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New Imac worth waiting for??

G

george1drum

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 26, 2009
24
0
I currently have a 2ghz core duo macbook which is far too slow for what i need now. Im now starting to use 3ds max and a lot of photoshop at uni so need a pretty quick mac so i can run max through parallels without the thing dieing. I don't want a PC as they drive me crazy so want something which will let me run windows programs like 3dsmax smoothly.
Ive been looking at the 24" 3.6ghz imac with 4gb ram and the nvidia graphics card. I need it pretty soon so not sure if waiting for a core2quad processor to be fitted is worth the wait if its not going to updated in the next few weeks. Any suggestions whether the current imac is good enough or would you wait for the update which might not come for a few months!?

Thanks for the help!!
 
george1drum said:
The huge amounts of rumors before macworld and all the rumors that are all over this site...
Click to expand...

Which means absolutely nothing because they aren't Apple.

We. Know. Nothing. And that's how it has always been. Until we see kexts in current OS files or accidental spec lists on Apple's pages, everything here is a lie.

It's not as if your 3.06 current model will instantaneously break the second a new one is announced...
 
george1drum said:
I currently have a 2ghz core duo macbook which is far too slow for what i need now. Im now starting to use 3ds max and a lot of photoshop at uni so need a pretty quick mac so i can run max through parallels without the thing dieing. I don't want a PC as they drive me crazy so want something which will let me run windows programs like 3dsmax smoothly.
Thanks for the help!!
Click to expand...

If you've started working with 3d rendering suites you'd be better off building a PC renderfarm and interfacing with it. 3D never has enough power, never.

The iMac's use mobile processing units until otherwise talked about by Apple so you're setting yourself behind the real grade of processing power for that from the onset. Think about saving for the next workstation.
 
If you need it now, buy it. In your situation I would buy a Mac Pro, becouse you do heavy 3D stuff. Depends of your budget, if you can spend over 2000$ buy Pro, otherwise high-end iMac now or wait
 
Yes, wait for it. It's pretty likely that this time around there wont just be a minor speed bump, but a greater chance for new features such as the nvidia graphics and/or mini-display port.
 
Id love to be able to afford a pro but unfortunately im a skint student whos spending his food budget on a mac... Looking like its going to be worth waiting for the updates then, I hope your right about the new features. What makes you think there will be more updates to the features than usual?
 
Because in the past 4 months Apple has been updating all their products with Nvidia graphics and/or with the mini display port. There's also a chance for faster RAM (ddr3) in the iMac.
 
angemon89 said:
Because in the past 4 months Apple has been updating all their products with Nvidia graphics and/or with the mini display port. There's also a chance for faster RAM (ddr3) in the iMac.
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Not just chance, every updated product has got that, so it's likely to see it on iMacs.
 
Why don't you look at the buyer's guide on the front page?

Oh wait, that'd be too easy.
 
angemon89 said:
Right, except for the white MacBook... which is more of a consumer laptop so I can see why they didn't put DDR3 in it.
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Yea, Apple wanted to keep the price low so they could have even few less than 1000$ costing Macs. DDR3 memory is quite expensive and most of PCs still uses DDR2 (even the newest and "best")
 
I know you want to keep using OSX and all but if you are going into 3d you are better off doing a custom build quad core PC. If and when you do get a job in the "industry" they are just going to force you to use a PC anyway:(

For one thing you can upgrade your 3d card and not have to worry about getting "Mac editions" so you have many more card options available and you dont have to wait for Apple to update support for newer cards. I hate to say it but hardcore 3d work is not the macs forte.
 
george1drum said:
Ive been looking at the 24" 3.6ghz imac with 4gb ram and the nvidia graphics card. I need it pretty soon so not sure if waiting for a core2quad processor to be fitted is worth the wait if its not going to updated in the next few weeks. Any suggestions whether the current imac is good enough or would you wait for the update which might not come for a few months!?

Thanks for the help!!
Click to expand...

As always: If you need one, buy one. Waiting makes no sense most of the time. I've a 3.06ghz, 4GB, nvidia since the launch last year (my demand synced with the release this time ;-)) It's a nice fast machine, guess you won't regret it.
 
Is the quadcore processor that much faster than a 3.06 ghz core2duo? Would there be a huge difference in speed between the two?
 
Yes. Since almost all software will be multi-cpu aware in the near future, having 4 cores at 2.66ghz will be much faster than 2 cores at 3.06ghz.

If apple (hopefully) decides to use the recently released 2.93ghz quad, it would be almost twice as fast as the 3ghz duo.
 
I'm waiting .... its unpleasant but i think unless you REALLY need to buy now then wait a little.... i'm hoping for a Feb event focusing on desktops and then maybe end of feb / march release.
 
Tallest Skil said:
Which means absolutely nothing because they aren't Apple.

We. Know. Nothing. And that's how it has always been. Until we see kexts in current OS files or accidental spec lists on Apple's pages, everything here is a lie.

It's not as if your 3.06 current model will instantaneously break the second a new one is announced...
Click to expand...

Your own profile describes you as "waiting" for the Gainestown Mac Pro so I'm sure you can appreciate what the OP is on about.
 
sunfast said:
Your own profile describes you as "waiting" for the Gainestown Mac Pro so I'm sure you can appreciate what the OP is on about.
Click to expand...

He doesn't want to be outdated immediately. I can understand that.

But if he needs it to do actual work, screw the new model; buy now and get your work done.

If he doesn't need it, by all means, wait.
 
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