My iMac Review

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
Well, I've got my new 20" iMac, with Bluetooth, Airport and 2GB of RAM. I had the old 17" 800Mhz iMac and still have a 1Ghz Powerbook 12".



The extra screen size of this machine will take some getting used to, but the white space at the bottom doesn't bother me at all - in fact, I think it would look weird without it. The screen is the best LCD I've ever experienced while the speed of the machine is phenomenal - I realize that may have something to do with the extra RAM, but I can click 'Next' in iPhoto with photos full screen and it goes right there - with other apps open. Having not had a new Apple desktop for over 2yrs one of the nicest surprises are the improvements in the keyboard and mouse area - I just wish they weren't white, as they'll pick up the dirt - that's not a minor quibble, I think Apple really should look at changing the colour or something. The speakers are also surprsisngly good, certainly superior to the G4 iMac and maybe even the G3.



Further qualms? I bought 'Republic' before getting the new iMac. On loading the game it says it has known issues with the graphics card. I would hope they would release a patch for this. I also had to reinstall Safari, as the transfer of data from my Powerbook made Safari crash every 5 seconds.



Generally I'm delighted. I never liked the look of the old iMac and missed the 'cuddliness' of the original. This doesn't quite go to cuddly, but it DOES have the sophistication of the iPod - it just looks right. Sleek, elegant and a masterpiece of engineering.



Mike

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 10
    bungebunge Posts: 7,329member
    I finally saw it in person and it's definitely better looking than I thought. I was a little disappointed with the speed, but it only had the stock RAM. I'm sure it's fine with 1 gig.
  • Reply 2 of 10
    I saw one today, the screen looked really big. It was pretty poor with only 256ram everything was jumpy, still glad i ordred one tho
  • Reply 3 of 10
    Quote:

    Originally posted by imac600mhz

    I saw one today, the screen looked really big. It was pretty poor with only 256ram everything was jumpy, still glad i ordred one tho



    Yeah, I had a quick play with one that had 256 MB of RAM in it, and it wasn't too impressive. I'm sure if they at least doubled the RAM, potential customers might get a better first impression.



    Still, I saw it at about 2 o'clock in the afternoon and they only got it that morning. m.
  • Reply 4 of 10
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Merovingian

    Yeah, I had a quick play with one that had 256 MB of RAM in it, and it wasn't too impressive. I'm sure if they at least doubled the RAM, potential customers might get a better first impression.



    Still, I saw it at about 2 o'clock in the afternoon and they only got it that morning. m.




    i played with a 1.6combo and luckily they had stuffed an extra 512RAM in for 768 and that machine was zippy. seems like no question its a little ram starved.
  • Reply 5 of 10
    guarthoguartho Posts: 1,208member
    I finally saw one in person yesterday. Our University radio station got s 1.6 miraculously after ordering a G4 tower in August and delays, etc... anyway, our order got upgraded.



    I agree about the John Kerry chin. When you are using the iMac, it just kind of disappears completely. I'm glad that it's largely unbroken in appearance as that's what makes it disappear.



    I'll second that the sound is really great.



    It ran surprisingly well with the stock 256. It only hicupped when I loaded up Nanosaur 2 to evaluate the graphics. I had all the settings on maximum and once it was loaded it ran very smoothly. I didn't have any more intensive software to throw at it, but since I'm only a casual gamer, I'm no longer worried about the bargain-basement FX 5200.
  • Reply 6 of 10
    From personal experience, if you want the most out of your computer, get at least 1 GB RAM. If you are buying an iMac, just take it with stock RAM, and buy 2x identical DDR 400 512 modules yourself, to bring it up to 1 GB.



    The cost? Well, it should be less than $200. And you will thank yourself later.
  • Reply 7 of 10
    guarthoguartho Posts: 1,208member
    Oh yes, I'm a big RAM believer too. I just meant that I was surprised that it did so well with only 256. Perhaps it's the greater headroom for the bus and the faster hard drive.
  • Reply 8 of 10
    I think the reason only ships with 256 MB is that the margins on the iMac's are very low, and they literally cannot afford to bump that up to 512 or more, because even losing 30 bucks per iMac is a lot of money when your margins are not that much bigger.



    And of course 256 MB is probably more than adequate for email, web and light iLife use, so most customers will not notice the difference. On the other hand, power users will upgrade the RAM anyway (you gotta admit, 1 GB is the minimum hah)!
  • Reply 9 of 10
    I had the chance to try the 17" iMac G5 at the new Apple Store opening in Kansas City. I tried both the 1.6 and 1.8 models, and IIRC they both had 512 RAM installed. Both seemed to be more than acceptable for my needs, apps opened after the first bounce and even after opening several apps, I didn't notice the spinning beach ball.



    Of course, I currently have an 12" iBook G3 700 with 640 RAM, so I am making my judgment based on that. It's much faster, has a much better video card, a larger screen and can burn CD's (or DVD's).



    Overall, I was impressed with it, and plan on ordering one just after the first of next year (saving to pay cash instead of charging it). I will most likely order the 1.8\\SD\\AE\\BT K&M\\80HDD\\1GB RAM. The 1GB RAM upgrade from Apple is $202.00 on the education site, and that really isn't much more than anywhere else. Also, that will cover the RAM under AppleCare.



    The only other "toy" I would like to add is a 40G iPod, but I will have to see how generous Santa is this Christmas! :-)
  • Reply 10 of 10
    I picked up my 20" iMac last Friday. So far I'm totally digging my new computer. I even have pics if anyone's interested at --> http://dtibs.home.comcast.net/iMacG5



    I'm still at the stock 256MB RAM and performance definitely takes a hit due to this. I've got 2GB on order through newegg.com ($330 for 2GB? Sure!) so that will alleviate the RAM issues. Other than that this machine flies.
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