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grumpyoletroll

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 12, 2009
9
0
I have seen people comparing the 2.8 old imac to the new 2.66 24" imac but how does the 2.8 compare to the new 1799.00 2.93? Will the GT 120 be a little better than the 2600 pro the 2.8 comes with?
 
I have seen people comparing the 2.8 old imac to the new 2.66 24" imac but how does the 2.8 compare to the new 1799.00 2.93? Will the GT 120 be a little better than the 2600 pro the 2.8 comes with?

There are other variables worth considering, such as memory speed, FSB speed and other factors.

If you want hard facts, keep your eye on barefeats.com for bechmarks.
 
cool, thanks! I am just debating on if I should try to exchange the 2.8 with 2600 pro in it that i bought 5 days ago? just wondering if I should try to get it swapped for the current one.
 
cool, thanks! I am just debating on if I should try to exchange the 2.8 with 2600 pro in it that i bought 5 days ago? just wondering if I should try to get it swapped for the current one.

If it's just 5 days ago, I'd seriously consider doing just that.

Others have said they can swap out within a week as they were annoyed they bought at the 'wrong' time.
 
Thanks again! Yes I think I will. The ram able to be taken to 8 gigs, and ddr3 plus the hard drive, and slight bump from 2.8 to 2.93 are decent but was wandering the gt 120 vs the 2600 pro if there is much difference in the graphics cards. I hate to just take back a machine, but money spent already and if worth it, I will try to get them to swap.
 
Thanks again! Yes I think I will. The ram able to be taken to 8 gigs, and ddr3 plus the hard drive, and slight bump from 2.8 to 2.93 are decent but was wandering the gt 120 vs the 2600 pro if there is much difference in the graphics cards. I hate to just take back a machine, but money spent already and if worth it, I will try to get them to swap.

Did you buy at an Apple store? If so, it's worth going in to explain to the manager that your not happy etc. and have them agree to do a swap as soon as they have stock. You can always perform tests at the store.
 
I have seen people comparing the 2.8 old imac to the new 2.66 24" imac but how does the 2.8 compare to the new 1799.00 2.93? Will the GT 120 be a little better than the 2600 pro the 2.8 comes with?

The 2.93 is the fair comparison to the 2.8 as those are the machines at the same price point in their respective generations.

As for whether you should exchange it, I guess it depends on whether you'll make use of the added processor speed/better graphics/higher RAM limit and whether a restocking fee of $180 (? that would be 10%...) is a lot of money to you. Those are questions only you can really answer.
 
I took mine back to the Apple store and they didn't charge me to restock. Mine was only 2 days old.

I'm also curious about the GT120 vs the 2600Pro. I haven't seen anyone answer it yet. I ended up ordering online and went with the GT130 to make the machine last as long as possible.

In my opinion even if the GT120 was no better than the 2600 it's worth exchanging. Twice the hard drive, twice the ram with the opportunity to double it again (when prices come down) It was a no brainer for me, even if they would have charged me the restock.
 
I'm also curious about the GT120 vs the 2600Pro

The GT 120 is a 9600M from the Macbook Pro. Looking at the benchmarks on BareFeats, when playing around with pro apps, such as Final Cut, the 2600 Pro wins hands down. In fact, the 2600 Pro even beats the 8800 GS = GT 130! Even when it comes to things like Core Image, Color, iMovie and so on.

In terms of games, the 9600M should outperform the 2600 Pro, but I'd be cautious before saying that; the 9600M on Barefeats was benchmarked on a 1440x900 resolution and is twice as fast than a 2600 Pro running at 1920x2000 resolution.

I'd like to see the 9600M (GT 120) running at 1920x2000 resolution, I believe it won't be that much more better.
 
Here's an update. I did go and do the exchange. Thankfully I did not get slapped with restocking fee! I am on the machine now, just setting it up. So far main thing I notice that is majorly different is that this on for sure has some fans! It is loud and can really feel the air moving on this thing. Though it doesnt bother me as I have heard the imacs can heat up. I just hope there isnt anything wrong with this one. I hope I made the right choice exchanging the 2.8 with the 2600 hd pro for this one. Only thing so far I found that I am unsure if I like is the no num pad keyboard.
Thanks so much you guys for the help and advice!
 
Here's an update. I did go and do the exchange. Thankfully I did not get slapped with restocking fee! I am on the machine now, just setting it up. So far main thing I notice that is majorly different is that this on for sure has some fans! It is loud and can really feel the air moving on this thing. Though it doesnt bother me as I have heard the imacs can heat up. I just hope there isnt anything wrong with this one. I hope I made the right choice exchanging the 2.8 with the 2600 hd pro for this one. Only thing so far I found that I am unsure if I like is the no num pad keyboard.
Thanks so much you guys for the help and advice!

Glad they exchanged it without a charge. I hope they aren't too loud. My 2.8 was almost silent in the time I had it. I was going to order online, but I'm too impatient so I think I'm going to go buy it with the wired keyboard and mouse and just buy my own wireless setup.
 
yeah how about the new 2.66 imac vs the old 2.8 imac? Because the 2.8 is up for refurbished at $1199 vs 1499. So...
 
You can definetly hear the fans! I know my 2.8 was silent. nothin running on machine exept safari 3 tabs, mail hidden and iStat says fan speeds are
cpu 3602
hard drive 1600
optical drive 4792 rpm's
I will call apple and ask if this is normal. I will post and let all know here.
Machine does feel a bit snappier. Though I did have 4 gigs of ram in my 2.8 though this is ddr3 and a bit faster.
 
