Sometimes Life Just Goes Your Way (iMac related)

[itommyboy]

3.06 1TB 4850 8GB RAM - only ordered Saturday delivering today.

Wife and kids going to in-laws for a week tomorrow! What a fun week of acting like a bachelor and truly being a geek it shall be. Time to reload on Red Bull! How sweet it sometimes is.

This all being said I'll be in a rare spot until I migrate my office to this GT 130 Mac in that I'll have both this unit and the 4850 machine side by side. More importantly I won't have my family to take care of so I should have some time to run bmarks. Name your tests and I'll try to run and more importantly report side by side comparison results.

 

[meagain]

I'm so excited! Can't wait to hear your impressions of the two cards.
My only issue now is deciding on 640 vs. 1Tb. If it's worth $100 extra as I'll be using externals. IDK.

Congrats to you. So nice to get a new toy on a Friday.

 

[mstam]

My only issue now is deciding on 640 vs. 1Tb. If it's worth $100 extra as I'll be using externals. IDK.

Not worth it at all in my opinion. A brand new WD Black 640GB $75, 1TB $104, difference $29, you have to pay $100.

CPU upgrade from 2.93 to 3.06 $150. You're absolutely not gonna notice any difference w/ a CPU that's only 4.4% faster.

Get yourself a nice 1.5TB external enclosure in stead.

 

[definitive]

Not worth it at all in my opinion. A brand new WD Black 640GB $75, 1TB $104, difference $29, you have to pay $100.

CPU upgrade from 2.93 to 3.06 $150. You're absolutely not gonna notice any difference w/ a CPU that's only 4.4% faster.

Get yourself a nice 1.5TB external enclosure in stead.

don't you void warranty if you upgrade the internal drive yourself?

 

[aprofetto]

don't you void warranty if you upgrade the internal drive yourself?

I think he was just mentioning how much Apple jacks the price on his HDD's when the price differences for the drives themselves really isn't much.

Also think he was saying a 1.5 TB external drive would be a better option.

But yes, you'd void warranty if you upgraded the internal drive yourself.

 

[mstam]

But yes, you'd void warranty if you upgraded the internal drive yourself.

Swapping the HD yourself doesn't void the warranty as long as you don't damage anything to the internal parts. The new iMacs are easily taken apart and put together w/o any physical damage so you can always put the original HD back if your iMac needs repair.

My point is that there are better uses for the $250 HD and not noticeable CPU upgrade like an external drive for movies or backups or in my case an external drive and an extra HD in my Linux home server for TM backups.

I'm going to put an SSD in my iMac as soon 10.6 is released (w/ native support of the 'trim' command). At that time 512GB SSDs from OCZ will cost less than $700.

 

[jmpage2]

Both the 1TB hard drive and the 3.06 CPU are a colossal waste of funds. Performance won't be noticeably improved with the quicker processor and you'd be better off putting the price difference towards a NAS or an external enclosure like the Drobo.

 

[MacAndy74]

Both the 1TB hard drive and the 3.06 CPU are a colossal waste of funds. Performance won't be noticeably improved with the quicker processor and you'd be better off putting the price difference towards a NAS or an external enclosure like the Drobo.

It's really not that much extra. And the feeling of having the best iMac that can be had - at the time, is great.

 

[Sebby]

Not worth it at all in my opinion. A brand new WD Black 640GB $75, 1TB $104, difference $29, you have to pay $100.

CPU upgrade from 2.93 to 3.06 $150. You're absolutely not gonna notice any difference w/ a CPU that's only 4.4% faster.

Get yourself a nice 1.5TB external enclosure in stead.

The 640GB is a WD Caviar Blue, not Black, so the difference in price will be more, but still less than $100!

 

[JayLenochiniMac]

Both the 1TB hard drive and the 3.06 CPU are a colossal waste of funds. Performance won't be noticeably improved with the quicker processor and you'd be better off putting the price difference towards a NAS or an external enclosure like the Drobo.

I don't understand this mentality. If you upgrade every year, then yes it's a colossal waste of money. But for some people who like to drive their computers into the ground, it's best to go for the full boat and it could mean the difference between being able to run the latest OS or not in several years (just ask any owners whose machine fall just short of meeting the Leopard clockspeed requirement).

 

[mstam]

(just ask any owners whose machine fall just short of meeting the Leopard clockspeed requirement).

As if an OS will notice any difference in a CPU only 4.4% faster. If it doesn't work on a 2.93GHz CPU it won't work on a 3.06GHz either.

Can you give us a link to show us the 640GB disk is the WD Blue?

 

[JayLenochiniMac]

As if an OS will notice any difference in a CPU only 4.4% faster. If it doesn't work on a 2.93GHz CPU it won't work on a 3.06GHz either.

I don't make the rules; it's what the OS requirements dictate. Leopard needs at least 867MHz processor but those with 800MHz iMac G4 lost out.

 

[jmpage2]

I don't make the rules; it's what the OS requirements dictate. Leopard needs at least 867MHz processor but those with 800MHz iMac G4 lost out.

That's close to a 10% difference in power. It's also worth noting that the gap is more noticeable in single threaded CPUs than in multi-core ones.

It would almost be cheaper to upgrade to next year's iMac after taking into account resale value than to spend the extra $250 that the 1TB and 4% faster cpu cost on the current iMac.

 

[BulletToothTony]

don't you void warranty if you upgrade the internal drive yourself?

No you don't void your warranty... i called apple and asked.. they said that if i was to brake something while changing the hdd then the warranty would not cover the damages, but that's pretty obvious..

I asked b4 i added the applecare plan and they said it wouldn't affect the warranty, BUT if you have to get it fixed sometimes they wanted the original hdd that came with the imac, and imo it's only fair.. so i changed it.

Feel free to call and ask thou..