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The iMac is upon me

0098386

0098386

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Original poster
Jan 18, 2005
21,574
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Hello guys n gals. I realised several months ago that for what I do - I need a faster Mac. I'm currently having a whale of a time on my 12" PowerBook, fantastic size and a great machine. but I've been getting big slow down, especially when editing HD videos for coursework. I know... "what on earth are you doing man!", especially with only 512mb of sweet sweet Ram.

I'm thinking big now. I have a big of money saved up and my student loan will be coming in soon. I'm thinking about blowing it (and my overdraft) on a brand spanking new iMac. I'm just wondering what the hidden pitfalls and secrets are?

I will be avoiding the low-end 17" iMac altogether. I need a better video card than that.

I've been looking at the 20" for a while now. It looks like the best deal for me, and will match my 20" widescreen monitor too for extra wide nonsense. But what should I do for it? BTO wise?

Also, how much noticeably faster will the 20" iMac be over my 1.5ghz G4 PowerBook?

Cheers you lot :)
 
raggedjimmi said:
I'm thinking big now. I have a big of money saved up and my student loan will be coming in soon. I'm thinking about blowing it (and my overdraft) on a brand spanking new iMac. I'm just wondering what the hidden pitfalls and secrets are?
Click to expand...

Hidden pitfalls? Well, your overdraft would be one of them. Save up so you can pay for it- don't do something that might interfere with a credit rating or something else bad in the future.
 
raggedjimmi said:
I will be avoiding the low-end 17" iMac altogether. I need a better video card than that.
Click to expand...
The mid-range 17" has the same video card as the 20" unless you plan to upgrade the VRAM...

My 1.33GHz iBook feels about as fast as my 17" CD iMac when running PPC apps, so it does somewhat depend on what apps you need how fast your new box will be compared to your PB... (Intel native/universal stuff screams though).

B
 
I'm going for the 2.33 GHz, 20-inch with the 256MB VRAM. I think if your going to get an iMac you might as well max-out your options as you won't be able to later on if you need them.
 
Allotriophagy said:
As a UK student, I imagine that he will have an interest-free overdraft from his bank.
Click to expand...

Yup! £1000 of it. But I'm only dipping into it a little bit, the 2nd loan will pay it off. my parents pay for everything so it's cool.

More RAM? how much would you say is okay? I mean I don't want more than I'll need and I've found my PowerBooks 512mb to be fine for what I'm doing. 2gb perhaps? for video editing, 8 megapixel photo stuff. Not using this for games.

I'm trying to get my parents to give me a little new year bursary. my sister wants an iPod Nano and with a Mac I can get the 1gb for like £20 or something. so hopefully I won't be paying the full price for a system myself.
 
Unlike my Mac Pro, the Core 2 Duo iMac feels a bit slower than my G4 Powerbook when running Office or Photoshop in Rosetta. Part of that may be because the G4 has more RAM. For universal binary apps, the iMac is much, much faster than the G4.
 
FFTT said:
Add 1 GB of RAM to your PowerBook before you make any decision.
Click to expand...

That's something I was originally planning. just max out my PB in whatever way I can. It's just recently I've found myself requiring some PC applications for coursework.
The utmost cheapest option would be to build a cheap £400 PC. But even then just just £300 more I could buy an iMac. that little logic followed on to "well for just another £100 i could get the higher 17" model... for another £100 it's the 20"!" :)
I am going to need something more powerful for my final year of university though. it took a day to render a 3 minute stop motion film on my PowerBook, heck a crash whilst rendering managed to destroy an external HDD!

I had no idea the 2.33ghz machine was Woodcrest! If thats the case then I'll be gathering all my pennies together.
 
NextTuesday said:
I'm going for the 2.33 GHz, 20-inch with the 256MB VRAM. I think if your going to get an iMac you might as well max-out your options as you won't be able to later on if you need them.
Click to expand...

you have the best username ive seen yet lol. they should consider renaming the site to nexttuesday.com :D
 
raggedjimmi said:
I had no idea the 2.33ghz machine was Woodcrest! If thats the case then I'll be gathering all my pennies together.
Click to expand...

Hang on, where did you get that info from ?

Rich.
 
fatsoforgotso said:
Hang on, where did you get that info from ?

Rich.
Click to expand...

my own bad memory :)

Been having words with my parents and they seem okay with it. Especially with the iPod Nano that my sister will get, I don't really need it. Thinking about getting a maxed out 17" though. Never thought I'd say this but I think the 20" is too big :eek:
 
If you are editing, the 20" is not too big. Go for that over the 17". Such a pleasure to work with the screen estate
 
swingerofbirch said:
I've never heard of interest-free overdrawing! Merry England sounds lovelier and lovelier.

So basically you have a student credit card and if you go over what you can pay, you just pay it back when you can without penalty?

Sounds like what in the States we call very nice parents.
Click to expand...


Its not that simple, you get a £1000 overdraft which is interest free. You go over the stated limit and you will be charged.

However some allow a maximum of £2750 on a given card so you needn't go there.
 
swingerofbirch said:
I've never heard of interest-free overdrawing! Merry England sounds lovelier and lovelier.

So basically you have a student credit card and if you go over what you can pay, you just pay it back when you can without penalty?

Sounds like what in the States we call very nice parents.
Click to expand...

Sorta. I'm on a debit card, it's not a student account but I'm thinking of transferring over.
But I don't think I'll need to spend a single penny soon. My dad left his old job a year ago saying "I never want to be a manager again", so after a year of recapturing his youth he's going back into management. with my mum saying "well, if he gets a job we'll get you one". Which is nice. and i'll probably have to pay them back eventually...

Eyes now opened back to the 20" :)
 
Re: RAM upgrades - I ordered my iMac with 2Gb. Mainly because there was no option for a 1 x 1Gb option, only 2 x 512Mb. The Apple store price for the 2Gb is not that bad and compares well to 3rd party upgrades. You then don't have to install it yourself or source the right RAM or go through the hassle of selling your old RAM.

Performance-wise, I find more RAM makes for a more comfortable user experience. I think most people do, actually. I am a student too so we will have similar usage profiles and I went for the 2Gb to prevent swap grrrrrrrr-r-rrr-rrrr-rrrrinding (which I get on my PB a lot as it is currently my main machine and has only 512mb), which slows me down a bit.
 
Right now on non UB apps the speed will be about the same, but anything that is universal is insanely faster. I went from a 1.42 ghz to a 2ghz core duo and i noice a huge speed bump. As for what bTO options? Id up the ram to 2 gig's since the imacs are hard to upgrade that will help you for a whle, and get the better video card as im sure you are planning, but it is efinatly worth it, and will be even more worth it onc all your apps become universal.
 
Just another question... Is there anyway to turn off the internal monitor on the iMac? Just my external monitor is bigger and brighter than the display on the iMac so I'd want to use that for games/Bootcamp/VLC and stuff like that.
 
raggedjimmi said:
my own bad memory :)

Been having words with my parents and they seem okay with it. Especially with the iPod Nano that my sister will get, I don't really need it. Thinking about getting a maxed out 17" though. Never thought I'd say this but I think the 20" is too big :eek:
Click to expand...

i thought you couldnt get the ipod deal with the new imacs...am i mistaken?
 
Finnxeon said:
i thought you couldnt get the ipod deal with the new imacs...am i mistaken?
Click to expand...

In the UK you can. They're not free though, just £100 off. Though Nano's are (or were) something ridiculous like £12 for the 1gb, £19 for the 2gb but £50 for the 4gb!
 
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