Looking to purchase an iMac G5 (isight) for my family. They will be mostly using email, safari, word, excel, itunes and iphoto. How have your experiences been with the iMac? I've heard the G5's have had serious over heating issues, is this true? Have you experienced any other problems? is 512 RAM sufficient?
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iMac owners NEED HELP!
- Thread starter TaKashMoney
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TaKashMoney said:
The overheating issues were more from the older models. Maybe it is too early, but I do not believe the isight models will have any problems. I know mine runs cooler than my old rev a and b imac. 512 ram is enough for what you mention. I was using Final Cut Express on mine with only 512 and it chugged along just fine. But, I added an extra gig and it is really snappy now!
TaKashMoney said:
While I don't own one myself, I do use a 1.6GHz iMac G5 w/ 512MB RAM at college and find it to be an awesome computer.
Would highly recommend one!
I really wouldn't be worried about overheating iMacs. Mine is sitting in a sweltering 36°C room converting music (maximum CPU cycles) right now and it's fine. However, aim higher than 512MB of RAM. Look for 1GB plus if possible.
mad jew said:I really wouldn't be worried about overheating iMacs. Mine is sitting in a sweltering 36°C room converting music (maximum CPU cycles) right now and it's fine. However, aim higher than 512MB of RAM. Look for 1GB plus if possible.
I have to agree with mad jew, shoot for 1GB+ of RAM for the iMac G5. Mac OS loves plenty of RAM.
For the uses you stated 512MB would be "ok", but I think that you and your family would appreciate the smoother performance of more RAM. Just my $0.02.
iMac iSight's cool (literally)
.. and 512Mb's should be OK for what you're planning to do with it and easily expandable when you get hooked into doing more.
.. and 512Mb's should be OK for what you're planning to do with it and easily expandable when you get hooked into doing more.
Only reason I haven't sprung for the rev c over my dog rev b is the crippled RAM on the board. I have 2GB in mine right now, and I don't feel like spending an extra grand for the 2GB DIMM. Other than that, it's faster, cheaper, cooler and just more nifty. If you haven't got one, and don't need the maxed out RAM (or you do and you're into spending the $1k) then it's perfect.
one more thing, isn't the G5 far happier, and faster, with paired RAM? so, the 2.5GB max would be not as good, no? I'm paired now, 2x1GB DIMMS and it's slow as hell, so I may be completely off base.
Some_Big_Spoon said:
Not really an issue. Matched DIMMs will run faster albeit not really noticeable for the average user plus the same specifications and size doesn't necessarily translate to them actually being 100% matched AFAIK.
Thanks for the help guys! I think an iMac will match a new iBook perfectly. Is upgrading RAM later on an issue? I know how tightly everything is packed into the iMacs?
I made the mistake of buying the first of the model. Replaced the logic board twice, then the power supply.
However, I hear almost nothing bad about the later revisions.
However, I hear almost nothing bad about the later revisions.
TaKashMoney said:
512 MB RAM is sufficient for the stuff you've mentioned except for iPhoto, especially if have a large library. My eMac with 640 MB RAM has gotten up to over 500000 page-outs when using only iPhoto with no apps in the background, so get at least 1 GB