I'm pretty disappointed with my Intel iMac

[hellodon]

I've been a Mac user for years. I finally decided to get a desktop since my Powerbook was just too slow for me these days. In October, they announced the last iMac updates and I was super pumped/ready to buy. I was talking to someone from MacConnection for weeks and they just never arrived. In late November they were finally shipping, I decided to wait until after the holidays so i could spend my money on my family and friends for Christmas, plus macworld was coming up.

I guess i made a smart move because they updated the machine i was going to buy, released the intel macs months early, and it was the same price!

As soon as the Apple store was back up last Tuesday, I placed an order for a 20" model.

It arrived on Monday. I copied my powerbook with the target drive feature....fired up the intel machine ready to rock, and to my surprise, it runs like crap in many areas and I'm very disappointed. I'm far from a "mac-head" so I'm not super techy with them, i just love the machines and have used them for the past 6 years. I'm pretty unsure of why I'm experiening these problems.

First of all, Entourage X runs horribly. The noise when the program opens is choppy and while the program is open, all my other applications run slower. Am i forced to use 2004?

Azureus doesnt work.
My check book program doesnt work.
Limewire doesnt work.
(i'm not a crazy hack, I'm a DJ and it's easier to grab songs off of file sharing programs than to find the CD (i have about 3000 CD's) and rip it for mix discs)
Obviously there's a known problem with Firefox running sorta choppy...I have to wait til March for that to hopefully be fixed.
AOL Instant Messenger crashed galore and caused slowdowns. I was never an ichat user but I've been forced into it. I do like it but i was just used to AIM

Is my problem the fact that i did the target drive thing and copied my old computer? Or is this thing just buggy right now with Rosetta?

I have seen the spinning beachball more than ever and i used to use one of those blue plastic imac G3's. I can honestly say my G4 Powerbook 667 runs smoother than this thing in many areas.

I am working on one of the October updated 17" imacs right now at work and this thing kills my intel mac with performance....and i used target drive from the same computer to this one....I used to use that powerbook for work/home...so when i got this 17" in early December for a work computer, i copied my powerbook and just got rid of my personal stuff.

I'm super let down. I need some advice/help. I almost feel like i made a 1700 dollar mistake.

 

[BakedBeans]

How much RAM have you got? Everything you mentioned there is using rosetta.

 

[MacTruck]

Ahh, the life of a beta tester.

Never buy brand new apple tech until it is PROVEN to work. They beta test their products in the field. Costs them less to fix your broken unit than it does to iron the bugs out in house, but if it runs like crap and is not broken they don't have to fix anything.

 

[hellodon]

I've only got the factory 512. Im going to upgrade myself...but i havent yet.

This 17" is flying on 512...so i wasnt worried about it being necessity right away...boy was i wrong.

I wasnt aware of their testing strategy..that sucks. I don't know what to do.

 

[MacTruck]

I've only got the factory 512. Im going to upgrade myself...but i havent yet.

This 17" is flying on 512...so i wasnt worried about it being necessity right away...boy was i wrong.

I wasnt aware of their testing strategy..that sucks. I don't know what to do.

Well more ram will help for sure and ofcourse time. Once everyone ports their code to universal binaries and apple comes out with some OS updates for your imac you shouldn't have a problem. It could be a while though.

 

[BakedBeans]

I've only got the factory 512. Im going to upgrade myself...but i havent yet.

You might want to because all your rosetta apps will be much better

I wasnt aware of their testing strategy..that sucks. I don't know what to do.

Dont listen to that testing strategy stuff - get more ram - wait for native apps.

is safari not working and the rest of the system slow?

 

[Thanatoast]

When you say you "copied" your old computer - and this may be a dumb question - you didn't copy the OS itself, right?

 

[hellodon]

They made Rosetta sound like the most incredible thing to hit the planet....they definitely made me not worry or even think about problems like this arising...all i was thinking was "wow! faster iMac, same price, I'm glad i waited" but now i wish i would have waited even longer. I havent opened any Adobe products which is one of the main reasons I wanted this machine, if I have problems with illustrator and photoshop I'm going to lose it

 

[BakedBeans]

They made Rosetta sound like the most incredible thing to hit the planet....they definitely made me not worry or even think about problems like this arising...all i was thinking was "wow! faster iMac, same price, I'm glad i waited" but now i wish i would have waited even longer. I havent opened any Adobe products which is one of the main reasons I wanted this machine, if I have problems with illustrator and photoshop I'm going to lose it

They run under rosetta too - if its completely standard you can take it back.

 

[topgunn]

First of all, Entourage X runs horribly. The noise when the program opens is choppy and while the program is open, all my other applications run slower. Am i forced to use 2004?

