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stever500

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 11, 2009
118
0
Gaithersburg, MD.
This new iMac I've bought last week is one of the best purchases of my life.

BG




It's changed every aspect of my computing, picture taking, and home working experience. I have a TV in my office because of the waiting time with my old PC. I'd have to wait and wait for everything to process, web pages to appear, simple scrolling through emails became an exercise in patience, etc. I'd scream and yell and bang my desk sometimes it was so slow. Dell Dimension 4400 w/ 20 gig, 512 mg of ram, for 7 long years.

BG
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The new iMac has been simply marvelous. Everything is instantaneous. I've never experienced anything like it. It's lightning fast. Strangely enough, the slowest web page I use is this MacRumors forum. It takes more than a second or two for forum pages to open up, but it's not a problem for me.

I have had none of the problems that others have posted. Granted, I'm a web surfer, emailer, photo downloader, Word doc writer, and Excel spreadsheet person. That's it. No DVD's, no games, no video editing, photoshopping, etc. Buying this iMac was definitely not overkill for me. Having 2 screens or more open on 1 monitor is an experience I've never had before. It's incredibly wondrous to me. I'm soooo happy with my purchase I could just scream. This keyboard is even more amazing than it felt at the store. Now that I've typed on it for a week, I feel like an expert typist compared to my old 7 year old Dell P.O.S. Logitech keyboard.

I'm just starting to get used to things that baffled me a week ago, like having to hit the fn key AND the delete key to delete a previously typed letter (not fun, but I deal with it), and attaching a pic to emails is finally a breeze once I figured out where my pics are stored. They really should have 1 keyboard key which deletes the previous letter, but I'll live.

I've never been able to scroll down a webpage so fast in my life. One flick of the finger and it whirls by like a lightning bolt. How did I live like that for so long with my old machine? The wait for this machine was worth it. I ordered the 24" iMac but it took over 2 weeks to get here when they told me it would be just a couple of days. Then the new one came out so I never took delivery of the 24". Some websites I'm finding out are simply slow, like "bulk uploading" on Photobucket.com. It was 10X slower though, before my iMac.

The 2 finger swiping back to the original webpage I was on, 4 clicks before is a great tool. This saves me so much time.

The new mouse is an unbelievably great design. The factory settings suck so I switched everything to the fastest setting, and now it's awesome. I thought it was too heavy, sharp and cumbersome at first, but now with some time under my belt for the learning curve it's terrific.

The screen is NOT too big, though my family thinks differently.

BG


I also changed the screen resolution to 1920 X 1080. This works better for my eyes than the default resolution.

I have a pretty large desk, for me, and it fits perfectly in the furthest corner, as far away from me as I could get it. My daughter showed me how to use Photo Booth. I've never had a web cam before. What a treat! I love taking pics on it, goofing around with my family using the black and white and sepia tones.

And the iPhoto confounds me as to how they thought up something so cool at Apple. I love the way it makes our old picture albums come alive on this big 27" screen with that snapshot mode and music. I'm in love with this iMac experience so far. So does my stepdaughter :)

BG




So, for all you unfortunates out these that are having problems with your new machine, I feel for you. I think you're in the minority, at least I hope you are. For me, it's been a wonderful experience. I have the base model, base everything. It's more than enough for me.

BG



If any of you are on the fence about buying one, jump on in. The water's great over here. I'm sure I'm one of thousands of people that have nothing to complain about because our machines run great. We don't post negative stuff here because we're happy campers. Don't let the #'s trick you, I'm sure there's more of us, than people w/problems, regardless what statistics and polls you read on here.

