What I am waiting for in an iMac2 rev.b

zozo
Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware edited January 2014
all hype aside and the fact that the new iMac is growing on me too, I have to say that much of the component technology can be easily upgraded.



The video chipset seems ok for now, as well as the HD.



But come on, lets at least have 133Mhz bus, FW2, USB2, and as a cherry on top, the ability to rotate the screen 90degrees. Also better G4 chips... like high-end 933-966 at least. And please, someone do something about the ridiculous 2 different RAM slots. Thats just dumb. Give us normal, cheap DIMMS.



I wouldn't mind a nicer monitor as well. It seems really rough on the back... not smoothed out. Granted, you will see it from the FRONT but Apple usually never leaves out details.



What do you guys want from the new iMac?
«1

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 24
    gordygordy Posts: 1,004member
    USB and FireWire seem fast enough to me in their current versions for my purposes. I think the monitor and 1024x768 is cool.



    I have a buyer for my DVSE, and I will see if I can work with my iBook until September--at which point I hope that the iMac has:



    A larger HD (100GB)

    A 1GHz processor

    More RAM



    But, if it is unberable working on my iBook day-to-day, I'd buy the new iMac immediately.
  • Reply 2 of 24
    rokrok Posts: 3,519member
    from my days of working with a radius pivot monitor, being able to pivot the screen to portrait for 100% viewing of 8.5"x11" would be oh-so-sweet.



    (pity my radius eventually fell apart after swining that crt back and forth; at least it was the company's, so i never had to pay for it).
  • Reply 3 of 24
    xoolxool Posts: 2,460member
    I don't think pivot capabilities will make it into the rev b model as the arm was the most complicated piece of the new iMacs design. (This is a fact.) Modding it so that it could rotate would require a redesign and, while it is quite cool, I don't think the added cost would fly.
  • Reply 4 of 24
    [quote]Originally posted by Xool:

    <strong>I don't think pivot capabilities will make it into the rev b model as the arm was the most complicated piece of the new iMacs design. (This is a fact.) Modding it so that it could rotate would require a redesign and, while it is quite cool, I don't think the added cost would fly.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Forgive my ignorance, but how hard could it be to mod it to turn 90 degrees??? The cable must have some give in there for the tilting, just anchor it before and after the twisting point with a little wiggle room inbetween. The biggest thing would be setting it so you had to push past a catch to rotate it and using a switch to detect it and automatically adjust the display for the proper orientation (the imac is supposed to be ease of use so you wouldn't want people to have to manually change page layout).



    But then again, I've never seen a pivot display or read up on them so I could be completey wrong.
  • Reply 5 of 24
    addisonaddison Posts: 1,185member
    [quote] And please, someone do something about the ridiculous 2 different RAM slots. Thats just dumb. Give us normal, cheap DIMMS. <hr></blockquote>



    Woops!



    What do you mean doesn't this take standard PC100 SDRAM?
  • Reply 6 of 24
    bradbowerbradbower Posts: 1,068member
    Nah, it wouldn't require a "total redesign" just to make the already pivoting arm turn 90°.



    Anyway, I'm with everybody here. Let's see USB2, FireWire 2, GigaWire (they are different), faster bus, gigabit ethernet, and REGULAR, inexpensive PC100/133 SDRAM in this iMac. SO-DIMMs blow. And of course by the time this happens, there will probably be much faster G4s, bigger HDs, more RAM, maybe even a slot-loading and much faster SuperDrive (it's slow!). I'd even wager that Apple will continue to add AirPort as a standard feature on products, a la the top PowerBook model. It just makes sense.
  • Reply 7 of 24
    addisonaddison Posts: 1,185member
    The only real problem now is 60Gb is too small, they should at leat give the option to pay for an80,100,120gGb disk in the Superdrive model.
  • Reply 8 of 24
    [quote]Originally posted by JW Pepper:

    <strong>



    Woops!



    What do you mean doesn't this take standard PC100 SDRAM?</strong><hr></blockquote>



    IIRC from the pictures, the user-accesible RAM slot on the bottom is the same type of RAM thats in the Rev A (and 550 Rev B) TiBook.
  • Reply 9 of 24
    kidredkidred Posts: 2,402member
    What iMac user is going to need more than a gig of RAM? Damn guys, if you need that much RAM you should be getting a tower. 1 gig is plenty for iMac users.
  • Reply 10 of 24
    bellebelle Posts: 1,574member
    [quote]Originally posted by KidRed:

    <strong>What iMac user is going to need more than a gig of RAM? Damn guys, if you need that much RAM you should be getting a tower. 1 gig is plenty for iMac users.</strong><hr></blockquote>

    The way the new iMac's memory is arranged is incredibly annoying.



    The "internal" slot (Which can only be accessed by a qualified technician unless you want to lose your warranty) takes one 168 pin PC100 DIMM.



    The user-accessible slot takes one 144 pin PC100 SODIMM.



    Guess which is cheaper?



    From <a href="http://www.crucial.com"; target="_blank">Crucial</a>:



    512MB 144 pin SODIMM $215.99

    512MB 168 pin DIMM $119.69



    So if you want 1GB in your iMac, you have to either order from the Apple Store and pay an extra $200 for the BTO option of 1 512MB DIMM, then buy a 512MB SODIMM for almost twice the price of a DIMM, or buy your two different 512MB modules and get a qualified technician to install one.



