New to Forums... iMac Advice?

I have not posted here much, but I am not clueless when it comes to computers ;P I have been wanting to get a iMac DT for a while now and prety much have the wifes approval. Though, with the release of the new updated version, the refurbs have dropped a bit and now I am very interested in the 24" previous version and have no need to max-out the features found on the new version (i.e. 30% larger HDD, double the video RAM and slightly better speed.)

My only video req. being that i want to transfer all my VHS rally footage to DVD/digital using this machine. I will of course get a stand alone HD for archieving.

I am asking if anyone has any pointers to look out for in the previous 24" Ver. that would keep me from buying one. I like the thought of the bigger screen obviously. I have already looked closely at the specs from Apple regarding the two machines. THAT is what makes this such an alluring prospect!

Many graceous thanks for you input. I am happy to be a here.

Christian

BTW how hard IS it to add RAM to this particular machine?;P

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No takers?

MacDad77 said:

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No takers?

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Adding RAM is easy: http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=73479

I have the 24" white Intel Core 2 duo iMac and like it very much. I don't do video processing but it's a plenty strong machine. Next step up (and it's a big step) is the Mac Pro.

I see there's some nice refurbished prices. Just this week I bought a refurbished MacBook and it arrive in excellent condition. No noticeable marks or scratches, etc. I was told that refurbished MacBooks come with new cases. I don't know if that's true for iMacs too.

I'd recommend Crucial RAM. Nice price, great quality, and they have a Mac chooser wizard that takes all the guesswork out of selecting the right RAM.

I'd definitely up the RAM to 2GB. You may even want to to to 3GB, but I'm not sure about that.

I've had external USB and Firewire drives on it, both worked fine, but if you're running Parallels I find it annoyingly slooow mounting them.

All in all, a fine machine.

O.

Thank you very much! Very informative and straight forward. I think that about sews it up for me then. Now just to wait for the school funds!;P

I like this. I was worried I'd get a "do a search" response. As I mentioned I'm new to the Mac universe and so far the experience has been very good. I am a savvy researcher but i have a really full life and don't get as much time to do it!

Thanks again opus!

Christian

MacDad77 said:

Thank you very much! Very informative and straight forward. I think that about sews it up for me then. Now just to wait for the school funds!;P

I like this. I was worried I'd get a "do a search" response. As I mentioned I'm new to the Mac universe and so far the experience has been very good. I am a savvy researcher but i have a really full life and don't get as much time to do it!

Thanks again opus!

Christian

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No problem. You're welcome! Do you know that OS X 10.5 Leopard is due out in October? You won't get a price break if you want to upgrade. $130 just like everyone else. Also, did you see that the iMac come with two 512 sticks of RAM, so that means all your memory slots are full. Increasing RAM means replacing the 2 512s, not just adding one stick of 1GB, which is sort of a waste.

According to the specs from apple, the 24" will support 3Gb of RAM and the included is 1Gb in 512 X 2 sticks. so in theory the board would support me adding another 1Gb stick right? I also would like to purchase the Apple Care plan as well. would this void the warranty? i know many plans for electronics support only qualified service techs to wrok on anything.-- never mind. says nothing in the Plan Lit about RAm modules. Only if the module caused a failure to a covered part.

I know I would have to upgrade to Leopard, But that can come later. The long haul cost factor seems to make the old 24" at least $70 more than the new 20". Strangely I'm having fun analyzing all this!

UPDATE:

Got a 24" iMac last week for anniversery! This thing is incredible!... oh and the wife got an iPhone

Congrats! Which one did you get? 

We sprung for the 24" version. I like the fact that it comes with a stick of 1GB ram already, so 2GB is just 50 bucks away. but beyond that good Lord that stuff is expensive!!

Now on to VHS to DV conveersion ;D

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=80631

Good stuff congrats on the machine!

Thanks! So far it's been lovely.