Kodawarisan posted some photos of the mobo a couple of weeks ago now. If you know your stuff, you can pick out the BGA SDRAM parts that are on the opposite side of the DIMM slot.
alright, i did see those but couldn't make that out and wasn't clear from it.
very unfortunate. guess i'll live with 1.5GB of RAM
For what it's worth. My amazon order is now shipping today for delivery Monday.
Apparently Amazon decided to bump everyone who paid for shipping to the front of the line, despite when they ordered and put all the free shipping orders off until December. I discovered this yesterday when someone at macrumors who ordered a week after me chose overnight shipping and had his ship 2 months before my estimate. I called Amazon and bitched them out and they told me preference is given to people who pay the most for shipping and who order their amazon credit card. Needless to say I was shocked and demanded them address this issue and they bumped up my order for immediate shipment and free 2 day air.
Macworld's report on the new iMac pointed out that it isn't anywhere near as easily upgradeable as the older G5 iMacs. Anyone care to take a look inside and post some pics/ comments?
If that's the case I wonder what happened to Apple's strategy of making it really easy for the customer to fix pretty much everything (and after a HD failure and PS replacement on a 1st gen G5 17" I know how good that system is((was)).
installed an extra 1GB of RAM, used the migration assistant, dowloaded the 10.4.3 update, installed additional software and its running like a dream!
The only minor issue I had was that when i came to burn an audio disc from itunes, when it sucked in the blank cd-r i got the 'checking media' message which just hung without doing a thing. All i did was repair permissions in disk utility, restart and it worked fine!
My first impressions are that it feels alot nippier than my rev a imac G5 and the display is just amazing! Its so much brighter and sharper, it was the first thing the mrs noticed once it was up and running. (she failed to notice th built in isight camera!) And yes the fan is quieter than my previous imac, not silent but quieter. Photo Booth and Front Row are on my list of to-do's tomorrow.
Stop hanging onto your cash folks and just buy one!
got my new 20" 2.1 Ghz model right here in front of me. Next to it is a rev A 20: iMac with 2 Gigs memory. the rev C currently has 512 Mb of memory but is soon to get the 2gig board put in. I'm jsut waiting to make sure all is OK first. Some impressions as i compare to the rev A.
1. Much quieter. the rev a didn't bother me with noise (i'm a little deaf) but during the migration the rev a sounded loud and i could not hear the new one at all. still can't
2. the screen is much brighter and has better color saturation. Also pictures and video seem clearer. Especially dvd's
3. seems alot teh snappier. (revA is running on 10.3.9)
4. External jack location: thought i would dislike the new set up but so far it works just fine (i was worried about headphone jack placement).
5. new iMac has corded keyboard vs. wireless on rev A. the stinking cord is too short to make it from the keyboard tray to the back of the computer desk and up to the computer. it's about 30". this is a standard size computer desk with a slide out tray for the keyboard. Seems like a little thing but i'm typing on top of the desk now and it's too high. wud they save maybe $0.05 worth of wire? first impressions etc...
6. mighty mouse would be better if it was twice as heavy. light weight makes it difficult to move your finger on the track ball without moving the whole mouse. i'm used to the weight of the wireless mouse. it just feels better.
7 sound: very impressive. don't know what they did but the new model has much better frequency response and better stereo seperation.
8 front row: like it alot once i got through the not working part. when i first tried to use it it would not work. needed to update itunes, still wouldn't work, needed to authorize the computer etc.. didn't give me a reason why, just had to figure it out.
9. the menu screen for photos in front row has a really cool mirror effect on the preview slides. Love the looks of front row.
Havn't made any movies or burned dvd's yet.
sorry for not having any benchmarks or other technical stuff. I'm just a user.
got my new 20" 2.1 Ghz model right here in front of me. Next to it is a rev A 20: iMac with 2 Gigs memory. the rev C currently has 512 Mb of memory but is soon to get the 2gig board put in. I'm jsut waiting to make sure all is OK first. Some impressions as i compare to the rev A.
...
Could you try playing a 1080p movie from Apple's website? Wait for it to finish downloading before you play, if you can. There's a person in one of MacNN's new iMac threads who says that if he sets the processor performance to Highest (in Energy Saver, I believe), he can get a near-constant 24 FPS with the King Kong trailer.
