New iMac's : To 3Ghz or Not to 3Ghz?

[MortonH]

So let me get this straight...

Some of you have reservations about getting the full-monty 24" iMac because of the additional price (and heat) of the 3.06GHz processor, but you then go ahead and get the 2.8GHz iMac with 4GB of RAM preinstalled?

You can (and should) order RAM elsewhere and install it yourself for half the price. Sell your 2GB of existing RAM and pretty much get 4GB for free.

I agree. Got a quote today from my local vendor (Sydney, Australia). The Apple website charges $300 for the RAM upgrade from 2GB to 4GB. However, the vendor will charge slightly less than that for 4GB of Kingston RAM... AND give me back the standard 2GB that comes with the iMac (which I can sell if I want to). I think most people should be able to get a similar deal from their vendor.

Morton

 

[phalewhale]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts on this. I've settled on the 2.8Ghz with HD and VCard upped. If i wanted to overclock a CPU i would do it in a home made pc where the risks are clear from day one and even tho this comes from apple/intel it's not easy getting inside the imac case and the last thing i need to worry about is how long my iMac will be in repairs for if it burns itself up.

One last thing does anyone know what brand HD these iMac's use or is it random based on supply at the time of manufacture?

After much thought, I don't really think this is something the consumer needs to worry about. I've bought the 3GHz model with Applecare so if anything goes wrong I'm covered. Plus, I'm fairly certain that they know what they're doing!

If you've made your choice then great. But quit worrying about stuff beyond your control

In terms of memory upgrades, I can confirm that I've paid just under £75 for 4GB from crucial. But, the Apple store prices have reduced quite a bit it seems. With education discount, it was only gonna cost me an extra £30 to go with Apple. Still, I can ebay the standard ram to recoup some cash.

 

[ozthegweat]

If I had bought the 4GB RAM for the iMac elsewhere I'd spent 120 Swiss Francs. In the Apple Store it cost me 210 Swiss Francs (with educational discount).

I had a PowerMac G5 once which wouldn't accept perfectly good RAM (worked fine in 2 other computers). I couldn't return it, as it wasn't broken. I had to buy the same amount of RAM again, which then worked.

I gladly pay the Apple RAM premium (which isn't as high anymore as it has been) to avoid such problems. Especially because although this premium might still be around double the market price, the premium becomes less and less significant with RAM prices being this low.

 

[ucfgrad93]

concerning reliability I don't think there's a difference. But you have to consider if you want to spend the extra money for a CPU with 9% more GHz (which you probably won't notice, except e. g. when encoding video) and 20W higher energy consumption. You can simply configure the 2.8 model with bigger disk, NVIDIA card, etc.

That's what I'd do.

 

[QCassidy352]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A102 Safari/419.3)

whoa, what? Explain that? I use an AmEx as my main card and didn't know about any sort of 4 year protection...

Look up Buyer's Assurance Plan (Extended Warranty). It'll mirror the original manufacturer's warranty of 1 year when Applecare expires (assuming you charge both the machine and Applecare to the same card), giving you a total of four years of protection.

ah. I see. so it adds one year if you buy AppleCare. I thought you were saying the Amex added three years even without buying AppleCare, which seemed unbelievable.

 

[jameskohn]

Max it out!

Always max it out if you can. You'll enjoy the performance benefits over the lifetime of the computer, and when you go to sell it you will have a competitive advantage.

Plenty of people have bought computers and then wondered if they should have bought upgraded versions while they watch the "spinning beach ball". On the other hand, when was the last time you heard somebody say "I wish I had gone for the less powerful model"?

If you can, go for it and don't give it a second thought.

 

[G-Force]

A 2,8 GHz will not beachball more than a 3,06 GHz... if you REALLY need it, go with the 3,06. If you want to save some money and loose almost no speed, go with an upgraded 2,8.

 

[ukmacmonster]

The latest Apple prices for RAM upgrades make it (just) worth considering. For the first time I've just bought 4GB of RAM from Apple when ordering my new iMac. Why?

a) Zero hassle
b) There was a bit of a debate as to exactly what RAM works best (or even works at all) in the latest iMacs. I didn't want to get it wrong
c) I can't be bothered ebaying the obsolete RAM to make the whole hassle financially viable

 

[calpolygraduate]

I just got the iMAC 24" with 2.8ghz, 4gb ram, and 8800 GS, 1TB storage, mos def.

 

[GMFlash]

I just got the iMAC 24" with 2.8ghz, 4gb ram, and 8800 GS, 1TB storage, mos def.

Same here but with 2GB RAM. My baby arrives middle of next week. I'll probably up it to 4GB but I'm sure for general use 2GB will be plenty to start with.

 

[etorres]

I almost convinced myself to sell my last gen 24" white iMac and get me a 3 GHz 24" with the 8800 GS and larger HD. That new 512 mb 8800 GS GPU makes my 128 mb 7300 GT look puny by comparison. I guess what made me pause was that my "old" iMac has worked perfectly fine for me and has never given me any problems. I decided to squeeze a few more months out of my iMac and see what Apple has in store when the Montevina platform arrives, or better yet, when Intel releases Nehalem early next year. One more year wont hurt.