I need some opinions, 20" vs 24"

I really need some opinions here, I just can not decide.
I would buy a 20" right away but from my research I hear the screen is really horrible quality.

I am looking to run Final Cut Pro, Photoshop CS2, and maybe some dreamweaver.

I really did not want to spend more than $1,199. So I was planning on getting the 2.4GHz iMac, but I keep finding older posts about the screen quality. Does anyone know if the quality of the LCDs has been fixed?

Would the 2.4GHz then also be able to run Final Cut Pro and stuff with 4 gigs of RAM (that I plan to get from newegg)?

I wish I could go compare the LCDs but I live quite a bit away from the apple store.

From my experience.

1. Everything I've done with FCP works like a dream. And that's on my white 2.0Ghz imac.

2. The 20" screens don't have as wide a viewing angle as the 24" ones. And supposedly the 24" ones are that bit slightly brighter. But when I saw them face to face at the apple reseller I saw almost no difference from straight on. From a really wide angle though the difference is ever so lightly noticable. And are you really going to be using your mac from that angle for that long. I don't think so.

4. Have a look on apple refurbished.

Have a look around on the apple website and everything else.

I'd go with the 24", but that's me.

If money is really an issue then you have answered yourself.

AFAIK, the display on the 24" is of better quality, and you have to compare resolutions. 1920 against 1680. I definetly go with the 24, as is the one i current own and i couldnt be happier.

You have room fro EVERYTHING, and as a designer student i work daily with InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop and so on, having all your tools displayed, and still room for having you document at 100% is lovely.

I have to laugh at all of these posts about the 20" screen quality. I have one and it is fantastic. To this day no one has walked by it and not been blown away. With that being said the 24" is also very awesome. I think it all comes down to cash. If you have it - buy the 24". If you don't - buy the 20". Either way you will be happy and both are awesome (screens and all). Just my two cents.

mdfuller said:

I have to laugh at all of these posts about the 20" screen quality.

Click to expand...

Im not a specialist, but there IS a difference. I compared both side by side at my local apple store and the 20" had lesser viewing angle among others. It looked kinda weird. OFC if you compare the 20" panel of your imac with a random lcd screen of other brand it will blow your mind, but still, with those two side by side for me the 24 was better.

20" are standard TN screens, fast response, but bad in contrast, whereas the 24" is AS-ISP, which has better contrast ratio, but dont know about the response time.

If you dont play games, or at least fast FPS, i dont think you gonna notice anyway.

Santino said:

Im not a specialist, but there IS a difference. I compared both side by side at my local apple store and the 20" had lesser viewing angle among others. It looked kinda weird. OFC if you compare the 20" panel of your imac with a random lcd screen of other brand it will blow your mind, but still, with those two side by side for me the 24 was better.

20" are standard TN screens, fast response, but bad in contrast, whereas the 24" is AS-ISP, which has better contrast ratio, but dont know about the response time.

If you dont play games, or at least fast FPS, i dont think you gonna notice anyway.

Click to expand...

I am sure there IS a difference. I guess what I was trying to say is that for the price I think it (20") is just fine for the majority of the people out there. Like I said before - if you have the money buy the 24". If you want to save a bit of dough the 20" is nothing to sneeze at. I wasn't trying to start anything, but sometimes these forums put fear into potential buyers that I don't think are deserved.

Bear in mind Adobe CS2 isn't Intel native. You'd be best off with CS3 or CS4, so you may have to factor that into your sums.

Well, I finally decided.
Although it is tempting to go out and buy a 20" iMac right now, I am going to wait until next week when I get paid.

I am going to order the 24" iMac 2.8GHz refurb on Apple, assuming they still have it in stock.

My reasoning is that
1. I get a bigger screen
2. I get a bigger hard drive (320GB vs. 250GB)
3. I get a somewhat faster CPU (2.4GHz vs. 2.8GHz)
4. I get a better video card than the 20"s stock card.

I think that justifies the price.

JeffBookPro said:

Well, I finally decided.
Although it is tempting to go out and buy a 20" iMac right now, I am going to wait until next week when I get paid.

I am going to order the 24" iMac 2.8GHz refurb on Apple, assuming they still have it in stock.

