The New iMac Ownership Thread

[Peewee-k9]

I'm wondering the same thing too, but I haven't heard one complaint yet from the new iMac crowd. Is the wireless keyboard/mouse working perfectly?

Bryan

The wireless mouse is working perfectly. It took just a few minutes to trust it and get used to the feel. Just like scrolling on an iPhone or other touch screen device. No issues to report. I have mine programmed for right click and for dashboard and a few other things. All working great. Much more comfortable than using the track ball. I will say that at first I didn't want to rest my hand on the surface for fear that it detect movement, but that tendency goes away after a little time. It is a very sleek design as well.

By the way, my 88 year old neighbor came to see my new Mac and he fell in love with it. I drove him to the store and he bought one yesterday. One of the reasons he liked it was because he has arthritis and can now work the mouse with ease. So, this is a big bonus for him and his wife (both in their 80's and going strong!).

 

[Peewee-k9]

Very nice. One thing spoils the picture though - that butt-ugly stack of plastic drawers under one of the desks. It is an offense against good taste everywhere. TAKE IT OUT, or I'll send the FASHION AND DESIGN POLICE over to your place to decontaminate it and safely remove the atrocity.

Yeah...no kidding, Old Corpse. I agree...I bought a new desk for my Mac. I couldn't think of putting it on the rectangular faux leather card table purchased from Target three years ago. (Come to think of it that was a cool table...2 of them for $40.00 placed in a corner resembling a 'corner unit'). It was good enough for my PC, but hey, not for the new Mac!

 

[fr4c]

Very nice. One thing spoils the picture though - that butt-ugly stack of plastic drawers under one of the desks. It is an offense against good taste everywhere. TAKE IT OUT, or I'll send the FASHION AND DESIGN POLICE over to your place to decontaminate it and safely remove the atrocity.

Ouch

I'm getting ready to move (again) this weekend, so everything is in disarray. I promise not to offend the F/D Police and repost once everything is setup.

 

[Captain Spekkie]

Hi Guys and girls,

First off all i want to say to all the people who have new iMac's, Congratulations!

I must say i'm very very pleased, because 2 days ago i received my 27 inch iMac here in the Netherlands. I got it at a premium reseller. But did not bring it home myself (had to work).

Don't have a picture to share as of yet, but fill make one in the morning. Its one in the morning here.

Have to say, i'm loving the 27 inch beauty. I've always been in love with the 30 inch cinema display but wanted it in an all in one format. And here it is maybe not 30" but close enough.


Greatings from a long time reader first time poster,

Patrick

 

[OldCorpse]

Hi Guys and girls,

First off all i want to say to all the people who have new iMac's, Congratulations!

I must say i'm very very pleased, because 2 days ago i received my 27 inch iMac here in the Netherlands. I got it at a premium reseller. But did not bring it home myself (had to work).

Don't have a picture to share as of yet, but fill make one in the morning. Its one in the morning here.

Have to say, i'm loving the 27 inch beauty. I've always been in love with the 30 inch cinema display but wanted it in an all in one format. And here it is maybe not 30" but close enough.


Greatings from a long time reader first time poster,

Patrick

Welcome to the macrumors Apple community, Patrick! Enjoy your new beauty. Like in any marriage, the girl is the love of your life in the beginning, but it soon fades, and your eye catches a new beauty after a couple of years. OK, enough joking. On to more serious issues - as you are aware, anyone who signs up here, must in due time post a picture of his/her new Apple gear all set up. So a word of warning: Please, please, please make sure that the room you choose to display your new iMac is up to the standards! That includes the desk, the carpet, the lamps and so on - if you fail in that, you are in danger of being arrested by the F&D Police (Fashion & Design Police).

 

[glhiii]

4 Ram slots!

The most important thing, I think, about the new 27" iMac is that it has four slots for RAM sims. The stock computer comes with 2 sims, 2 gigs each, so if you buy 2 more -- and they're pretty cheap -- you can get 8 gigs of RAM. This should make an enormous difference for people who run memory-intensive programs or use many programs at once. Fusion and Parallels should especially benefit.

 

[DoFoT9]

Hi Guys and girls,

First off all i want to say to all the people who have new iMac's, Congratulations!

