About to buy new iMac, any issues?

[maxsideburn]

I'm about to go pick up a 21.5" iMac, the 3.06ghz one ($1199). I have a few questions though.

1.) Does this particular generation of iMacs have any problems I should know about?

2.) Are the processors in the newest iMacs upgradeable? (even if they're not "officially" upgradeable. I would eventually like to go to an i5 or something)

3.) What type of hard drive do these things take? Is it a full size or laptop sized drive? Eventually I'd want to pop it open and install a 1tb.

4.) What's the deal with the funky 9-pin firewire? Will I have any problems connecting my video camera (with a 9-pin to 4-pin adapter of course) to capture video? Are there any issues related with this? I think I've heard that 9-pin has been known to fry cameras.

5.) How is the magic mouse? I currently use a Mighty Mouse on my workstation at the office and it's wonderful. Is side-scrolling as easy as on the mighty mouse? I use that a LOT in Final Cut Pro.

Thanks for your time guys.

 

[pigoo3]

#2. No the processor is not upgradable. If you really want an i5 (or something)...I would recommend saving a few more bucks & get the 27" iMac with the i5 or i7.

HTH,

- Nick

 

[maxsideburn]

problem is I don't want the 27", it's too big for my work area.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

If you stick with the 21.5" iMac, you can only go as high as the 3.33 Ghz C2D processor..upgrading the HD is something that has been documented, but I think the processor is a different story..

Regards

 

[pigoo3]

problem is I don't want the 27", it's too big for my work area.

I understand...but if you want an iMac with an i5 or better CPU you either have to get the 27" or wait until Apple releases a 21.5" iMac with an i5.

Which may or may not happen...and if it does...who knows when.

Once you buy an iMac...you're pretty much stuck with what you got (no CPU upgrade, no graphics upgrade)...so you gotta buy what you REALLY want up front.

Sometimes you have to make compromises...that would be such a shame to have to deal with that NICE BIG 27" display!

- Nick

 

[maxsideburn]

eh, then again I currently use a 2.8ghz Core2Duo and I edit high def video on it fairly easily...so I guess with the 3.06 I should be ok for a while.

::begins remembering when he starting editing, working on a 667mhz Celeron with 128mb of RAM in Adobe Premiere 6.0::

 

[Calijoefornia]

I'm about to go pick up a 21.5" iMac, the 3.06ghz one ($1199). I have a few questions though.

1.) Does this particular generation of iMacs have any problems I should know about?

2.) Are the processors in the newest iMacs upgradeable? (even if they're not "officially" upgradeable. I would eventually like to go to an i5 or something)

3.) What type of hard drive do these things take? Is it a full size or laptop sized drive? Eventually I'd want to pop it open and install a 1tb.

4.) What's the deal with the funky 9-pin firewire? Will I have any problems connecting my video camera (with a 9-pin to 4-pin adapter of course) to capture video? Are there any issues related with this? I think I've heard that 9-pin has been known to fry cameras.

5.) How is the magic mouse? I currently use a Mighty Mouse on my workstation at the office and it's wonderful. Is side-scrolling as easy as on the mighty mouse? I use that a LOT in Final Cut Pro.

Thanks for your time guys.

1) I have a 21.5 and I have a few dead pixels. Nothing unusual for a computer in any way, but nonetheless it should be noted. Luckily Apple is pretty good with that stuff....

2) No processor upgrades to my knowledge

3) I believe they take 2.5" SATA drives. Any laptop hard drive should work. I know you can have 1TB of storage, although you might be able to put more...

4) I can't speak for cameras, but I have a Firewire recording interface that connects through the adapter and I've had no problems with that. It's even powered by the FW as well!

5) Alright, the mouse was my biggest concern when I got this. Luckily, while it might seem bad (no thanks to the stupid demos at the Apple Store), the Magic Mouse is actually quite good for side scrolling and such. What I used to consider the biggest weakness of the new Mac systems is now one of the biggest assets in my opinion. The Magic Mouse takes a little getting used to but once you get it, you'll never want another mouse again!

 

[EndlessMac]

1.) Does this particular generation of iMacs have any problems I should know about?

- It had reported yellow tinted screens and flickering issues but both have been said to have been fixed by Apple.

2.) Are the processors in the newest iMacs upgradeable? (even if they're not "officially" upgradeable. I would eventually like to go to an i5 or something)

- iMacs are basically large laptops so no you really can't upgrade much except for the hard drive and RAM just like laptops.

