) actually takes 15 mintues to open a simple email client! She wants a machine that will be quick today, and quick tomorrow, and the next day until I buy her a new computer (more then likely in 2015 when my schooling is finished).
She needs it to have good speakers! She judges the quality of the computer by the speakers.
I want to tell her to wait until October for the new iMacs, but I can't! I know she won't buy the new ones because they won't be discounted $100! (I get $100 off every computer as a student in Future Shop). She will buy one now, because she's already buying my Macbook and my sister's PC, so shes motovated to fork over another $1099 because she knows she needs a new computer, but if she waits, the motovation will be gone!
Will the current gen base model iMac be able to handle her needs?
Thank you

Answer 1

Your asking a tall order for people to give you a recommendation.
Here's my take.
The baseline iMac, from a computing standpoint will meet your mother's needs.
My advice, you'll need to install more than the baseline 4 GBs of RAM.
Plan on spending extra to buy third party RAM. Install, at least another 4 GBs of RAM for a total of 8 GBs.
The current OS X version will run better and run additional applications better with more RAM added after purchase.
Purchase this RAM from either of these two sources.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/apple/memory/iMac
OR
http://www.crucial.com
With this addiitional RAM installed, you'll already be ready when newer OS X updates happen.
The iMac's internal speakers were never the greatest.
They are a little better than laptop speakers, but not by much.
Judging the quality of a computer by its speakers is like judging the quality of a car by its hubcaps.
Tell your Mom that Macs are not PCs. There are a lot less issues with Macs than with Windows PCs.
Macs are more than the some of their individual components. And Apple Macs have much better computer components that what is found in a typical PC.
I doubt they will be strong enough, by themselves to play and hear music from all over the home.
My advice, by a seperate set of powered external speakers that an be plugged into the iMac, or by a portable speaker system that works over wireless Bluetooth/AirPlay that can be easily moved from room to room or is big or strong/loud enough to be put in a central location in your house so that your iMac can stay where it is and transmit signals to a wireless speaker system that is able to play music louder from around the home.