I must say i'm very very pleased, because 2 days ago i received my 27 inch iMac here in the Netherlands. I got it at a premium reseller. But did not bring it home myself (had to work).

Don't have a picture to share as of yet, but fill make one in the morning. Its one in the morning here.

Have to say, i'm loving the 27 inch beauty. I've always been in love with the 30 inch cinema display but wanted it in an all in one format. And here it is maybe not 30" but close enough.


Greatings from a long time reader first time poster,

Patrick

welcome! great to hear that you are loving the mac! what are you going to do with it? just general stuff or do you use it for work?

Welcome to the macrumors Apple community, Patrick! Enjoy your new beauty. Like in any marriage, the girl is the love of your life in the beginning, but it soon fades, and your eye catches a new beauty after a couple of years. OK, enough joking. On to more serious issues - as you are aware, anyone who signs up here, must in due time post a picture of his/her new Apple gear all set up. So a word of warning: Please, please, please make sure that the room you choose to display your new iMac is up to the standards! That includes the desk, the carpet, the lamps and so on - if you fail in that, you are in danger of being arrested by the F&D Police (Fashion & Design Police).

hahaha and dont i know it! i get slammed for my terrible study desk. i have an excuse, im studying to become a network administrator! hehehe

 

[OldCorpse]

In your sig, it says you have a hacky, DoFoT9. I came this close to building one, because I'll have a pretty heavy use of FCS and LS early next year, and I simply could not find the hardware in Apple's product lineup. The MP is way, way overpriced and more power than I need. The iMacs and Minis were too feeble. I needed a mid-tower with quad chips, which were easy to build in the PC world for less than $1K. I gave myself a deadline - if Apple doesn't deliver something for a reasonable price with reasonable power, I'm going hackintosh. And then the quad iMacs were announced. Here I come! I'm still debating i5 vs i7 - since I can't buy the i7 from Amazon, it means it's not just $200 more, but with tax it's more like $500. That may be too much, and I may stick to i5, if the difference is not too big. Oh well, it would've been fun to build a hacky!

 

[dwd3885]

I wish there was a wireless keyboard with full keypad... I am still uncertain wich keyboard I'm gonna order... I prefer wireless, but at the same time, I hate small keyboards... So what to do??? Lol.

I was going to go for the wired, but wanted the computer sooner and never had wireless before. I ordered the 21.5 1tb model with wireless keyboard. It's very nice and saves me a usb port on the back (sure the wired one would've added a usb port on the FRONT, but whatever

 

[jddar]

Yeah...no kidding, Old Corpse. I agree...I bought a new desk for my Mac. I couldn't think of putting it on the rectangular faux leather card table purchased from Target three years ago.....It was good enough for my PC, but hey, not for the new Mac!

LOL, I've been thinking the same thing. After spending too much on the i5, I'll have to limit my desk shopping to flea markets, consignment/secondhand furniture stores, and the like.

November seems so far away

 

[IJBrekke]

November seems so far away

Just ordered my brand new 27" C2D iMac today! I had a thought regarding the November release date though: on my order status, the estimated ship date for the Apple Remote is November 24th. Would this somehow coincide with the quad core release date? It's the only specific date I've seen involving November. They could be completely different, I just thought it was an interesting tidbit.

 

[DoFoT9]

In your sig, it says you have a hacky, DoFoT9.

yup, i have one. its currently my main computer now, until i get the imac. then i dont know what i will do with it!

I came this close to building one, because I'll have a pretty heavy use of FCS and LS early next year, and I simply could not find the hardware in Apple's product lineup.

damn! thats pretty close! a hack would have done a great job at running FCS!

The MP is way, way overpriced and more power than I need. The iMacs and Minis were too feeble.

compared to other computers in its class its a pretty good deal, but for a consumer its a big rip.

I needed a mid-tower with quad chips, which were easy to build in the PC world for less than $1K.

yea the core2duo quads are pretty reasonable these days, the i7 machines are probably around $1500 but i daresay.

I gave myself a deadline - if Apple doesn't deliver something for a reasonable price with reasonable power, I'm going hackintosh. And then the quad iMacs were announced. Here I come!

great! the imac will be awsome, but building a hack is a really good experience.

