The New iMac Ownership Thread

[C64]

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!

Same hesitations here. Also, I don't want to order now knowing I still have to wait a month or so, and risk reading in the mean time about how I should have gone for whatever I didn't get. A few benchmarks of the i5 vs i7 are going to take a lot of doubt away, so I'll just wait for that.

 

[DoFoT9]

Same hesitations here. Also, I don't want to order now knowing I still have to wait a month or so, and risk reading in the mean time about how I should have gone for whatever I didn't get. A few benchmarks of the i5 vs i7 are going to take a lot of doubt away, so I'll just wait for that.

agree with you 100% here. i have been thinking of ordering it within the week. but you have swayed me, i think that i will wait until they come out.

 

[Shaun.P]

Can everyone who owns a new iMac please have a look at this thread for a minute.

Thanks.

 

[C64]

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's still the thing I like most about Macs, they're easy to use for everyone, no matter their age or experience level. Just letting folks work with OS X a bit is the best way to show them how easy and intuitive working with a computer can really be. It'll still take some time to get used to it, but the learning curve is really low.

I think these new Macs are definitely going to be a huge hit. I'm still wowed every time I see the elegance of a 20" and especially a 24" iMac at someone's desk. Getting people excited about Macs showing off a 27" is just going to be too easy. With these looks, specs and prices Apple's going to have itself a very merry Christmas.

 

[nOw2]

Same hesitations here. Also, I don't want to order now knowing I still have to wait a month or so, and risk reading in the mean time about how I should have gone for whatever I didn't get. A few benchmarks of the i5 vs i7 are going to take a lot of doubt away, so I'll just wait for that.

There is a review of the i7 including comparisons to the i5 and 3.33Ghz Core 2 Duo here:
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3641

The chips used in the iMac are likely the i7 860, i5 750 and C2D E8600.

The C2D is nearly as fast as the quad cores for a great many tasks. For some tasks than can be parallelised with difficulty, the i5 and i7 are very similar but ahead of the C2D. However for trivially parallel tasks (pages 5 and 6) the i7 is a reasonable margin quicker.

Where or not its worth the money very much depends on the applications you intend to use.

 

[C64]

There is a review of the i7 including comparisons to the i5 and 3.33Ghz Core 2 Duo here:
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3641

The chips used in the iMac are likely the i7 860, i5 750 and C2D E8600.

The C2D is nearly as fast as the quad cores for a great many tasks. For some tasks than can be parallelised with difficulty, the i5 and i7 are very similar but ahead of the C2D. However for trivially parallel tasks (pages 5 and 6) the i7 is a reasonable margin quicker.

Where or not its worth the money very much depends on the applications you intend to use.

Yeah, the i5 and i7 aren't that far apart in most reviews. I'm leaning towards to i7 at this point though. From what I read so far about the technology within this chip, I like the idea that it's a bit more future-proof (as much as that is possible I guess). I can part with some more money from the get-go since I intend to use this machine for many years to come. I'll probably won't notice the difference at all now, but times change.

Still, a review would be nice that also covers the heating and noise production in the iMac casing. The C2Ds that folks have now seem to be really silent; let's hope the same is true for the QCs. And I'm a puss when it comes to early adopting; I always need some people telling me it's OK first .

 

[DoFoT9]

There is a review of the i7 including comparisons to the i5 and 3.33Ghz Core 2 Duo here:
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3641

The chips used in the iMac are likely the i7 860, i5 750 and C2D E8600.

The C2D is nearly as fast as the quad cores for a great many tasks. For some tasks than can be parallelised with difficulty, the i5 and i7 are very similar but ahead of the C2D. However for trivially parallel tasks (pages 5 and 6) the i7 is a reasonable margin quicker.

Where or not its worth the money very much depends on the applications you intend to use.

thanks for the link. very handy.

you nearly had me thinking of getting the E8600 or the i5 there for a minute! i gave it a second thought. but then i read the review and my mind has been made, i7 for me.

my reasoning:
1. the i7 out-performs the i5 in pretty much every test (if only by a little). the results of HT can really be seen with video rendering, where the FPS are a good 5FPS higher. in CineBench the reviews are interesting, running at 3.46GHz the i7 really shines! one interesting thing to note is that the open-source POV tester shows big differences, i7 860 gets 3517 whist the i5 750 gets 2710. thats the biggest difference in the whole article!

also important to note is the data recovery the i5 860 is practically on par with the 870, beating the 975!

