Upgrading NEW imacs - a little soon, but help needed!

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Hi everyone,
I'm about to splurge over a grand on my first mac. First, I wanted to check something out. Some of you may be aware (from my constant posting and rambling) that I intend my mac to be for video editing (Final cut studio).
The spec FCS needs is approx 4 gig of ram, which is fine. I was going to go with a macbook pro, but I could actually get an imac and a macbook for nearly the same price, which makes more sense.

Also, because of the new imac's specs, it is comparable to a macpro for editing.

Because I can upgrade to 4gig of ram on an imac, I wanted to know if you can do it yourself, or - will it be something you have to do when you buy it (and as a result, pay apples stupid ram prices)?

Thanks.
 
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You can do it yourself, its pretty easy. In the old ones the imacs where the easy'est mac to upgrade.
 
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There's a easy to access slot you open up to access the RAM modules. It's all explained in the user manual that comes with the iMac.
 
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vaughan80
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sweet!
this forum is the best. thanks guys.

i was in a mac store the other day and was told by an employee that imac's could not be upgraded after you had bought it from the store. what a liar!
 
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sweet!
this forum is the best. thanks guys.

i was in a mac store the other day and was told by an employee that imac's could not be upgraded after you had bought it from the store. what a liar!

wow, way to be a salesman...usually they lie to make things sound good :D
 
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i was in a mac store the other day and was told by an employee that imac's could not be upgraded after you had bought it from the store. what a liar!
What store name and location where you in?

The one thing you can definitely upgrade on an iMac is the RAM. Depending on the model, the hard drive and DVD drive may be easy or difficult to swap. Everything else is non upgradable. So no upgrading the graphics processor.
 
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vaughan80
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I was in the Apple store in sheffield, meadowhall - UK.
That was the older (all white, big chin) mac, not the new one.

I think he was trying to get me to buy a macbook pro once I mentioned video editing, maybe they get commission on any mac's they sell.

As long as the graphics card is compatable with final cut studio, i'm good to go (providing they fix the link on the UK apple store for educational discount, it's non-clickable GRRR!!!!)

Any ideas if it is?
the card in the mac is: ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB of GDDR3 memory

but on the final cut system requirements it only lists:

An AGP or PCI Express Quartz Extreme graphics card, ideally:

ATI Radeon 9800, 9700 Pro, 9600 XT, or 9600 Pro
ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 or 9600
NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT, 7300 GT, 6600, 6600 LE, FX Go5200, or FX 5200 Ultra

It also states that: "Final Cut Studio is not compatible with integrated Intel graphics processors"

IS the imac graphics card one of these, or is it stand alone?
 
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Any ideas if it is?
the card in the mac is: ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB of GDDR3 memory

but on the final cut system requirements it only lists:

An AGP or PCI Express Quartz Extreme graphics card, ideally:

ATI Radeon 9800, 9700 Pro, 9600 XT, or 9600 Pro
ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 or 9600
NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT, 7300 GT, 6600, 6600 LE, FX Go5200, or FX 5200 Ultra

That ATI card is so new that I'm not surprised it isn't mentioned. Also if the software checks to that low level, then they will need a patch. But I suspect the new card will be fine. Perhaps phone Apple and ask for advice saying they have not yet listed the information for your decision.

The requirements page says "An AGP or PCI Express Quartz Extreme graphics card" is required. I'm pretty sure the new graphics process is Quartz Extreme capable.

It also states that: "Final Cut Studio is not compatible with integrated Intel graphics processors"

IS the imac graphics card one of these, or is it stand alone?

The integrated Intel graphic processor is what you find on the Mac mini, Macbook (non-pro), and the previous low end iMac.
 
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vaughan80
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thank you. i'll give apple a mail and hopefully get myself a brand new shiny (and my first) imac. woooo!!
 

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