The New iMac Ownership Thread

[fruitpunch.ben]

I was just confused because when changing to 'Encoded Digital Audio' in the Audio MIDI Settings stopped all sound (and iTunes refused to play anything) so I wasn't sure if this was something wrong with the machine or whether the Z-5500 just didn't like it?

Yeah i have no idea if its a Z-5500 thing, or if it's a Mac thing that it won't work.

I'd agree that Stereox2 seems to sound best to me as well, I'm not a huge fan of the distortion effects that other listening modes tend to provide.

Yeah Stereo x2 suits me for audio, stereo is how the music was intended to be played anyway, and if you have any DVD audio the speakers will detect the Dolby 5.1 sound and play that

Thanks for your help.

No Worries!

 

[mtnDewFTW]

I really like your desk
what brand is it?

 

[AlienSexGod]

i5 & i7

Any one actually taken delivery of an i5 or i7 iMac yet?

 

[DoFoT9]

Any one actually taken delivery of an i5 or i7 iMac yet?

no. we dont know the shipping date. some time around november.

 

[Elbartow]

Yay

My new 21.5" iMac 4670 has just been delivered!!

Everything's great and fine and it's fast as hell!!!

I'm so in love with this thing

 

[UglyLittleSpud]

My new 21.5" iMac 4670 has just been delivered!!

Everything's great and fine and it's fast as hell!!!

I'm so in love with this thing

I'm hovering over ordering one of these right now.....

 

[AlienSexGod]

no. we dont know the shipping date. some time around november.

MAte you are in AUst like me..... I am asking the AMericans.......

anyone seen one?

 

[DoFoT9]

MAte you are in AUst like me..... I am asking the AMericans.......

anyone seen one?

just cuz i am in australia doesnt mean i dont know what is happening in the US lol. i know everything

 

[Broric]

Does anyone have any idea what sort of temperature range things should be between on the base 27" model?

After reports of the top of the screen being really hot I was a bit worried but mine's been very cool so . My CPU is only at 30C but the "Northbridge" (what's this?) is over 55C...

 

[JasonEdwards]

Does anyone have any idea what sort of temperature range things should be between on the base 27" model?

After reports of the top of the screen being really hot I was a bit worried but mine's been very cool so . My CPU is only at 30C but the "Northbridge" (what's this?) is over 55C...

Mine hasn't been hot at all either. Yesterday I was doing some video encoding and thought I would check the back after about 20 minutes to see. My first thought was the people on this forum are nuts. The back was slightly warm to the touch but no where near what the people on here would have you believe with comments that you can cook an egg or something. So I dont know if I have a special iMac or if I do not know what heat is. I also have not experienced 1 single problem with my base 27" as of now. No screen flickers, no slowdowns, no yellowing of the screen, no graphics or other problems and certainly no heat issues. I guess I picked the right box in the store last week.

Jason

 

[DoFoT9]

Does anyone have any idea what sort of temperature range things should be between on the base 27" model?

After reports of the top of the screen being really hot I was a bit worried but mine's been very cool so . My CPU is only at 30C but the "Northbridge" (what's this?) is over 55C...

those are some truely great temperatures you have there

apple has really thought about the design of these new imacs and its really showing! 30°C for the CPU is really amazing! 55°C for the northbridge is really good too. the nortibridge is basically the memory controller and (if you have the 9400M, which you dont do you?) has the video controller built into it.

 

[Dylotic]

Have my iMac 21.5 CD3.33Ghz ATI4670 4Gb the day of introduction. Very happy with it!

On my iMac 21.5 iStat Pro is reporting:

HDD 54˚C
CPU 42˚C
Ambient 23˚C
GPU 57˚C
GPU HS 55˚C
Mem Ctrl 54˚C
NorthBr 57˚C
Optical 47˚C

I was quite shocked by these high readings especially the hard drive.

 

[DoFoT9]

Have my iMac 21.5 CD3.33Ghz ATI4670 4Gb the day of introduction. Very happy with it!

On my iMac 21.5 iStat Pro is reporting:

HDD 54˚C
CPU 42˚C
Ambient 23˚C
GPU 57˚C
GPU HS 55˚C
Mem Ctrl 54˚C
NorthBr 57˚C
Optical 47˚C

I was quite shocked by these high readings especially the hard drive.

how much CPU usage was this under? pretty decent temps. high but nothing to worry about at all. the CPU is really high clocked dont forget.

 

[LoCarbHotrod]

My Northbridge is running at 73c. My CPU temp is at 40c which is pretty good. Does SMC fan control work with the new models?

 

[nOw2]

I was quite shocked by these high readings especially the hard drive.

They are not high, they all seem well within operating limits.

What speed are the fans running at? That's the important question for me. The machine will ensure that the components are kept at optimal temperatures, but it'll do this by spinning up the fans. What worries me is noise - it's easy to keep a HD at 30 degrees if you blast it with a 5000RPM fan, I'd rather have a silent computer which is safely dissipating 50 degrees.

 

[Thermistor]

Microsoft has blueray...

Also, you can install a blueray drive in the iMac (iFixit.com shows which one and where). Still waiting on OSX support to use it though.