If that's the case, the new iMac is a major, major improvement over the old models (even the April ones). 720p was the typical limit for them.
Is it ok to put regular DDR in slots meant for DDR2? I'd check on that first and be absolutely certain.
Overall though congrats, that sounds like a greatr machine and I'd love to get one myself (just need to do a little wife convincing).
Quote:
Originally posted by ibuzz
got my new 20" 2.1 Ghz model right here in front of me. Next to it is a rev A 20: iMac with 2 Gigs memory. the rev C currently has 512 Mb of memory but is soon to get the 2gig board put in. I'm jsut waiting to make sure all is OK first. Some impressions as i compare to the rev A.
i would be happy to run the fps test, but you gotta be real specific with what to do to get the info.
"go to apple's web site" you mean itunes?
"donwload a 1080p movie" i assume the kong trailer will do?
how do i get the frame rate?
ibuzz, HD (High Definition) trailers are here, as well as here (those with the HD logo). Pick up whatever you like, but someones like the Final Destination 3, Zathura, or Slither would be more appropriate as they run at 1920 x 1056. You get the fps from the Window menu of Quicktime (Show movie info or Cmd-I).
this was on the new iMac. still only have 512mb on the memory. don't know if this would make any difference. I'm in the process of downloading another trailer in 1080P to see if is the same. i'll post back in a bit.
My OWC 512 MB DDR2 stick came today and it was no good. The fan came on like it was going to take off after bootup and it landed in Open Firmware. It will have to be exchanged for another chip.
Just curious to anyone who bought the 20" with the 250 GB drive, at first boot without downloading anything fron the internet or music, movies, programs....how much HD space do you have off the bat?
I got mine yesterday - 17", 250 MB hard drive. I have a 17" iMac at work, so it's not all that different from that. I can't tell a difference in speed (the new one is 100Mhz slower), and it looks very similar. It's not noticeably thinner, the optical drive is more in the middle of the side rather than the top, the ports are along the bottom back rather than the side, and the on-off switch is on the left back rather than the right back.
I like FrontRow more than I thought I would. My TV is about the same size as the screen, and I could see watching DVDs on it rather than the TV for the extra detail. But it's definitely got the 1.0 blues. In addition to the glitches that others have mentioned, I noticed that I now have two of just about every genre, capitalized and lowercase: jazz and Jazz, classical and Classical, etc., even though those don't appear in iTunes. I haven't had time yet to figure out what's going on there.
When I first tried FrontRow, it froze for quite some time, and I later realized it was because iTunes and iPhoto were being loaded for the first time, and it wanted me to click 'Agree' on the copyright thingy. That made FrontRow have spasms, despite being an easily predictable situation. It also just generally seems slow when you first use it, presumably because it's creating thumbnails and previews. Most of the FrontRow issues could be fixed easily with a software update, I imagine. I'd also like to see iTunes visuals available through FrontRow.
But in general, it's very nice to sit back and flip through songs and videos with a clean interface and a very intuitive remote. Apple nailed that. My iMac is in a home office, but it would be the ultimate dorm room computer. I have a bunch of short videos that I've collected over the years, nested in directories in 'Movies,' and they show up perfectly, making it nice to sit back and flip through them or iPhoto pictures. This thing would be the ultimate porn viewer, if you're into that kind of thing. If you use VLC for non-QuickTime videos, you'll want to switch to the QuickTime plugins if you want to view them through FrontRow. (Does anyone know if it's possible to watch REAL videos through Quicktime?)
This was the first time I'd used a mighty mouse, and it's OK. The scroll ball does feel small, and doesn't scroll diagonally in any of the apps I've tried, and just in general doesn't feel as precise as a scroll wheel. Many scroll wheels have a little click and/or a little bit of a tightness-then-give that allows you to feel how much you're scrolling. I think it's the lack of that kind of feedback that makes it not feel quite as precise. You can scroll just a little bit, and nothing will happen, and then it starts to take. I do really like the way you press the third (scroll ball) button, where the whole mouse clicks rather than just the ball, and it seems to very reliably distinguish right and left clicks. Overall I slightly prefer the other optical scroll wheel mice I've used, but the Mighty Mouse is fine.
The video camera is nifty. Now if only I knew someone else with one to video chat! Otherwise, I'm not sure how often it will get used. And I can't seem to shake the feeling that someone could spy on you with the right hack...