I tested both...

I went to the Apple store last night to purchase my new 24" 2.93GHz iMac with 4G of 1066Mhz DDR3 ram and 640GB SATA. When I got their they had both the new model listed above and the old model (2.8Ghz CPU, 2GB of 800MHz DDR2 ram and 320Gb SATA). So I thought I'll test them myself before I make the purchase. Ok so here we go, now my testing may not seen all that indepth or even accurate but it does raise some serious questions for me that maybe someone else can answer. I rebooted both models, waited about 3 minutes after reboot just to make sure that all software was stable (probly not necessary). I then opened iMovie 09 on both machines (I assumed both had all apple updates, I forgot to check) and selected their preinstalled sample movies which are identical on both models. Then I went to share and exported both to the documents folder in the exact same format, I think quicktime. I then had my beautiful assistant/president (AKA my wife) start one at the same time I started the other. The results with about 3 minutes of their video, on the old iMac took about 5 minutes to complete... And the new iMac model took just at 3 minutes longer to complete the exact same process under the same conditions and starting at the same time. I also opened iPhoto and selected a randem album that they had, again same album on both machines. I opened the edit mode in full screen. Then I simply held the right arrow key down to scroll thru the pictures, you would not believe how much faster the old model seemed blaze thru the pics compared to the new model. Again this may not be a true bench mark but I urge you to go test for yourself. The verdict for me, Well I walked out with a brand new 2.8GHz previous model for $1400. Sure hard to beat that as it was $1800 on Monday. I set it up last night and WOW I should have got this a year ago. If anyone has insight as to why the new model may have seemed so slow please tell me now so I can take this back and exchange...
 
You can definetly hear the fans! I know my 2.8 was silent. nothin running on machine exept safari 3 tabs, mail hidden and iStat says fan speeds are
cpu 3602
hard drive 1600
optical drive 4792 rpm's
I will call apple and ask if this is normal. I will post and let all know here.
Machine does feel a bit snappier. Though I did have 4 gigs of ram in my 2.8 though this is ddr3 and a bit faster.

FAN NOISE???

Please update what you find out about this because this will be a decision maker for me. I have been suffering with constant loud fan noise in my G4 and I can't go on with it!! The 2.8 may be the best bet for me.

I'll be waiting for your update :)

Thanks
 
FAN NOISE???

Please update what you find out about this because this will be a decision maker for me. I have been suffering with constant loud fan noise in my G4 and I can't go on with it!! The 2.8 may be the best bet for me.

I'll be waiting for your update :)

Thanks

I'm on a 2.93 GHz right now. The CPU as been at 100% for 15 minutes now (importing 10000 pictures to iPhoto) and I don't hear any fans.

Edit: My fans are at CPU 1200, Hard Drive 1600 and Optical 800.
 
not that it is horrible or anything. Sure isnt anywhere near as loud as my old pc, but not silent like my 2.8 was. I called the apple store, and both apple support. store said due to the larger processor, and other things the fans run differently, and said theirs at the store arent as quiet as previous models. Apple support guy really didnt have an answer either just noted the complaint and gave me a case number. Hmmm, you'd think I would've gotten a good explanation from one of the two..
I don't think I would let that make your decision for you. I may have gotten a bad one, or extra special edition lol. Or they may just have beefed up the fans in these newer ones with the 2.93 or 3.06. If they are supposed to be this way I won't complain, It's just that my powerbook, other imac's, have always been so silent. Only my old powermac g4 made fan noise.
 
I would like to hear from others as they get theirs to see if this is normal or not.
Thanks to all!
 
If the fans are louder they're probably set to run faster. You can slow them down through a few apps out there.

My 2.9 should be here next week. Hope it's not as loud as people are saying here....
 
You can definetly hear the fans! I know my 2.8 was silent. nothin running on machine exept safari 3 tabs, mail hidden and iStat says fan speeds are
cpu 3602
hard drive 1600
optical drive 4792 rpm's
I will call apple and ask if this is normal. I will post and let all know here.
Machine does feel a bit snappier. Though I did have 4 gigs of ram in my 2.8 though this is ddr3 and a bit faster.

Wow, those fans are turning! My 24"/2.8 fans would run around 900 - 1200 while web surfing. I put in a fan control app as I wanted to cool more than Apple set it to, so right now they run from 1000 to 1400 when web surfing. I can barely hear them.

What are your temps? My CPU and optical drive runs around 85 degF - 90 degF, and my GPU and HDD runs around 100 degF -105 degF.
 
Wow, those fans are turning! My 24"/2.8 fans would run around 900 - 1200 while web surfing. I put in a fan control app as I wanted to cool more than Apple set it to, so right now they run from 1000 to 1400 when web surfing. I can barely hear them.

What are your temps? My CPU and optical drive runs around 85 degF - 90 degF, and my GPU and HDD runs around 100 degF -105 degF.

Are you sure about those? I've never had a computer run that cool. Both my Dell and this new iMac run around 40C (104F) just doing general stuff, and 70C (160F!) when they are pushed. I don't like that the fans didn't kick up, what app do you run to tweak your fans?

I'll need to watch mine closer (I've only had it 2 days) but I think the fans have always been at the numbers I posted a few posts up. Idle or 100%, I think they stayed the same.
 
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