I digress. Posting in the heat of the moment, but it still disappoints me that Apple would purposely not include a Blu_Ray player or even write some bleemin' software to support it.
Not giving the owners the option is what I meant by it being a microsoft move. Not including Blu_Ray was a money/iTunes/business decision. They field this hot-rod of a computer but leave this out.

 

[Broric]

those are some truely great temperatures you have there

apple has really thought about the design of these new imacs and its really showing! 30°C for the CPU is really amazing! 55°C for the northbridge is really good too. the nortibridge is basically the memory controller and (if you have the 9400M, which you dont do you?) has the video controller built into it.

The graphics card is the ATI 4670 if that makes a different but yeah, nothing seems hot to the touch like others have reported.

 

[Yixian]

How do you guys feel about the HD 4670? Seems pretty disappointing, especially for a 21" screen, when the 4830 offers far better performance at the same TDP and 40nm..

Trying to figure out why the 21"s got dumped with that card when there's far better.

 

[Heilage]

Trying to figure out why the 21"s got dumped with that card when there's far better.

Actually, I was explained the Apple graphics situation just this week. Thing is, Apple don't get access to the technology until it's pretty much exhausted in the normal market. This is especially true of stand-alone graphics solutions, like the cards in iMacs and Mac Pros. The details of why is unknown to me, but this is the situation as it was explained to me.

 

[macdk]

Thing is, Apple don't get access to the technology until it's pretty much exhausted in the normal market.

I'm pretty sure that Apple has the very same access to technology in this regard as anyone else - Why should ATI and/or Nvidia say no to Apple?

They choose to put these "older" cards in because the cooling is now less of a problem. When GPU's enter the market the fan takes up most of the footprint - 6 months later you get the passive cooling and perhaps another 6 months you get the same power with half the footprint.

Had Apple chosen to put in the latest and greatest card it would not fit in to a thin display, or you would have seen/heard a very loud iMac.

Also I find it funny how people think that the i5/i7 iMacs can't even run the resolution - for how long has the 30" display been out? And if i'm not mistaken there has been Mac's released that could display to that display with less GPU power.....

 

[bc008]

my new 21.5 has been running sort of slow. When I type sometimes it is running so slow the letter wont even show up on the screen for up to 20-30 seconds after typing (Its doing it now :/) Any ideas?

I uploaded an istat menu picture for CPU usage/Memory

 

[Yixian]

I'm pretty sure that Apple has the very same access to technology in this regard as anyone else - Why should ATI and/or Nvidia say no to Apple?

They choose to put these "older" cards in because the cooling is now less of a problem. When GPU's enter the market the fan takes up most of the footprint - 6 months later you get the passive cooling and perhaps another 6 months you get the same power with half the footprint.

Had Apple chosen to put in the latest and greatest card it would not fit in to a thin display, or you would have seen/heard a very loud iMac.

That's the thing though, there are cards with equal TDP to the 4670 that Apple seemingly chose not to use for no reason other than increasing their already huge margins.

Take the 4830 - far more powerful and up to date than the 4670 with the same power consumption. It fits in the 1" thick HP Envy, it can fit in a MBP, so it can certainly fit in a 21" iMac.

Either Heilage or Apple are happy providing mediocre performance at extortionate prices, there's no other excuse anymore.

 

[mac2x]

Yeah isn't it? The gang at the store treated him really well and made his purchase fun. They sat with them (took their time) showed him how to play music and stream his favorite radio shows. It was so cool to see my friends sitting with these 'youngsters' who were patient and caring. It is so great that my pc using old fart friend wanted to make the change to Mac. I told the guys at the store he came to my house to see mine and he got major Mac envy.

That was a really nice anecdote, thanks for sharing it! It's good to hear that the Apple Store salesgeeks (sorry, couldn't resist! I've usually had good experiences with them at my Apple Store) were happy to help your neighbor.

So the Magic Mouse is works well for arthritic hands? I need to pass that on to an older relative of mine who has trouble with his hands. He's been threatening to replace an old Dell (takes 5 minutes to boot up, another 5 to get any apps open) with a new iMac, and this might be a good time.

 

[DoFoT9]

The graphics card is the ATI 4670 if that makes a different but yeah, nothing seems hot to the touch like others have reported.

good to know! i sure hope this is the same for the quads lol!

my new 21.5 has been running sort of slow. When I type sometimes it is running so slow the letter wont even show up on the screen for up to 20-30 seconds after typing (Its doing it now :/) Any ideas?

I uploaded an istat menu picture for CPU usage/Memory

hmm CPU usage is pretty high there, memory usage is getting to the point where you would start to think about getting more memory. nothing to worry about yet though.

what were you doing in FF? watching youtube or something? pretty high numbers there.

 

[bc008]

good to know! i sure hope this is the same for the quads lol!



hmm CPU usage is pretty high there, memory usage is getting to the point where you would start to think about getting more memory. nothing to worry about yet though.

what were you doing in FF? watching youtube or something? pretty high numbers there.

not that I recall. I think looking at flickr photos. Its to the point that when I scroll down a page it takes 10 seconds for the page to even move. Could it be a bluetooth issue?