Comments
Originally posted by Splinemodel
Kodawarisan posted some photos of the mobo a couple of weeks ago now. If you know your stuff, you can pick out the BGA SDRAM parts that are on the opposite side of the DIMM slot.
alright, i did see those but couldn't make that out and wasn't clear from it.
very unfortunate. guess i'll live with 1.5GB of RAM
For what it's worth. My amazon order is now shipping today for delivery Monday.
Apparently Amazon decided to bump everyone who paid for shipping to the front of the line, despite when they ordered and put all the free shipping orders off until December. I discovered this yesterday when someone at macrumors who ordered a week after me chose overnight shipping and had his ship 2 months before my estimate. I called Amazon and bitched them out and they told me preference is given to people who pay the most for shipping and who order their amazon credit card. Needless to say I was shocked and demanded them address this issue and they bumped up my order for immediate shipment and free 2 day air.
Unbelievable.
If that's the case I wonder what happened to Apple's strategy of making it really easy for the customer to fix pretty much everything (and after a HD failure and PS replacement on a 1st gen G5 17" I know how good that system is((was)).
installed an extra 1GB of RAM, used the migration assistant, dowloaded the 10.4.3 update, installed additional software and its running like a dream!
The only minor issue I had was that when i came to burn an audio disc from itunes, when it sucked in the blank cd-r i got the 'checking media' message which just hung without doing a thing. All i did was repair permissions in disk utility, restart and it worked fine!
My first impressions are that it feels alot nippier than my rev a imac G5 and the display is just amazing! Its so much brighter and sharper, it was the first thing the mrs noticed once it was up and running. (she failed to notice th built in isight camera!) And yes the fan is quieter than my previous imac, not silent but quieter. Photo Booth and Front Row are on my list of to-do's tomorrow.
Stop hanging onto your cash folks and just buy one!
1. Much quieter. the rev a didn't bother me with noise (i'm a little deaf) but during the migration the rev a sounded loud and i could not hear the new one at all. still can't
2. the screen is much brighter and has better color saturation. Also pictures and video seem clearer. Especially dvd's
3. seems alot teh snappier. (revA is running on 10.3.9)
4. External jack location: thought i would dislike the new set up but so far it works just fine (i was worried about headphone jack placement).
5. new iMac has corded keyboard vs. wireless on rev A. the stinking cord is too short to make it from the keyboard tray to the back of the computer desk and up to the computer. it's about 30". this is a standard size computer desk with a slide out tray for the keyboard. Seems like a little thing but i'm typing on top of the desk now and it's too high. wud they save maybe $0.05 worth of wire? first impressions etc...
6. mighty mouse would be better if it was twice as heavy. light weight makes it difficult to move your finger on the track ball without moving the whole mouse. i'm used to the weight of the wireless mouse. it just feels better.
7 sound: very impressive. don't know what they did but the new model has much better frequency response and better stereo seperation.
8 front row: like it alot once i got through the not working part. when i first tried to use it it would not work. needed to update itunes, still wouldn't work, needed to authorize the computer etc.. didn't give me a reason why, just had to figure it out.
9. the menu screen for photos in front row has a really cool mirror effect on the preview slides. Love the looks of front row.
Havn't made any movies or burned dvd's yet.
sorry for not having any benchmarks or other technical stuff. I'm just a user.
and these are my impressions
buzz
Originally posted by ibuzz
got my new 20" 2.1 Ghz model right here in front of me. Next to it is a rev A 20: iMac with 2 Gigs memory. the rev C currently has 512 Mb of memory but is soon to get the 2gig board put in. I'm jsut waiting to make sure all is OK first. Some impressions as i compare to the rev A.
...
Could you try playing a 1080p movie from Apple's website? Wait for it to finish downloading before you play, if you can. There's a person in one of MacNN's new iMac threads who says that if he sets the processor performance to Highest (in Energy Saver, I believe), he can get a near-constant 24 FPS with the King Kong trailer.
If that's the case, the new iMac is a major, major improvement over the old models (even the April ones). 720p was the typical limit for them.
Overall though congrats, that sounds like a greatr machine and I'd love to get one myself (just need to do a little wife convincing).
