GJ, it's good you passed up the Core Duo iMac. The Core "2" Duo is waaay faster.
Charles wrote:Hmm.. I thought the Minis were upgraded to
at least 2Ghz. So the iMac is still way out ahead in speed, at up to 2.33Ghz rather than the Mini topping out at 1.83.
They're very snappy Charles. Go test drive any Intel Core2 Duo rig at an Apple store.
Anyway, iMac upgradeability may not be such an issue anymore, as I've heard that all the Intel Macs have the CPU chip in a socket rather than soldered, so it might be possible to replace the chip with a faster model. This might extend an iMac's useful life.
That would be icing on the cake, for sure!
One other interesting tidbit I came across, Ars Technical says the 24in iMac has the same screen rez as the 23in Cinema Display, it's just a little less dense as it's spread out over 24in rather than 23in. Interesting.
That thing is sweet, but for the same price as a MacPro, I am gonna hold off. Full blown, they're well over 2 G's.
But seriously GJ, you deserve a Mac Pro. Quad CPUs are awesome.
Waiting for 8 Proc Mayhem from Clovertown, baby! ]Splurge. You know you want to.[/QUOTE]
I needed a stopgap Intel rig while I wait for 2nd gen MacPros to come out, so, guess what? I just bought an iMac.
I needed something sorta cheap that I could use to cut together small projects, a new demo reel and for testing software for the purpose of writing articles (one of the ways I get paid).
I generally recommend against the iMac, especially if you want one with a big screen. What you're buying is basically a modest CPU welded to the back of a Cinema Display.
Even a small iMac is waaaay more powerful than you might think. In some cases, it even smokes a G5 dual 2. Awesome!
You will probably want to upgrade your CPU long before you even think about upgrading your LCD display. But with an iMac, you can't really upgrade the CPU, so a couple of years down the line you've got a nice big LCD with a boat anchor attached to it.
Yeah. I hope I can mod the CPU.
So my pick would be a nice Mini and a Cinema Display. Later on you can upgrade the Mini to something newer and faster, and your investment in the display won't go to waste.
Dude. I don't agree. I walked into the Apple Store thinkin' Mini, too. But the Apple Store guy reminded me, "If you want to run Motion (which I just love) or Studio, then the cheapest route is a 17" iMac 2Gzh with a 1GB of RAM. It has a better video card than the base 17 and it's got 4MB of L2 cache, not 2. It's all you need."
He was right. For around a grand, I can now hold out for the next generation tower and tool around with Motion. What a gas.
Time for some study.
