Review: New IMac Tempts a Windows User

Excite News ^ | Aug 15, 4:16 PM (ET) | By PETER SVENSSON

[antiRepublicrat]

There might be some confusion here. I did the test on an iMac, so it should work for you. IOW, it should be safe for you to never have to actually shut down your Mac mini.

I don’t know how good Vista’s power management is.

[antiRepublicrat]

And a memory upgrade before taking it home is probably a good idea, no?

No. With the exception of the mini, always buy your Mac with the minimum amount of memory and buy your own. For the iMac Apple charges $150 to go from 1GB to 2GB. I got an extra 2GB stick for $110, giving me 3GB for $40 less than Apple would have given me 2GB. They charge $850 to upgrade to 4GB (2x2GB), but I could toss the 1GB that comes with it in the trash and go to 4GB for about a quarter the price.

Same for the MacBook, which comes with 2x512MB, upgrade to 2x1GB for $150. I can buy 2x1GB for $80 and throw away the 512MB sticks.

MacBook Pro comes with 2x1GB, $700 more to get 2x2GB. Throwing away theirs would cost me $240 for 4GB.

And the numbers to load up a Mac Pro are insane: $4,500 from Apple for 16 GB, my cost, $1,088 even making sure to buy memory with the heat spreader.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks. What I really meant was, it’s a good idea to upgrade the memory rather than to take the standard memory, which Apple IMHO tends to skimp on (at least, everything built since the Apple //c). :’)

[antiRepublicrat]

What I really meant was, it’s a good idea to upgrade the memory rather than to take the standard memory, which Apple IMHO tends to skimp on

The iMac ran pretty well with a medium load of software (iTunes/Photo, browser, some Finder windows, etc.) with just 1GB RAM. I guess it's all in personal perception of speed. But with 3GB it barely pauses for anything, no matter how much I run (although I haven't run multiple VMs yet -- that'll slow down any system).

[SunkenCiv]

I’ve used this rev B iMac since 1999, and wish I’d paid for more RAM (this one has 96 MB, and uses 97 MB for virtual memory). Ah well.

[CheneyChick]

1999? Wow, that is a long time in “tech time”. I’d say you got your money’s worth on that hardware.

[SunkenCiv]

I’ve upgraded the even older PM 7600 to 1 Ghz G4, and have been a little lazy in going back to using that. The hard drive in the iMac has been iffy for a while, and it also needs a RAM upgrade. I may do that as a project sometime.

[Swordmaker]

Gee, Sunk, turn that baby upside down and pull the 64 and 32 meg sticks and stick in a couple of 512s... shouldn’t cost much more than $80. No wonder you didn’t like OSX...

[SunkenCiv]

I don’t have OS X on the iMac, and the reason I don’t like OS X is the interface (not to mention that problem I had emptying the trash a year and a half ago); also, as you may have forgotten, the rev B iMac requires pulling out tools and an instruction manual to change drive and/or RAM. The later revisions have the cute little doors.

[MovieMogul]

I purchased a HP XP Box last summer/fall. I enjoy it, but I should have waited a year and purchased the new iMac.

However, I did purchase a MacBook last fall, and love it to death. My first Mac! I use it mainly for writing and surfing, but I loved the way it just worked right out of the box.

Because of that purchase, my future PC purchases will probably be all Mac-based.

I always loved Apple as a company, but could never afford their products. Now I'm in a position where I can get the "good" stuff.