Review of the 27" iMac

Spike88 said:

If wondering, I was attracked to the Mini-Mac.

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I think that the Mini-Mac would make an excellent entry point into the iMac OS X world. There's a lot of power in a small and inexpensive box. Couple that with one's own monitor -- excellent wide-screen monitors can be had for several hundred dollars -- and you have a system that does pretty much everything an iMac does, with the exception of disk space, and that's easily remedied with an external drive. If one's leery of perceived manufacturing problems with the iMacs, the mini-Mac would be a great alternative for a couple years.

The only problem I've had with my iMac was a software problem --- easily remedied.

Hi coaster.

I agree. For the stuff I need to do with a computer, a mini-Mac would fit my needs great as well. However, my wife loves the idea of "1 box does it all" bundle. (and guess who's the banker in my family). Thus, think I'll wait until screen posts on iMac settles down - and get what she wants as well. Many say that "great things come to those who wait....". Think I'll wait and go for an iMac box - when the timing is much better... Thanks for the mini-Mac idea as well...

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I just ordered one. Should be here in a few days. I'll post with my impressions (Core i7 27") of the screen and otherwise.

I read through the review on the 27" iMac and it's really impressive! Nice review too I just showed it to my dad and he's actually considering it. And I agree with the previous posters that Apple is really versatile when it comes to improvements and updates with their products.

I am totally satisfied with my one month old 27" 4 core i7. Not a single problem so far. I rate the Apple keyboard as a minus 6 on a scale of 1 to 10 as to usability, but that is just an opinion, not a problem. The wireless mouse that came with it works great once you get used to it, except that the maximum motion that it can be set to is far too slow for such a huge screen. I had to replace it with a standard Logitech mouse to get usable motion.

I have to say that unless you are a massive power user, the i7 is overkill at the moment.

The display is the best I have ever seen on any machine, including those far more expensive pro gamer boxes. With Parallels it will run OSX, XP and Debian Linux at the same time and barely bobble the CPU meters. Mine has 3 USB four port expanders almost full, including the native ports and every external device runs flawlessly. Hardware wise that is - some of the "OSX ready" warmed over Win software that is delivered with, say, a Canon scanner can be fairly crappy. And the less said about HP software the better - use the drivers that come with OSX.

I miss being able to work on the guts of the OS, a la Linux, but as much as I liked (and still like) my dual core Debian box, I have to say that a IMac is quite a bit more productive. And a whole lot prettier.

cptkrf said:

I am totally satisfied with my one month old 27" 4 core i7. ...

I miss being able to work on the guts of the OS, a la Linux..

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Just open up Terminal and have at it. I'm not aware of any limitations that OSX imposes on you that Linux doesn't and I've been running both the last few months.

mbohn said:

Just open up Terminal and have at it. I'm not aware of any limitations that OSX imposes on you that Linux doesn't and I've been running both the last few months.

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Sure. I am probably inside of the Unix part more than the GUI and most of my Linux programs and ALL of my own code runs just fine in either the command line or X11.

Even though the OS is based on BSD, I am very hesitant to just jump in and change OS stuff at the command line because it ISN'T pure BSD by a long shot and I am liable to tromp on something that I can't put back. Actually, there is no reason to do it - I just used to enjoy bit and byte stuff like tailoring a kernel to exactly match my hardware.

But, with this IMac, the hardware totally disappears from conscious view and I just concentrate on what I am working on. Technology marches on.

So I FINALLY got the i7 iMac (8GB RAM, 2TB drive, 512MB Graphics card), after several delays. I bought an external FW800 case and put a Pioneer BD205 BluRay writer in the case. Can't find anything to really play the movies, but found a BluRay Ripper for it by Moyea. I'll buy it and let y'all know how it works.

FYI: The iMac 27" is great! No flickering problems on mine. It's a 16:9, compared to my 30" Cinema Display, which is 16:10, I think. Smaller, but not bad. The video card drives my 30" just fine. I don't play video games, so I can't comment on that, and I have yet to convert any video on the Core i7, so I can't really comment on that yet, either.

Apple continues to be rated #1 (usually by a wide margin) over every other maker of computer equipment. That hasn't changed.

Yep.. Thanks for the review

Hi everybody. First post on Mac Forums. I'm thinking very seriously about purchasing a 27" IMac in the next few weeks. I know nothing about how often Apple upgrades the internal components of each IMac gen though and I don't want to purchase one in a few weeks only to have a newly upgraded version with Blu Ray or a faster processor etc. be released a few months later. These new IMacs came out in Nov-Dec 09 right? So how much longer until the new one comes out and what are the prospects of Apple finally including Bluray as part of the "Superdrive"?

You get one of those quad-core 27in iMacs and it'll be fast enough for you for years, I'd wager. Blue-ray? Don't know about that, it's pretty new; I'd expect to see it as an external drive sooner.

Before I bought my iMac I looked back through Apple's new computer product intros and it seems they like to introduce new products in spring around April and in the fall around October, but usually a year or more in between. So since this came out in October, I wouldn't expect anything new until later this year at the soonest.

Go ahead and take the leap now. Why wait? I can't agree with those waiting for new machines or perfect machines. They'll be waiting forever and we'll be using our Macs.

As for Blu-ray, I wouldn't hold your breath. Steve Jobs himself is famously quoted as calling Blu-ray "a bag of hurt". At least that's what I've read on various blogs. (http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2008/10/jobs-blu-ray-is/)

Think about it - for them to put Blu-ray capability in their machines would mean paying for licensing to the Blu-ray Disc Association. Then you could buy content on Blu-ray instead of through iTunes. They'd essentially be paying to cut themselves out of the revenue stream.

Then again, Apple serves on the board of directors of the Blu-ray Disc Association (since 2005, at cost of $50k per year - Blu-ray Disc Association - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). Which does seem to confuse the issue of why they haven't yet licensed it and if/when they will.

Point being, if they someday support it, just buy an external drive at that time

Thanks for the advice. So it is simply matter of Apple licensing and updating OS X to support Blu-Ray playback? I did read an article that talked about installing Windows and using an external BD drive but from what I remember there were some issues.

I guess it's time to make the leap!!

I had a problem where my i7 iMac was suddenly constantly overheating (with the fans running on high-speed), even though no apps were running. My CPU temp was at 155°F+ all the time. This happened one day, and I have no idea what caused it. It just kept running high all the time.

I made the call to Apple Tech Support and the guy had me reset my PRAM (Opt-P-R on reboot). Strangely enough (to me, anyway), it worked like a charm! Ever since then my temps have been fine, idling between 110-120°F, with no noisy fans running.

I don't know why it worked, but it did. If anyone here is having that problem, I would give it a shot!

Other than that, I love my i7! Converting videos from one format to another is shockingly faster than my 2007 MacBook Pro (2.33GHz Core2Duo) or my 2007 Mac Pro was. Even ripping a BluRay wasn't terribly slow. I can't wait til all my apps are able to run in 64-bit, multi-core, multi-threading, GPU-using mode!

FYI: Handbrake comes in a 64-bit x86 version. It works quite well!