Should I upgrade to the intel iMac?

Joshua53077 · Jan 20, 2006, 01:20 PM

Ok, so here's my deal:
I'm a mac guy, always have been, always will be, but I generally am your average web surfer/emailer with a large mp3 collection and I love to dabble in iLife programs. I have an iMac G5 1.8 Ghz Rev. A. I also have a Rev A iBook dual USB, which is bordering on 5 years old now and sure isn't as snappy as it once was and a G4 Quicksilver running at 800 Mhz (one of the few that has solely a CD-R drive), which has not been touched since I bought my iMac.
I love my iMac and convinced my wife to buy one with me at the same time. Some of the issues that I have with it, though are that when it computes processor intensive tasks (excuse my lack of technical expertise), the fans tend to get quite noisy and sometimes, even when it is done with those tasks, it takes quite a while for the fans to "come back to earth." Also, there are times when I do find it a bit sluggish, particularly when working in the iLife suite (I did buy iLife 06 and still find it to be so). Granted, I only have 512 megs of ram (funny I say only when my Performa 636 10 years ago had somewhere around 24 megs).
So Apple introduces the new iMac last week and my first reaction, as any Mac person, was to drool quite a bit and figure out how to swing it. So I contacted PowerMax and inquired about their trade in program. Ultimately for my 3 systems mentioned above, they offered me $1550, which I don't think is a terrible deal. With my eye to the sky, I began to have dreams of the new 20 inch iMac, until I saw some of the benchmarks. Now, you must remember that the Rev A iMac G5 had none of the cooler new features such as Front Row nor the built in iSight, which are both appealing to me. Plus the graphic card on the Rev. A is a paltry 64 meg GeForce FX 5200 whereas these intels have a 128 meg Radeon x1600, plus the larger HD, etc.
So now I have a dilemma, do I trade in my macs, spend a couple of hundred bucks on getting the 20 inch iMac with some memory or do I stick with what I have, knowing full well that the value of my systems are at this point losing a considerable amount of resale value the farther down the intel path apple goes? Basically I'm searching for my dreams of a snappy finder, decent performance in iLife and less spinning beach balls (as an aside, when apple redid the beach ball in one of their recent OS releases, was I the only one who was not excited that they spent time to make my least favorite pointer icon look prettier? It was like an ominous sign or something). Anyway, I'd love to hear what some of you, if you were in the same position, would do.

kwajaln · Jan 20, 2006, 01:23 PM

Wait for Rev B Intel iMac!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TBi · Jan 20, 2006, 01:52 PM

Wait for Rev C Intel Mac!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously, wait for a few weeks and then read the user reports. The Rev A Intel's might actually be good. We'll all find out after a few weeks of user reports. If there aren't many hard ware problems (unlike the iMac G5 and powerbook rev.A's) then buy one.

Joshua53077 · Jan 20, 2006, 01:57 PM

I should have mentioned this in my original post. I just get the feeling that this revision of iMac will be with us for a while. First of all, the last revision was so quickly updated and second of all, I think that Apple isn't going to risk cannibalizing its high end sales of Power Macs by releasing anything much faster than what it just released, at least until the Power Macs are transitioned to intel. If I had to guess, I'd say we're stuck with this revision to August or so, just in time for back to school and early christmas season.

TBi · Jan 20, 2006, 03:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joshua53077

I should have mentioned this in my original post. I just get the feeling that this revision of iMac will be with us for a while. First of all, the last revision was so quickly updated and second of all, I think that Apple isn't going to risk cannibalizing its high end sales of Power Macs by releasing anything much faster than what it just released, at least until the Power Macs are transitioned to intel. If I had to guess, I'd say we're stuck with this revision to August or so, just in time for back to school and early christmas season.

Very good thinking. I'd agree but Apple never seems to do logical things. However even they don't wanna take sales away from their pro range.

Jan 20, 2006, 01:20 PM	#1
Joshua53077 macrumors newbie Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Long Island, NY	Should I upgrade to the intel iMac? Ok, so here's my deal: I'm a mac guy, always have been, always will be, but I generally am your average web surfer/emailer with a large mp3 collection and I love to dabble in iLife programs. I have an iMac G5 1.8 Ghz Rev. A. I also have a Rev A iBook dual USB, which is bordering on 5 years old now and sure isn't as snappy as it once was and a G4 Quicksilver running at 800 Mhz (one of the few that has solely a CD-R drive), which has not been touched since I bought my iMac. I love my iMac and convinced my wife to buy one with me at the same time. Some of the issues that I have with it, though are that when it computes processor intensive tasks (excuse my lack of technical expertise), the fans tend to get quite noisy and sometimes, even when it is done with those tasks, it takes quite a while for the fans to "come back to earth." Also, there are times when I do find it a bit sluggish, particularly when working in the iLife suite (I did buy iLife 06 and still find it to be so). Granted, I only have 512 megs of ram (funny I say only when my Performa 636 10 years ago had somewhere around 24 megs). So Apple introduces the new iMac last week and my first reaction, as any Mac person, was to drool quite a bit and figure out how to swing it. So I contacted PowerMax and inquired about their trade in program. Ultimately for my 3 systems mentioned above, they offered me $1550, which I don't think is a terrible deal. With my eye to the sky, I began to have dreams of the new 20 inch iMac, until I saw some of the benchmarks. Now, you must remember that the Rev A iMac G5 had none of the cooler new features such as Front Row nor the built in iSight, which are both appealing to me. Plus the graphic card on the Rev. A is a paltry 64 meg GeForce FX 5200 whereas these intels have a 128 meg Radeon x1600, plus the larger HD, etc. So now I have a dilemma, do I trade in my macs, spend a couple of hundred bucks on getting the 20 inch iMac with some memory or do I stick with what I have, knowing full well that the value of my systems are at this point losing a considerable amount of resale value the farther down the intel path apple goes? Basically I'm searching for my dreams of a snappy finder, decent performance in iLife and less spinning beach balls (as an aside, when apple redid the beach ball in one of their recent OS releases, was I the only one who was not excited that they spent time to make my least favorite pointer icon look prettier? It was like an ominous sign or something). Anyway, I'd love to hear what some of you, if you were in the same position, would do.

Jan 20, 2006, 01:23 PM	#2
kwajaln macrumors 6502 Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: CHICAGO!	Wait for Rev B Intel iMac!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! __________________ www.partridgezone.com iMac G5 20-inch 2.0GHz 2GB RAM iBook G4 12-inch 1.2GHz 512MB RAM Wacom graphics tablet Lacie 500GB HD Final Cut Studio

Jan 20, 2006, 01:52 PM	#3
TBi macrumors 68020 Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Ireland	Wait for Rev C Intel Mac!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously, wait for a few weeks and then read the user reports. The Rev A Intel's might actually be good. We'll all find out after a few weeks of user reports. If there aren't many hard ware problems (unlike the iMac G5 and powerbook rev.A's) then buy one. __________________ Than: (used to introduce the second member of an unequal comparison): "She's taller than I am." Then: at that time: "Prices were lower then."

Jan 20, 2006, 01:57 PM	#4
Joshua53077 Thread Starter macrumors newbie Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Long Island, NY	Just a thought I should have mentioned this in my original post. I just get the feeling that this revision of iMac will be with us for a while. First of all, the last revision was so quickly updated and second of all, I think that Apple isn't going to risk cannibalizing its high end sales of Power Macs by releasing anything much faster than what it just released, at least until the Power Macs are transitioned to intel. If I had to guess, I'd say we're stuck with this revision to August or so, just in time for back to school and early christmas season.

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