3.) What type of hard drive do these things take? Is it a full size or laptop sized drive? Eventually I'd want to pop it open and install a 1tb.

- I don't know but you can probably Google that info. Your owner's manual will have that information once you get your computer.

4.) What's the deal with the funky 9-pin firewire? Will I have any problems connecting my video camera (with a 9-pin to 4-pin adapter of course) to capture video? Are there any issues related with this? I think I've heard that 9-pin has been known to fry cameras.

- It's the new Firewire 800. It's faster and has a smaller port so Apple wants us to upgrade to the new Firewire. Of course if you are using Firewire 400 (the previous one) with an adapter then your speeds will be the same. You have to get a device that has Firewire 800 natively.

5.) How is the magic mouse? I currently use a Mighty Mouse on my workstation at the office and it's wonderful. Is side-scrolling as easy as on the mighty mouse? I use that a LOT in Final Cut Pro.

- I haven't used the Magic Mouse but if you find you like the Mighty Mouse better then you can just use that. I don't know why some people think they have to use the new mouse on new computers or even an Apple mouse. I use a Logitech mouse myself.

 

[maxsideburn]

what about the differences between the $1199 iMac and the $1499 iMac?

I see there's a 1tb hard drive instead of a 500gb drive. Also I notice a real video card, an ATI I think, compared to the nVidia 9400m in the $1199 machine.

Other than gaming is this graphics card worth the price? Is Final Cut Pro or Photoshop or anything like that actually GPU accelerated? I'm not going to spend an extra $300 unless it's really worth it.

 

[TomTomTuning]

problem is I don't want the 27", it's too big for my work area.

It's worth making room for it. I LOVE my 27in iMac.

 

[Mercedes1787]

can you get a mac pro, they don't have i5 or i7 processors(but you can get 3.33 quad core xeon or 2.99 eight core processors), but you can change almost anything in them, hard drives, ram, graphics card, processors but only if you change it into something that supports a mac pro, and if 27" is too big for you then I recommend 24" screen

Mac pro's are expensive, but they're worth it, your not stuck with what you bought so if you want to change something, your not stuffed.

 

[maxsideburn]

I'm totally fine with the iMac, it just needs to be ok for editing video for 3-5 years. At this point I just need to know if the video card is worth it, if I recall correctly only Motion even uses the GPU for any acceleration.

 

[EndlessMac]

what about the differences between the $1199 iMac and the $1499 iMac?

I see there's a 1tb hard drive instead of a 500gb drive. Also I notice a real video card, an ATI I think, compared to the nVidia 9400m in the $1199 machine.

Other than gaming is this graphics card worth the price? Is Final Cut Pro or Photoshop or anything like that actually GPU accelerated? I'm not going to spend an extra $300 unless it's really worth it.

It does look like the difference is just the hard drive and video card. Apple's website lists the comparisons but it seems like you have already gone there.

I don't believe you are going to notice a huge difference in speeds between the graphics cards. When I use Photoshop CS3 with the 9600 card it seems only slightly faster than the 9400 on my MBP but I believe that's just placebo and it's not really much of a difference. I have been told however that Adobe is thinking about utilizing the graphics card more in the future so it's really anyone's guess as to whether it will make a huge difference.

In 3-5 years you will probably be getting a new computer but I understand your concern.

 

[chas_m]

1.) Does this particular generation of iMacs have any problems I should know about?

2.) Are the processors in the newest iMacs upgradeable? (even if they're not "officially" upgradeable. I would eventually like to go to an i5 or something)

3.) What type of hard drive do these things take? Is it a full size or laptop sized drive? Eventually I'd want to pop it open and install a 1tb.

4.) What's the deal with the funky 9-pin firewire? Will I have any problems connecting my video camera (with a 9-pin to 4-pin adapter of course) to capture video? Are there any issues related with this? I think I've heard that 9-pin has been known to fry cameras.

5.) How is the magic mouse? I currently use a Mighty Mouse on my workstation at the office and it's wonderful. Is side-scrolling as easy as on the mighty mouse? I use that a LOT in Final Cut Pro.

1. No.

2. No.

3. iMacs use full-size hard drives. Wait until your warranty expires before upgrading the internal drive, as opening the machine voids your warranty and yes, they'll know you did so.

4. Firewire 800 = 2x faster than FW400. No issues with using an adapter cable.

5. I don't own one, but reports I get are GLOWING. Will probably take a bit of time to adjust, but should be fine.