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Apple Computing Products:
macOS - Desktop Hardware
Thinking of getting an iMac in the next few months...
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<blockquote data-quote="MrChris" data-source="post: 263456" data-attributes="member: 7584"><p>Hey guys & girls,</p><p></p><p>I'm seriously considering buying an iMac to kick start my 3rd & final year of University. The iMac I'm after is the following:</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>20-inch widescreen LCD</p><p></p><p>1680x1050 resolution</p><p></p><p>2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor1</p><p></p><p>4MB shared L2 cache</p><p></p><p>1GB memory (2x512MB SO-DIMM)</p><p></p><p>250GB Serial ATA hard drive2</p><p></p><p>8x double-layer SuperDrive (DVD+R DL, DVD±RW, CD-RW)</p><p></p><p>ATI Radeon X1600 graphics with 128MB GDDR3 memory</p><p></p><p>Built-in AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0</p><p></p><p>Apple Remote</p><p></p><p>& Apple wireless keyboard & Mighty Mouse</p><p></p><p>This would cost me £913.84 with my student discount (not bad I thought).</p><p></p><p>I'm even seriously considering selling my old iBook G4 to help cover the costs as I have thought long and hard and although I love my iBook to bits, it's just not powerful enough for me anymore <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite3" alt=":(" title="Frown :(" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":(" />.</p><p></p><p>Anyhoo, a few questions. </p><p></p><p>1. Boot Camp - Is this software still free to download? Also if I was to install Windows XP on my iMac how do you actually go about doing it? Is it a simple enough operation?</p><p></p><p>2. Graphics - I noticed that the only real change between the 20" and the 24" iMac is the graphics card. Is the ATI Radeon X1600 a decent card? I have only ever really used NVIDIA and so don't have much experience with game playing on an ATI card. </p><p></p><p>3. Front Row - It would be so nice to be able to lie back on my bed and watch my media using a remote rather than having to look through files and folders with a mouse. I have some video files that have been encoded using different codec’s (i.e. XviD .avi files, DivX .avi files and so on). Now to play these on my Windows system I need to install a codec pack. Will these media files be able to play through Front Row?</p><p></p><p>Speakers - Are the speakers of a good quality on the iMac? This is not a problem either way as I already have a Creative iTrigue 2.1 sound system that I could hook up. (I'm a bit of a sound snob)</p><p></p><p>4. Video Editing, Photoshop, Macromedia/Adobe Suite - These are the tools of my trade so to speak, I just want opinions on weather this model iMac will be adequate to perform processor/memory intensive tasks efficiently. I have never owned a core 2 Duo computer before and so have never experienced the difference it makes over a single core processor. (for comparison purpose the main machine I work with at the moment is an AMD Athlon 64 Windows based machine with 1GB memory and an NVIDIA 6600GT 128MB Graphics Card).</p><p></p><p>Also, will this Mac last me a good few years? I'm not too fussed about buying it then a new one coming out a few months down the line as that’s always the deal with computers. But if there are some new Mac's due to be released any time soon then I will wait and see what's new with them. What do you guys think?</p><p></p><p>Thanks in advance for opinions, info, help & advice. </p><p></p><p>Regards, </p><p></p><p>Chris. :mac:</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="MrChris, post: 263456, member: 7584"] Hey guys & girls, I'm seriously considering buying an iMac to kick start my 3rd & final year of University. The iMac I'm after is the following: 20-inch widescreen LCD 1680x1050 resolution 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor1 4MB shared L2 cache 1GB memory (2x512MB SO-DIMM) 250GB Serial ATA hard drive2 8x double-layer SuperDrive (DVD+R DL, DVD±RW, CD-RW) ATI Radeon X1600 graphics with 128MB GDDR3 memory Built-in AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0 Apple Remote & Apple wireless keyboard & Mighty Mouse This would cost me £913.84 with my student discount (not bad I thought). I'm even seriously considering selling my old iBook G4 to help cover the costs as I have thought long and hard and although I love my iBook to bits, it's just not powerful enough for me anymore :(. Anyhoo, a few questions. 1. Boot Camp - Is this software still free to download? Also if I was to install Windows XP on my iMac how do you actually go about doing it? Is it a simple enough operation? 2. Graphics - I noticed that the only real change between the 20" and the 24" iMac is the graphics card. Is the ATI Radeon X1600 a decent card? I have only ever really used NVIDIA and so don't have much experience with game playing on an ATI card. 3. Front Row - It would be so nice to be able to lie back on my bed and watch my media using a remote rather than having to look through files and folders with a mouse. I have some video files that have been encoded using different codec’s (i.e. XviD .avi files, DivX .avi files and so on). Now to play these on my Windows system I need to install a codec pack. Will these media files be able to play through Front Row? Speakers - Are the speakers of a good quality on the iMac? This is not a problem either way as I already have a Creative iTrigue 2.1 sound system that I could hook up. (I'm a bit of a sound snob) 4. Video Editing, Photoshop, Macromedia/Adobe Suite - These are the tools of my trade so to speak, I just want opinions on weather this model iMac will be adequate to perform processor/memory intensive tasks efficiently. I have never owned a core 2 Duo computer before and so have never experienced the difference it makes over a single core processor. (for comparison purpose the main machine I work with at the moment is an AMD Athlon 64 Windows based machine with 1GB memory and an NVIDIA 6600GT 128MB Graphics Card). Also, will this Mac last me a good few years? I'm not too fussed about buying it then a new one coming out a few months down the line as that’s always the deal with computers. But if there are some new Mac's due to be released any time soon then I will wait and see what's new with them. What do you guys think? Thanks in advance for opinions, info, help & advice. Regards, Chris. :mac: [/QUOTE]
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Apple Computing Products:
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Thinking of getting an iMac in the next few months...
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