iMac now or later? Help please

[mauly]

First of all this will be my first apple mac and I'm very excited to get one on my desk.

The main purpose of my mac will be Final Cut Pro and Photoshop - will be getting the production suite - can't wait to get my hands onto motion, looks like I can have alot of fun with that and have heard its easy to get good result! even from the beginner?

Obviously surfing the web will be used heavily along with music and watching dvds - and light gaming.

But.... I really don't know weather to get one now or wait a few months, Is it worth me waiting for the update? what is the update likely to be? small increase .2GHz or increase in FSB or both!!

or should I just go for it? :eek:

[allisonv7]

I'm in the same situation - have been planning on purchasing one for a couple months now, just waiting for a refund check from my old job which I received this week. I'm going to wait for MWSF, just in case anything happens with the imac, and then go buy one.


allison.

[carlos700]

You might be better off with a dual 1.8 GHz Power Mac G5 with the NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT Graphics Card. It isn't terribly expensive -but when working with graphics the NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT Graphics Card will be EXTREMELY faster than the aging NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra Graphics Card. Dual Processors will help too.

[mauly]

You might be better off with a dual 1.8 GHz Power Mac G5 with the NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT Graphics Card. It isn't terribly expensive -but when working with graphics the NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT Graphics Card will be EXTREMELY faster than the aging NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra Graphics Card. Dual Processors will help too.

Unfortunitly thats too expensive for me.... if only I had the money!

[shyataroo]

Unfortunitly thats too expensive for me.... if only I had the money! whats your budget?

[mauly]

whats your budget?

£1100 = system

£500 = software

[Benj]

I am in the same iMac iBoat. Let's see what happens next week....

From your budget I guess you could go for the 1.8 single, but it looks like a real rip to me compared to the iMac. (And you are stuck with a gigantic tower and an ugly monitor.)

[jxyama]

pretty much all of these posts have the same answer: wait a week and then get it.

historically, if the last few years is an indication, it's MWSF then a void of about 5 months until a (possible) update.price drop in early summer. if you are going to wait 5 months just to see what's coming up, then you'll always be waiting.

[mauly]

pretty much all of these posts have the same answer: wait a week and then get it.

historically, if the last few years is an indication, it's MWSF then a void of about 5 months until a (possible) update.price drop in early summer. if you are going to wait 5 months just to see what's coming up, then you'll always be waiting.

I was thinking a couple of months - not half a year!!!!!

will wait until MWSF tho....

[Benj]

pretty much all of these posts have the same answer: wait a week and then get it.

historically, if the last few years is an indication, it's MWSF then a void of about 5 months until a (possible) update.price drop in early summer. if you are going to wait 5 months just to see what's coming up, then you'll always be waiting.

Looking at the Buyer's Guide the only iMac update on as short a timeframe as where we are at now (? great English Ben!) was when they introduced the 20" iMac.

Maybe we will get a 23" iMac. That would be nice.

A processor upgrade seems higly unlikely as the iMac would have a faster processor than the bottom of the line PM which was introduced very recently.

[jxyama]

Looking at the Buyer's Guide the only iMac update on as short a timeframe as where we are at now (? great English Ben!) was when they introduced the 20" iMac.

i doubt the iMac update next week, but who knows. Ti was updated in nov. '02 right before 12/17 Al were introduced in jan. '03. that was, for overall PB line, an update after just two months...

[mauly]

Just had a look at the buyer guide and noticed we're only 64 days away from imacs average update - but there again the emac is 90 days ( 3 months!!! ) over its average release update.....

This is only confussing me more - think it will get to a point were I'll just toss a coin.... :)

[thequicksilver]

Personally (based on guesswork and a vague analysis of the trends) I can't see Apple updating the iMac G5 at all for a good while, possibly even as late as May or June.

Keep your eye out on the online Apple Store's refurb section on a Wednesday morning - savings to be had. Also if you're a student/know a student (esp. one in Higher Education) then that's the route to take to save quite a few extra quid.

[jxyama]

Just had a look at the buyer guide and noticed we're only 64 days away from imacs average update - but there again the emac is 90 days ( 3 months!!! ) over its average release update.....

This is only confussing me more - think it will get to a point were I'll just toss a coin.... :)

i wouldn't just look at the days past... going from G4 flat-panel iMac to G5 monitor iMac was a big step. it wasn't just a speed bump and i'm fairly certain that apple will try to bring any sort of updates to PBs and eMacs before changing the iMac...

[StylePower]

Remember that the rumors says they are going to itroduce a 1,6GHz eMac, and if they do so, I think it would be too close the iMac, so they have to update it too.

[mauly]

Remember that the rumors says they are going to itroduce a 1,6GHz eMac, and if they do so, I think it would be too close the iMac, so they have to update it too.

except the emac will still be a G4

[wdlove]

It would be smart to wait till after MWSF, though unlikely any update will occur. Probably no update till summer. Even if soon you will have the enjoyment of your iMac. It's a situation that there are always updates down the road. If you are in need, buy what you need when you need.