My reasoning is that
1. I get a bigger screen
2. I get a bigger hard drive (320GB vs. 250GB)
3. I get a somewhat faster CPU (2.4GHz vs. 2.8GHz)
4. I get a better video card than the 20"s stock card.

I think that justifies the price.

Click to expand...

Sounds like a great idea to me. Even though I gave my wife the iMac and bought a MacBook Pro I still walk by it everyday and say dang that is one smokin' machine!

Well, I went to the apple store this morning and was able to look at the iMacs and the new macbooks (just curious on what those looked like, I already have a macbook with a firewire port that I use constantly).

Anyways, the 20" looked fine to me. So I pulled the trigger and I bought myself the 2.4GHz 20" iMac. It is working like a charm. I just bought 4GB of RAM from newegg as well! I am sorry for doubting the 20" iMac. Perhaps sometime in a few years I will buy another iMac, and it will be bigger than 20" because I won't be compacted to a small room and small desk.

JeffBookPro said:

Well, I went to the apple store this morning and was able to look at the iMacs and the new macbooks (just curious on what those looked like, I already have a macbook with a firewire port that I use constantly).

Anyways, the 20" looked fine to me. So I pulled the trigger and I bought myself the 2.4GHz 20" iMac. It is working like a charm. I just bought 4GB of RAM from newegg as well! I am sorry for doubting the 20" iMac. Perhaps sometime in a few years I will buy another iMac, and it will be bigger than 20" because I won't be compacted to a small room and small desk.

Click to expand...

I am glad you gave it a look. I think both of them are wonderful! I am sure you will be happy with the purchase!

Yeah, I am glad I went to the store to actually look. I did notice some color differences, but that was because I was looking for them. In reality, the 20" iMac wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

And I just ordered 4 gigs of RAM from newegg, $73 with free shipping

I know, its a dumb question, but.....

Ok, ok, ok, I know this is probably a stupid question, but I am really racking my brain over it and I would like a little advice.

I really really wanna buy an iMac, but I am just worried about the timing on it. You see, I figure that we are due for an iMac update pretty darned soon as the life cycle is getting up there where they normally give us a refresh on them. Do you think this might happen soon? I would hate to buy one and have it updated really soon after I buy it.

I say this because it actually happened back when I bought my PowerBook G4 back in Oct. 05 (I think, cause I know its applecare is up on it on the 21st of this month). I got lucky in that case, though, because it was within the 14 day period and CompUSA let me swap it out for the new one.

Anyway, I guess what I am wanting to know is whether you guys think its fairly safe to buy one now, or if it might be better if I waited until the new ones come out? And what kind of upgrades to them they might give us with any new revisions of it? I know this update might not be until January, but then again it could be in November some time.

So, what do you guys think? I really would love some help on this.

Thanks a bunch in advance,
Steve

That's exactly how I felt when I was buying iMac. Now its been almost 4 months of my top of the line iMac, and now I feel that I should have waited more and save some more money for Mac Pro with 30" antiglare cinema HD display OR if you have a tight budget, Macbook Pro 15" or 17" with 30" HD cinema display is an ideal way to go.

Even in my dark room, in a low lamp light, I still can see my shirt and my black chair on iMac's screen. It totally glossy and very bright though but still doesn't worth if you are a genuine designer, photographer and play alot with photos and videos.

iMacs are good for video games especially and for general purposes. But for gaming purpose, I have both xbox and PS3 and I play games on my 60" Pioneer Elite Kuro 151FD.

But again, its just my view.

I went out today and bought a 20" iMac 2.66GHz. I ****ed near didn't because of the as$ at Best Buy asking me all kinds of stupid as$ questions and trying to get me to buy sh*t that I didn't want! I was so mad by the time I was done, but I bought it anyway.

Nice! enjoy your new mac!
Are you going to be buying 4GB of RAM? I ordered my 4GBs on Thursday from newegg with free shipping. I hope the RAM comes soon.

I totally agree about the people at best buy. Once when i bought a windows based laptop, the sales guy sh*t a brick when I said I did not want a warranty. I had two employees and the stupid geek squad people asking why I didn't want one and questioned me about it like it was an interrogation. I got so mad I told him that if he didn't stop asking me/talking about it I would walk out and not even buy the computer.

Now if everything ran like the Apple Store, this world may be very close to perfect.