Originally posted by ibuzz
got my new 20" 2.1 Ghz model right here in front of me. Next to it is a rev A 20: iMac with 2 Gigs memory. the rev C currently has 512 Mb of memory but is soon to get the 2gig board put in. I'm jsut waiting to make sure all is OK first. Some impressions as i compare to the rev A.
I have turned down the brightness about 5 notches because it's really really bright!
"go to apple's web site" you mean itunes?
"donwload a 1080p movie" i assume the kong trailer will do?
how do i get the frame rate?
Originally posted by ibuzz
i would be happy to run the fps test, but you gotta be real specific with what to do to get the info.
"go to apple's web site" you mean itunes?
"donwload a 1080p movie" i assume the kong trailer will do?
how do i get the frame rate?
ibuzz, HD (High Definition) trailers are here, as well as here (those with the HD logo). Pick up whatever you like, but someones like the Final Destination 3, Zathura, or Slither would be more appropriate as they run at 1920 x 1056. You get the fps from the Window menu of Quicktime (Show movie info or Cmd-I).
Originally posted by ibuzz
downloaded IMAX Magificent Desolation in 1080P: video codec is H264. Playing fps was between 8-13.8. data rate was 8.69 mbits/sec.
Thanks ibuzz. But you did not say on which from the two iMacs you played the trailer.
Originally posted by ibuzz
this was on the new iMac. still only have 512mb on the memory. don't know if this would make any difference.
I don't know either, but Apple's recommendation says it is the absolute minimum in RAM.
I'm in the process of downloading another trailer in 1080P to see if is the same. i'll post back in a bit.
The Magnificent Desolation trailer runs at 1440 x 1080, which is lower than 1920 x 1056 I suggested before, so you should expect worse playback.
Originally posted by ibuzz
Zathura played back at between about 12 and 18 fps. i saw maybe a couple of 8's in there but seemed to stay around 12-14
Now this is strange. I would say that Zathura should play worse. Since this is not consistent, it could potentially be related to physical memory.
I like FrontRow more than I thought I would. My TV is about the same size as the screen, and I could see watching DVDs on it rather than the TV for the extra detail. But it's definitely got the 1.0 blues. In addition to the glitches that others have mentioned, I noticed that I now have two of just about every genre, capitalized and lowercase: jazz and Jazz, classical and Classical, etc., even though those don't appear in iTunes. I haven't had time yet to figure out what's going on there.
When I first tried FrontRow, it froze for quite some time, and I later realized it was because iTunes and iPhoto were being loaded for the first time, and it wanted me to click 'Agree' on the copyright thingy. That made FrontRow have spasms, despite being an easily predictable situation. It also just generally seems slow when you first use it, presumably because it's creating thumbnails and previews. Most of the FrontRow issues could be fixed easily with a software update, I imagine. I'd also like to see iTunes visuals available through FrontRow.
But in general, it's very nice to sit back and flip through songs and videos with a clean interface and a very intuitive remote. Apple nailed that. My iMac is in a home office, but it would be the ultimate dorm room computer. I have a bunch of short videos that I've collected over the years, nested in directories in 'Movies,' and they show up perfectly, making it nice to sit back and flip through them or iPhoto pictures. This thing would be the ultimate porn viewer, if you're into that kind of thing. If you use VLC for non-QuickTime videos, you'll want to switch to the QuickTime plugins if you want to view them through FrontRow. (Does anyone know if it's possible to watch REAL videos through Quicktime?)
This was the first time I'd used a mighty mouse, and it's OK. The scroll ball does feel small, and doesn't scroll diagonally in any of the apps I've tried, and just in general doesn't feel as precise as a scroll wheel. Many scroll wheels have a little click and/or a little bit of a tightness-then-give that allows you to feel how much you're scrolling. I think it's the lack of that kind of feedback that makes it not feel quite as precise. You can scroll just a little bit, and nothing will happen, and then it starts to take. I do really like the way you press the third (scroll ball) button, where the whole mouse clicks rather than just the ball, and it seems to very reliably distinguish right and left clicks. Overall I slightly prefer the other optical scroll wheel mice I've used, but the Mighty Mouse is fine.
The video camera is nifty. Now if only I knew someone else with one to video chat! Otherwise, I'm not sure how often it will get used. And I can't seem to shake the feeling that someone could spy on you with the right hack...