In any case, thank you Macrumors forum readers and posters. Without you guys this past month since I found you, I wouldn't have jumped in on the 5th day they came out and bought one. I was going back and forth for months, laptop or desktop. Real glad I bought this desktop beast instead of little laptop. Now, I'm hooked on Mac. I want a cute little 13" MacBook Pro to go along with it, one day. One I could just stick in my briefcase and take it along with my on the fly. I'm saving for that day, but don't really have any pressing need right now. I do all my work at home at my desk and I'm fine with that. My chair is comfortable, my room and view of the woods is beautiful, and my TV is always on, blasting out various CNN or E Entertainment new shows while I work. I hope this machine lasts me 10 + years as I never want to part with it.

All is well over here.

Cheers,
Steve R

BG
 
Congrats! That is a great computer

MacRumors page is slow because of server overload due too many users, not because of your computer :cool:
 
I really like this review, and I'm glad you took the time to write it. The pictures are great. I can't wait to get mine :D
 
This is quite an unexpected and brilliant post. Pictures + enthusiasm =:cool:. thanks for sharing!!!!
 
Nice review, glad you are happy with it.

Bear in mind LCD screens only look great at their native resolution. Lowering it will make things fuzzy - unlike old CRT screens which retained perfectly sharp no matter what the resolution.

Out of curiosity - what made you switch to a Mac and how did you find MacRumors?
 
Ah shucks, thanks. There were so many negative posts on here, I had to post my positive experience with my first Mac. Even my wife is excited about it. She was amazed mostly with the webcam camera part of it, and the size of the screen. When I first got it home she said "Why did you have to get one so BIG?" I told her that they're all getting bigger now and she'll appreciate it over time.:)

BG


I had to use my own personal savings money to get it, money I had put away over time for car repairs for my little sports car (a third car that we purchased in better times, something we really don't need, but being a guy, I LOVE and appreciate). I hope it doesn't need any major repairs this year as I really depleted that fund quite a bit. My old sales job was eliminated 6 months ago with my current company of 20 years but I took a different marketing job with them at a hugely reduced income, just to have a job. It earns less than 1/2 of what I used to make so I'm looking for something new. Having this fast computer is making my job search SO much easier due to the speed which job web pages load.

My wife's never seen a webcam/photo taker on a computer before and was truly flattered to see an instant pic of her seconds after taking it, on the screen. i realize that this is old news for you folks, but for us, it's outstanding technology that's very new to us.

Cheers,
Steve R
 
i think anything more up to date that what you were using would have been leaps ahead in terms of speed, but i'm glad you chose wisely :)

enjoy that machine, cos it should last you another 7 years at least for what you use it for :)

congratz
 
Nice review, glad you are happy with it.

Bear in mind LCD screens only look great at their native resolution. Lowering it will make things fuzzy - unlike old CRT screens which retained perfectly sharp no matter what the resolution.

Out of curiosity - what made you switch to a Mac and how did you find MacRumors?

Oh, I didn't realize that. I guess I'll try it at the resolution that was defaulted on the computer again and see how that goes for while, again. It seemed like everything was smaller and hard to read from afar where I sit, but I'll play around with it some more. i also turned down the brightness default. How could anyone view their screens so brightly without getting eye burn and a suntan? :eek:

I found Macrumors when searching every post I could find on the internet about a 24" iMac vs a 15.4" MacBook Pro. I found a thread about it on MacRumors and then really started reading as many threads as I could find on Macs. It's a fascinating webforum. I'm only used to my car webforums like rennlist.com - see below, the iMac matches my car perfectly - form follows function:cool: . That's part of why I was attracted to it:


BG


i'm also on bimmerboard.com and watchtalkforum.com and thought computer forums were for techies. I posted my dilemma on my car and watch webforums and many people responded favorable towards the Mac. They said that once I go Mac, I'll never go back. I get it now.

I'm a newbie in a way but found your forum most excellent reading. People from every corner of the earth talking about this machine or that, the benefits of each... I found myself reading well into the night past my bedtime.

I went to the Apple Store near my house and played with the machines till I was on a first name basis with 1/3 of the people in the store. They would shout my name out when I came in. It was a great group of people and they made me fall in love with Macs. Now they see me for my 1-1 sessions that I paid for when I come back into the store. Definitely worth it for the data transfer and the instructional info 1 to 1.