Azureus doesnt work.
My check book program doesnt work.
Limewire doesnt work.
(i'm not a crazy hack, I'm a DJ and it's easier to grab songs off of file sharing programs than to find the CD (i have about 3000 CD's) and rip it for mix discs)
Obviously there's a known problem with Firefox running sorta choppy...I have to wait til March for that to hopefully be fixed.
AOL Instant Messenger crashed galore and caused slowdowns. I was never an ichat user but I've been forced into it. I do like it but i was just used to AIM

I don't believe that any of the apps that you are having problems with are universal binaries. Once they update their apps, things will improve vastly.

 

[jaduffy108]

I've only got the factory 512. Im going to upgrade myself...but i havent yet.

This 17" is flying on 512...so i wasnt worried about it being necessity right away...boy was i wrong.

I wasnt aware of their testing strategy..that sucks. I don't know what to do.

>>>hellodon...i could be wrong, but i seriously doubt "bugs" are to blame here. Your issues scream "Rosetta" to me. *If* i'm right...then patience is in order. As someone else mentioned...once the universal binaries are available, you will be a happy camper. Your Intel iMac is a much better machine than the ppc iMac.

edit: after reading your posts again...i think you should return the iMac while you can. Adobe stuff is going to suck running on Rosetta. Wait for merom based machines (late 2006) with universal binaries from Adobe, etc..you will NOT be disappointed.

peace

 

[hellodon]

When you say you "copied" your old computer - and this may be a dumb question - you didn't copy the OS itself, right?

no with that target drive it moves the programs/files/settings but uses the OS that's installed on the new machine.

 

[andiwm2003]

you have two options:

1.)upgrade the ram to min. 1.5GB and hope that with time the software gets much faster.

2.) sell your new imac asap to recover the money and buy a new intel-mac in june/july or whenever the next revision is out.

i'd go with option 1, because the software will be faster soon. check the usual stuff like repair permissions, reinstall the system. and using less then 1GB of ram on a mac should be illegal it's sad but it's true.

 

[Seasought]

Rosetta aside, is a fresh wipe and install really that out of the question? That always helps to some extent as well. Most will recommend anyone who gets a new Mac to format it do a clean install of the OS.

 

[BakedBeans]

I know what i would do - I would order a new 1gb ram NOW, then i would do a clean install of the OS and see what its like before installing anything

 

[revisionA]

Yeah, up the ram immediately to the max you can afford.

It will help at the very least, but it could be that Rosetta needs more RAM for the same operation than a native app... which you probably dont have any.

Anything relying on g4/g5 optimization isnt going to get any.

Three months from now you may love this computer, for now... its a little crippled by software that doesnt take advantage of it.

$

 

[studiomeridian]

Rosetta allows you to "access" PowerPC based programs...nothing more. Like others have said, wait for the Universal apps. Aside from that, the way Apple apps are made these days, 512 MB RAM will do squat for us. OS X eats almost all of it, leaving practically nothing to work with. If anything, max out your RAM.

 

[emotion]

Rosetta aside, is a fresh wipe and install really that out of the question? That always helps to some extent as well. Most will recommend anyone who gets a new Mac to format it do a clean install of the OS.

Why?? that's such a heavy handed Microsoft-conditioned way to treat a machine.

In answer to the original poster.

- You have to use universal binaries (of which there are currently few) and treat Rosetta as a last resort attempt to get something working.

- Give it a few weeks and there will be a lot more software available.

- I think you have a fair wait for Adobe stuff from what I hear.

 

[Seasought]

Why?? that's such a heavy handed Microsoft-conditioned way to treat a machine.

Because it works.

 

[BakedBeans]

Why?? that's such a heavy handed Microsoft-conditioned way to treat a machine.

putting EVERY last piece of data (including hidden files etc) isnt the best way to get your mac started if you ask me - nothing MS about it.

 

[matthew24]

Target Mode:

By using target mode I think ALL applications ( including all Apple- ( Safari/Mail/iLife etc ) ) are PPC based applications. Because of different processors a clean install without target-mode is highly recommended.

 

[emotion]

putting EVERY last piece of data (including hidden files etc) isnt the best way to get your mac started if you ask me - nothing MS about it.

oh i see what he meant now...just shovelling all you old stuff onto the new machine (via the target mode)....yeah i'd start my new machine fresh and do all the migration by hand. especially with the new architecture.

i thought he meant wipe the OS, on a new machine!

edit: @baked beans - that is what Seasought said.

 

[BakedBeans]

oh i see what he meant now...just shovelling all you old stuff onto the new machine (via the target mode)....yeah i'd start my new machine fresh and do all the migration by hand. especially with the new architecture.

yeah :0

i thought he meant wipe the OS, on a new machine!

that is recommended actually

 

[emotion]

that is recommended actually

if you've already messed it up with the target mode...yeah i'd consider it but i still think that is a heavy handed way to go about it.

 

[Seasought]

When I was reading these forums prior to my purchase I saw a few posters recommend wiping a brand new Mac to get rid of "unnecessary software" or other issues with the machine.

I mean, you can go either way, but I wanted the best possible experience so I wiped my new Powerbook right off the bat, did updates etc. That's just me though.