2. i checked out the pricings again.
E8600 + 4850 + everything else stock: Aus$2529
core i5 stock: Aus$2479
core i7 stock: Aus$2740

two important things here: go the i5 quad core because its cheaper then the E8600! or go the i7 quad core becaue its only Aus$200 more then the dual core! you would be stupid not to get the top model machine, its hardly an investment.

so yea, i will get the top model. the benchmarks are not that much of an improvement, but i can justify it. the machine will last me 5 years at least i hope.

 

[Smacky]

5 years?
What about lightpeak, usb 3.0 or even blu ray?
An i7 will be just as outdated as an i5 in 5 years dude

 

[DoFoT9]

5 years?
What about lightpeak, usb 3.0 or even blu ray?
An i7 will be just as outdated as an i5 in 5 years dude

it will last ME 5 years, not the technology itself.

lightpeak will be a flop unless its implemented into USB3.0, Blu-Ray i have no worry abouts, because i can simply purchase an external drive and then use a mac program to "rip" them into an uncompressed mkv (i am a digital man not a hardcopy man).

as for USB3.0, i hate USB. bring on the FW3200! im sure i can wait a few extra minutes for the files to transfer (i normally use gigabit ethernet anyway)

the i7 will have the HT advantage over the i5. the technology will advance more as it goes along (software wise that is).

 

[G-Force]

They have been saying that about Hyper-Threading since the Pentium 4. But yes, HT is an advantage, if you use it of course.

 

[ViViDboarder]

They have been saying that about Hyper-Threading since the Pentium 4. But yes, HT is an advantage, if you use it of course.

Very true. I took a course back in school on Parallel Programming and I wanted to get an i7 just so I could play with the multiple cores and HyperThreading. But even now, after multi-core processors are mainstream, you don't see very many programs taking full advantage of it.

 

[DoFoT9]

Very true. I took a course back in school on Parallel Programming and I wanted to get an i7 just so I could play with the multiple cores and HyperThreading. But even now, after multi-core processors are mainstream, you don't see very many programs taking full advantage of it.

what programs in your opinion see the greatest performance gains from correct HT and multicoring?

are you aware of the performance losses of HT?

 

[uuaschbaer]

Very true. I took a course back in school on Parallel Programming and I wanted to get an i7 just so I could play with the multiple cores and HyperThreading. But even now, after multi-core processors are mainstream, you don't see very many programs taking full advantage of it.

Snow Leopard has only been out for a month or so, besides multi-core is the only way forward. In fact, GCD and the like are more than a little significant when it comes to moving forward.

 

[kelf]

Help!!

ok..i got the mac 2 days ago, 21.5 inch, and it goes kinda slow and laggy after 3 hrs of purely adium and safari and some HD youtube. I reinstalled Snow Leopard without erasing the whole thing, please help me, i dun want a slow mac! tht wud suck!!!

 

[ManuelGnR]

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.

Ha! Totally seem problem!

To me, the really small keyboard isn't ''cool'', to my eye, it looks to small, especially on a 16:9 27'' screen I guess.. Plus I like the numpad and a bit bigger arrow keys..

Dillema.

 

[ViViDboarder]

Snow Leopard has only been out for a month or so, besides multi-core is the only way forward. In fact, GCD and the like are more than a little significant when it comes to moving forward.

You know Snow Leopard isn't required for multi core processing?

 

[Slovig]

I have come across one problem, which I'm hoping someone can help with. My power plug likes to not stay in. I've already had it pop out twice from just normal movements of the keyboard tray on my desk. Is there a way I can secure it in? Luckily the two times it happened I was only listening to music, but I don't want it to happen while I'm working on a project or something.

Thanks,
Jesse

 

[nOw2]

are you aware of the performance losses of HT?

Applies only to the Pentium 4 implementation.

 

[uuaschbaer]

You know Snow Leopard isn't required for multi core processing?