I'm still debating i5 vs i7 - since I can't buy the i7 from Amazon, it means it's not just $200 more, but with tax it's more like $500. That may be too much, and I may stick to i5, if the difference is not too big. Oh well, it would've been fun to build a hacky!

how odd. upgrading to the i7 is about $300 Aus here, tax is already included in Australia (called GST).

the differences will not be that much, i had a look at benchmarks - somewhere around the 10%-15% mark. the i7 will most certainly run multiple applications better, you would probably benefit a great deal if you do heavy video editing. but like you said, its a lot of money to fork out, especially if it will only do the job 10% faster. that might be a minute or so, im sure its not that long to wait haha.

off to work now, will check MR in my break! eheh

 

[musukosan]

Just ordered my brand new 27" C2D iMac today! I had a thought regarding the November release date though: on my order status, the estimated ship date for the Apple Remote is November 24th. Would this somehow coincide with the quad core release date? It's the only specific date I've seen involving November. They could be completely different, I just thought it was an interesting tidbit.

I was thinking that too, but when you order there is something that says your stuff will ship as it is available. So I don't think the remote would hold up the computer.

 

[OldCorpse]

how odd. upgrading to the i7 is about $300 Aus here, tax is already included in Australia (called GST).

the differences will not be that much, i had a look at benchmarks - somewhere around the 10%-15% mark. the i7 will most certainly run multiple applications better, you would probably benefit a great deal if you do heavy video editing. but like you said, its a lot of money to fork out, especially if it will only do the job 10% faster. that might be a minute or so, im sure its not that long to wait haha.

off to work now, will check MR in my break! eheh

That's because if I buy through Amazon, I pay NO tax. If I buy through Apple, I pay tax on the whole thing. Meanwhile, Amazon only sells stock, no BTO - which means only i5, and not i7. That's $1994 ($5 discount!) total cost for the i5. From Apple for the i7 it would be $1999 + $200 + ~$220 TAX = ~$2420, or almost $500 more for the i7 than the i5.

And there are other reasons I'm hesitant about the i7 - the more I read, the less enthused I am. It seems the overall performance difference is small vs the i5. The big difference is the Hyper Threading. Only the HT seems very controversial. Apparently a lot of software actually runs slower on the i7 than the i5 because it's poorly designed for HT. And there are many problems with HT for a lot of audio software - forums are rife with it. Intel has been making a big deal about HT, but mostly it seems marketing. In real life, HT is apparently a mixed bag - it does work for some applications, but it is a drag for others... ultimately, HT of 4 cores is not like having 8 real cores... there is a definite difference between logical and physical cores. Ultimately HT is a half-baked idea. So I'm torn.

My idea is to wait for the quads to come out. Then, wait for websites to do some real tests with these and nail down what concretely is the difference between the i5 and i7 in the real world of FCS and LS. If there seems an actual difference, then maybe I'll think about shelling out $500 extra for the i7. Plus, I think it's wise to wait for feedback on rev A hardware. I figure sometime January is when I'll actually buy it... either Amazon i5 or Apple i7. Can't wait.

 

[_bnkr612]

heres mine joining ranks with the rest of the family

Seems a bit excessive, don't you think?

JP

 

[Peewee-k9]

Seems a bit excessive, don't you think?

JP

Nah Just flexin' his MACscles, dude.

 

[Nate.Newton]

Seems a bit excessive, don't you think?

JP

Yeah, no fair.

-N

 

[C64]

By the way, my 88 year old neighbor came to see my new Mac and he fell in love with it. I drove him to the store and he bought one yesterday. One of the reasons he liked it was because he has arthritis and can now work the mouse with ease. So, this is a big bonus for him and his wife (both in their 80's and going strong!).

Haha, that is so awesome

 

[Peewee-k9]

Haha, that is so awesome

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.

 

[Slovig]

I'm so happy. I got the 27" base model. I'm loving it so far. Can't wait to hook my 360 up to it. Here's some pics.







Only one thing is bugging me. It's not on the outside, but it doesn't look like dead pixels.