I love the way they look. Such wonderful design elements. Beautiful machines that work better than my PC of past, and most PC's I've tried at Microcenter and Best Buy. I really liked the new HP Touchsmart machine as well, but the Mac edged it out in many ways overall.

What's not to love?
 
Nice computer—can't wait to get mine (i7s w/upgraded video seem to be back-ordered...)

Nice car/color—I'm also on Rennlist (993tt.com). ;)

Enjoy your Sunday!

Bill
 
Nice computer—can't wait to get mine (i7s w/upgraded video seem to be back-ordered...)

Nice car/color—I'm also on Rennlist (993tt.com). ;)

Enjoy your Sunday!

Bill

Small world, Bill, and getting smaller. I am tasked by my new part time job to look up every law office in DC and the surrounding area and put their info on a "Numbers" spreadsheet. My task is cut in half with my new iMac due to it's speed.
BG
 
Enjoy your iMac :)

With the new iMac you can expand your RAM up to 16GB. Good for more than 8 years of fun computing!

Great pictures by the way.
 
can't resist posting here, very enthusiastic review.
happy life is priceless, sir, no matter what they say
injoy both of your machines;)
 
Congrats! That is a great computer

MacRumors page is slow because of server overload due too many users, not because of your computer :cool:

This is good to know! I even logged on to Macrumors at the Apple Store today and it was very slow loading there as well. I can see why the servers are overloaded... there's so much great info here for Mac users. I still don't understand why Dell doesn't open a Dell store like Apple did. If they did, they'd sell a TON more computers than they do now. If people got to play with ALL their machines and see everything in person, they'd feel more comfortable, like I did, and buy more Dell product.

Oh well, their loss. I also don't understand why less than 10% of computer users use Macs. They seem so much better to me. I guess it can be explained with an email a friend sent me today "The hardest thing about a new operating system is that you have relearn all the routine tasks. That would drive me crazy. I am sure you are up to the task. Good luck."

People are afraid of change, I guess. I sent him tons of articles about how Macs are so great ,but he STILL is going to buy the top of the line, Win 7, new Sony Vaio all in one machine for a lot more than I paid for mine.

Steve R
 
I also don't understand why less than 10% of computer users use Macs. They seem so much better to me.

Maybe the fact that they cost more up front and a lot of people don't really care about the OS? They are great machines though, but a lot of people just don't have the money to spend on a computer. Maybe the people who have that kind of money are the ones who have 3 cars ;-)
 
Thank you for your wonderful post! Enjoy your new iMac! :)

Thanks. My wife had her 50th birthday party today.

BG


Her brother gave her a pink Netbook, her first computer of her own. I was happy for her, until she turned it on and it took a long time to "warm up". Then it said "Windows XP" on the screen and I realized that she may never know the wonder of playing on a Mac all day unless I get her one of her own. If she really takes a fancy to using a computer, maybe I'll save up and get her a cute little 13.3" MacBook Pro of her own from the refurb Apple store. I LOVE that machine and I'm sure she will too. For now, I'll let her get to know how to use a computer and see if she takes to it, or it may end up just gathering dust in the corner of our bedroom.

My stepdaughter on the other hand is teaching me all sorts of stuff about my Mac. Kids today know WAY more than I know when it comes to Mac applications and they things that computers can do.


I have another 1-1 session tomorrow at my Mac store. It may end up having been a silly expense, buying this 1-1 membership as my stepdaughter now tells me she could have helped me transfer all my data from my old Dell to my new iMac. Oh well, what's done is done.

Steve
 
Most of the eyestrain comes from web browsing. Keep the default resolution. In Safari, go to "View", "Zoom In" and "Zoom Text Only". This setting should retain in all the pages and it's very comfortable to read. I'm looking forward to mine!
 
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