I do, but SL is heaven for the development of programs that use multiple cores. Which is why I expect to see apps take advantage of these cores more efficiently soon(ish).

 

[Fozzybadfeet]

ok..i got the mac 2 days ago, 21.5 inch, and it goes kinda slow and laggy after 3 hrs of purely adium and safari and some HD youtube. I reinstalled Snow Leopard without erasing the whole thing, please help me, i dun want a slow mac! tht wud suck!!!

Do a clean install and it should work fine. Some people had problems of slow start up times and after a clean install, everything was running smooth.

 

[sfroom]

I read on maybe another thread where it was mentioned the iMac 27 seemed to be running hot to the touch. Someone posted that were at the Apple Store and they found them hot. So, of course I felt mine and indeed it does seem hot. But, compared to what? I'm new to Mac and this forum (love this place) and can anyone offer their expertise? Not really worried, just want your feedback on this issue.

The iMac will feel hot, perhaps even hotter than the previous generation, due to the fact that the case, including the back (in contrast to the prev. gen), is made from aluminum, which is an excellent conductor.

It feels hot because it's conducting heat away from the computer better than plastic would. Anyone who's owned a macbook pro knows all about this. The penryn's are much cooler than the previous merom's, but right above the F key's, my macbook pro is almost scoldingly hot when under load.

 

[Peewee-k9]

Mouse

I wanted to post what I found using the new mouse. I purchased a very thin mousepad (office depot) and have found that using this mousepad is necessary for a couple of reasons. First, when moving the mouse around without a mousepad, it makes a scratching noise, not to mention I didn't want my desk surface to eventually have small scratches in it (although this may have not happened).

Second, it is a very smooth 'ride' as I move the mouse around to navigate on page, etc.

The Apple Store employee mentioned it as I was leaving with my new iMac and I am glad he did. It just makes for a cleaner feel when using the mouse.

 

[Peewee-k9]

The iMac will feel hot, perhaps even hotter than the previous generation, due to the fact that the case, including the back (in contrast to the prev. gen), is made from aluminum, which is an excellent conductor.

It feels hot because it's conducting heat away from the computer better than plastic would. Anyone who's owned a macbook pro knows all about this. The penryn's are much cooler than the previous merom's, but right above the F key's, my macbook pro is almost scoldingly hot when under load.

Thanks for easing my concern about this issue. To another point...I have been 'sleeping' my iMac during the day and at night. What is your opinion regarding when/how often to actually turn off the machine. I read in other threads most people seem not to turn off their iMacs...ever. Some said they turned them off once a week and used 'sleep' instead. What is your opinion? Thanks in advance.

 

[Captain Spekkie]

Hi all,

I will be making good on my promise and so am posting a picture of my setup as it is right now.

Note: The 20 inch iMac on the right is going to my mother as her first macintosh. Picture was taken while transferring al my data. First time i ever used the migration assistant at first setup.

Normally i always manually backup everything and transfer it through an external disk.

Still in love with the beauty, but have noticed a few more screen flickers. Not the kind from the dim backlighting but the lines across the screen.
These line go away with a reboot but hope it is a software issue. That will be fixed soon. Did see a few posts on the Apple forums as well.

Also note i'm still switching mouses, trying to use the magic mouse for normal stuff but using the Logitech for games because of the ergonomics.


Oh yeah, u guys asked what i use my iMac for.

Well, usually home stuff, internet, music, photo's and movies.
But am developing a real interest in photography and am going to edit full HD home movies. Thats why i bought the C2D version instead of the i5 or i7.

Further more i'm still developing some software for the windows side of the planet and willing to give a try at mac programming.

Loving every minute of this screen size.

Patrick

 

[Captain Spekkie]

@ Peewee-k9,

I think i'm one of the few persons powering down my apple gear at night or when i'm away from home. I don't like to be surprised when a thunderstorm hits my house when i'm away.

And the temp is normal, as stated before i also began my apple eventure with a MacBook Pro and those thing got hot! The imac feels a little form on the top where the power supply lives. But other then that nothing special.

Although i have to say with the new LED backlighting the screen is a lot cooler then wit regular CFTL's.

PS: When i give the 20" iMac away, the mStand will be at that location with my 13 inch MacBook Pro.