So far after using it one day, I am completely in love. I wish I could take it with me instead of my MacBook. The sheer size of the screen is amazing. As you can see in my last picture, there is plenty of room to have multiple screens showing at once. The colors are also very crisp and clear, and the brightness is amazing, even at half settings. I found the speaker quality very well for being built in, and also, very loud . I love the new Magic Mouse, I'm a sucker for touch sensitive things, so this fits right in with my cell phone and with the macbook's trackpad. I also love the Bluetooth keyboard, as it lets me sit back and watch a movie while chatting in aim, and its very small and lightweight. Something I could carry with me if I ever needed to. Aside from that, it's a Mac, so everything you expect, you get. I was originally considering getting one of the last generation 24" models, but when the Apple dude showed me the prices, for $50 more, I got this.

 

[stever500]

OMG - I got my 27" base model today. WOWEE Batman. I am blown away by this new keyboard compared to my old Logitech keyboard. I'm amazed at the real estate, the mouse is new for me so I'll have to get used to it, and having two full screens on my iMac is such a unique, new experience. I'm in heaven. The speed of this thing is totally incredible compared to my 7 year old Dell that is now a ... boat anchor. Thanks to everyone that posted on here. It assured me I was doing the right thing. I'll probably post pics soon in a separate thread. Did I sound excited? I sure am. And, the guy gave me Apple Care and the iMac for the educational discount even though I told him I wasn't in an actual real college but a "university" associated with my job. He was SOOOO cool and saved me $100 on the machine and $50 on the Apple Care. I didn't have to show any ID. That's cool.

 

[designgeek]

heres mine joining ranks with the rest of the family

So just curious, what do you use all those for?

 

[theapplefreak]

What's the big difference between the i5 and the i7?

 

[AppleThis&That]

heres mine joining ranks with the rest of the family

Impressive. Why would you have so many macs though? Please tell me that's the family office.

 

[DoFoT9]

back from work

That's because if I buy through Amazon, I pay NO tax. If I buy through Apple, I pay tax on the whole thing. Meanwhile, Amazon only sells stock, no BTO - which means only i5, and not i7. That's $1994 ($5 discount!) total cost for the i5. From Apple for the i7 it would be $1999 + $200 + ~$220 TAX = ~$2420, or almost $500 more for the i7 than the i5.

thats impressive. i had no idea that they didnt charge tax. it wouldnt be worth me purchasing from them though because shipping costs would nullify the savings!

And there are other reasons I'm hesitant about the i7 - the more I read, the less enthused I am. It seems the overall performance difference is small vs the i5. The big difference is the Hyper Threading. Only the HT seems very controversial. Apparently a lot of software actually runs slower on the i7 than the i5 because it's poorly designed for HT. And there are many problems with HT for a lot of audio software - forums are rife with it. Intel has been making a big deal about HT, but mostly it seems marketing. In real life, HT is apparently a mixed bag - it does work for some applications, but it is a drag for others... ultimately, HT of 4 cores is not like having 8 real cores... there is a definite difference between logical and physical cores. Ultimately HT is a half-baked idea. So I'm torn.

i dont think that its poorly designed, it's just doing its job. of course having 8 threads is going to use more computation time then 4 real ones, all of the processes have to be told where to go, using up extra computation time. its better for multitasking applications but no so much in benchmarks.

the results you are looking at would focus on raw numbers (e.g. how many minutes it takes to zip a folder or something), the things you should be after are how long it takes to zip a folder, export an HD movie, process a few hundred images in PS, and burn a BD DVD all at the same time. i think the benefits would be seen more there. (you would have to assume the bottleneck of mechanical hard drives doesnt exist )

My idea is to wait for the quads to come out. Then, wait for websites to do some real tests with these and nail down what concretely is the difference between the i5 and i7 in the real world of FCS and LS. If there seems an actual difference, then maybe I'll think about shelling out $500 extra for the i7. Plus, I think it's wise to wait for feedback on rev A hardware. I figure sometime January is when I'll actually buy it... either Amazon i5 or Apple i7. Can't wait.

that seems like a good idea. i am this <-> close from ordering the i7, but im somewhat hesitant. what if it gets hot? what if it doesnt run properly? etc. of course, ill have apple care... gotta make a decision!