    It's incredibly stupid.
  • Reply 11 of 24
    cowerdcowerd Posts: 579member
    [quote]What iMac user is going to need more than a gig of RAM? Damn guys, if you need that much RAM you should be getting a tower. 1 gig is plenty for iMac users.<hr></blockquote>

    You mean iMac users like Genetech? or those iMacs going to faculty at universities?



    The SO-DIMM is a braindead Apple move.
  • Reply 12 of 24
    emaneman Posts: 7,204member
    The only thing I don't like about the imac is the RAM. It definately should have normal RAM, not the more expensive kind.
  • Reply 13 of 24
    If you wait forever, you can acheive that perfect state of perpetual desire, never tainted by actually owning anyting.....never to suffer buyer's remorse, or technology obsolescence, or a thousand other afflictions of actual possession and ownership.



    Of course, you won;t actually get to use a computer during that time, but such petty considerations are below the truly Zen.



    In other words; there is always something better around the corner.



    SdC
  • Reply 14 of 24
    prestonpreston Posts: 219member
    wah wah wah, stop bitching



    besides, if you cant afford the extra $100, then you cant afford an iMac. 60gig IS PLENTY FOR AN IMAC! If you disagree, perhaps you should learn about something called firewire or buy a Powermac.



    IF ONLY THERE WERE A WAY TO BACK UP 4.7GB OF DATA ON A SINGLE DISC FOR ONLY $5.



    OH WAIT....
  • Reply 15 of 24
    pscatespscates Posts: 5,847member
    Yeah, the RAM thing is the ONLY thing about the new iMac that irks me.



    Older iMac (well, before last Monday) RAM was SO CHEAP! If it would've kept that (and two EASILY accessible RAM slots like the slot-loading iMacs), I would've easily outfitted that puppy with 1GB RAM.



    As it is, I'll buy the SuperDrive model at the San Diego Apple retail store and try my best to get a 512MB DIMM to add, for 768MB total.



    Otherwise, I'll stick in another 256MB and just go the 512MB route.



    Damn, they're making it VERY tough to go over 512MB, aren't they?







    Maybe this RAM will eventually start scootching down a bit in price in the coming months?



    Using 384MB at home right now, so I guess anything above that (512 or 768) is nothing to whine about, but still...
  • Reply 16 of 24
    applenutapplenut Posts: 5,768member
    [quote]Originally posted by preston:

    <strong>wah wah wah, stop bitching



    besides, if you cant afford the extra $100, then you cant afford an iMac. 60gig IS PLENTY FOR AN IMAC! If you disagree, perhaps you should learn about something called firewire or buy a Powermac.



    IF ONLY THERE WERE A WAY TO BACK UP 4.7GB OF DATA ON A SINGLE DISC FOR ONLY $5.



    OH WAIT....</strong><hr></blockquote>





    the way you make that statement you make it out as if the iMac is strictly a "consumer" machine. and a lowend one at that.



    It's most certainly not. especially now. pros are going to be using these machines and they may need bigger hard drives. some consumers will even like bigger hard drives. I'm no pro but I fill up 80Gbs on my 2 hard drives very easily with a little video editing work using iMovie 2. If the drives are out apple should offer them as BTO. there is no reason they can't. I would love Maxtor's new 160GB HD in the iMac (although it won't work with the ATA/66 interface )
  • Reply 17 of 24
    matsumatsu Posts: 6,558member
    Well, I think Apple did a good job getting this machine out at the price they did. That superdrive and LCD both cost. As they come down, it will surely be possible to at least offer a bigger hard-drive. In six months an 80-120 GB drive will be in the same price range as a 60Gb unit is today. Expect an upgrade.



    Now if I recall correctly, the original was very quickly upgraded early in it's life. This will probably happen again here. Apollos are coming to this machine. So is a 133 bus (I think the current bus speed is a way of avoiding teething troubles untill they manufacturing process is 110% bullet-proof. And, nVidia even has some low power embedded desktop solutions nearly set to release.



    Remember this is a rev A machine! And as such, a very good one. I think a truly mature LCD iMac will arrive by the end of 2002. The things mentioned here, RAM and HDD will be easy enough to fix. I sure hope they fix the RAM issue. (BTW where is it stated that only one slot is user accessible?) As ussual there is a price to be paid for being an early adopter.



    PS. I wonder if 1GB is truly the limit for this machine or if it is the limit only insofar as Apple ussually defines it: biggest module (512MB) times the number of slots (2). I'll bet in 12 - 18 months time a few users will be plugging in 1 GB dimms for 1.5 and 2 GB configs. :eek:
  • Reply 18 of 24
    Who needs this kind of RAM in an iMac and how important is it really after a certain ammount? I think most people will be fine with 256 or even 192. Maybe I am wrong and maybe this is a Powermac not an iMac.



    This machine is probably not going to be updated until MWNY.
  • Reply 19 of 24
    [quote]Originally posted by Macintosh:

    <strong>Who needs this kind of RAM in an iMac and how important is it really after a certain ammount?</strong><hr></blockquote>



    MySQL servers like ram, and ISPs like small computers.
  • Reply 20 of 24
    bradbowerbradbower Posts: 1,068member
    Apparently, a lot of people like us (pros, ethusiasts, consumers, geeks) would like that kind of RAM. Don't be an Apple Apologist?, this was just a bassackwards move. It's not as big of a deal as some people might make it seem, but it is annoying. Enough to make a person not want to waste the money on SO-DIMM RAM, and not buy this rev a iMac at all. People want different things for their computer, and there are PLENTY of good uses for RAM, if you weren't aware.
Sign In or Register to comment.