Sometime this week im buying an imac. I got in a car accident and my ibook i bought in January flew off the seatand the screen broke so Ive been using it with an old crt for a few months and ive had enough. My dilema is this. for $1300 ican get the new 17" imac with frontrow and isight not to mention an upgraded gpu and other goodies, on the otherhand they have the apple recert 20" 2ghz with a 250gig for the same price. do i sacrifice screensize, a slightly slower cpu and less onboard storage for the new features or go with the recert 20". such a hard choice i need a second opinion.
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Need Help imac purchase
- Thread starter Highonfire
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Okay I'll have a stab at this:
1st: Decide how important the extra screen real estate a 20" will provide is to you. (For me, I really appreciate that screen in my work)
2nd: Decide how you are going to use the computer. If its going in your bedroom/office etc. and you aim to primarily use it for your own home/office tasks then after the initial flush of excitement you'll likely hardly ever fire up FrontRow. If you would really like it as the main media hub (e.g. you live in a dorm etc.) then sure, the new features will be handy.
3rd: Think about your use of iSight. Are you going to get major use out of it? Do you have people to video chat to in iChat such that you can really enjoy it? IF so, would being able to indepentantly position the iSight be important to you or would you only ever put in on top of the iMac in one position?
4th: Would you likely purchase a separate external HardDrive for backup security (say, a LaCie) or are you fine loading everything on the internal?
Frankly I'd personally discount the marginal speed increase and new GPU from your decision. In my opinion they are not compelling enough factors at this stage. The new machines are really, really cool, but you have to try and divorce yourself from the Apple/Jobs reality distortion field and really think how you are going to use the machine. Only then can you decide if the new features will really enhance your use of the machine or be so much eye candy.
cheers
Vanilla
1st: Decide how important the extra screen real estate a 20" will provide is to you. (For me, I really appreciate that screen in my work)
2nd: Decide how you are going to use the computer. If its going in your bedroom/office etc. and you aim to primarily use it for your own home/office tasks then after the initial flush of excitement you'll likely hardly ever fire up FrontRow. If you would really like it as the main media hub (e.g. you live in a dorm etc.) then sure, the new features will be handy.
3rd: Think about your use of iSight. Are you going to get major use out of it? Do you have people to video chat to in iChat such that you can really enjoy it? IF so, would being able to indepentantly position the iSight be important to you or would you only ever put in on top of the iMac in one position?
4th: Would you likely purchase a separate external HardDrive for backup security (say, a LaCie) or are you fine loading everything on the internal?
Frankly I'd personally discount the marginal speed increase and new GPU from your decision. In my opinion they are not compelling enough factors at this stage. The new machines are really, really cool, but you have to try and divorce yourself from the Apple/Jobs reality distortion field and really think how you are going to use the machine. Only then can you decide if the new features will really enhance your use of the machine or be so much eye candy.
cheers
Vanilla
to give you an idea of my usage im heavy into music my roomate is a shetfield grad so were both into a large media collection and possibly some recording in the future. Im a light gamer so a few games would be played here and there and a side by side of the x600 and radeon 9600 does show an increase in performance due to the pcix architechture but it may not be a huge one. My question would have to be since this frontrow feature is really nothing to write home about, if it does take off into a more emmersive media experience would the team at apple most likely release some kind of external IR or bt upgrade for those who bought a mac pre october 05?? Im probably leaning towards the 20" at this point just for the big beautiful display. If frontrow turns into a must have buy with no upgrade options for me i assume i could always bring a mini into my home at a later time. I would probably only add external storage once my internal became cluttered to answer your question. Sorry for the poor typing my right hand is unfortunatly broken right now, search and peck for 4 more weeks!