1,499 Powermac OR 1,799 iMac

Frozone · May 24, 2003, 02:45 PM

My mom came so close to buying the lowend iMac today at CompUSA but held off and said that she would get the 17 inch iMac in a few months. Would it just be better for her to get the low end Powermac instead or should she stick with the 17 inch iMac?

Sun Baked · May 24, 2003, 02:51 PM

If you already have a CRT or LCD monitor that you are satisfied with the PowerMac is a decent buy, especially if there are more components that you can use from your old machine (HD, memory, CD/DVD drives...)

jelloshotsrule · 02:56 PM

what all does she plan to do?

would you have a screen ready to plug the powermac into?

at this point, the baseline powermac is single 1ghz right? it's hard to give a good reason to get this over the imac... there are some things... graphics card, bus speed (i forget if this is still a difference), hard drive size (not sure about that either)...

i think the key is the monitor. and i don't think the bottomline pmac has superdrive.

ok, so i just checked out the 2 on the apple store....

the choice seems obvious to me. imac gets you:

same chip (less cache i believe)
same amount of ram
same graphics card
20 gb more hd (same speed- 7200 rpm)
superdrive
appleworks
17" screen

pmac gets you:

expandability
firewire 800

so i guess the question is. how important are expandability and firewire 800 to your mom?

also, the powermac will allow for a higher max RAM...

Frozone · May 24, 2003, 03:03 PM

She has an old monitor that came with her Compaq that she bought in 98', but it's about time for it to go. She will use iPhoto with our digital camera, Lot's of web browsing, iTunes, Word Processing, Maybe a lil video editing, watch DVD's, and I will use it for games like the Sims, WarCraft III, and mabye UT2K3.

But she won't be buying it until this fall so she can get a few bills paid off first.

Frozone · May 24, 2003, 03:05 PM

Ohh and how easy is it to upgrade ram in the iMac?

Sun Baked · May 24, 2003, 03:13 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Iceman06
Ohh and how easy is it to upgrade ram in the iMac?

Check out...

http://www.info.apple.com/usen/cip/

trebblekicked · May 24, 2003, 03:21 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Iceman06
She has an old monitor that came with her Compaq that she bought in 98', but it's about time for it to go. She will use iPhoto with our digital camera, Lot's of web browsing, iTunes, Word Processing, Maybe a lil video editing, watch DVD's, and I will use it for games like the Sims, WarCraft III, and mabye UT2K3.

But she won't be buying it until this fall so she can get a few bills paid off first.

sounds like the imac to me, but big things may be in store for later this fall...we may be looking at a whole new ballgame then...

Freg3000 · May 24, 2003, 03:22 PM

I'd say go with the iMac. I don't see a use for FW800 for you and your mom, and for expandability....it's nice......but I think I read somewhere that a really high percentage of people never upgrade their systems, even though they can.

I'd go with the iMac, for these reasons, plus it looks cool.

Catfish_Man · May 24, 2003, 03:24 PM

Get the iMac. Period. For a home user it's just better. Quieter, smaller, and with an amazing screen.

caveman_uk · May 24, 2003, 03:27 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Catfish_Man
Get the iMac. Period. For a home user it's just better. Quieter, smaller, and with an amazing screen.

The emacs not a bad machine either...cheaper but with a CRT instead of the flat screen. Depends if you want sexy hardware

Frozone · May 24, 2003, 03:53 PM

We have already bought an eMac. That was our first and to this date only Apple computer we bought. It was sorta a test run since we had never even used the OS. But now my mom wants the iMac and we are phasing out our 2 PC's and getting Macs.

AmbitiousLemon · May 24, 2003, 04:20 PM

Its good to start getting information early but if you are not planning on buying until Fall I do not think you should make any hard and fast decisions.

We have no idea what will happen in the coming months, this is truly one of the biggest turning points in Apple's history (intro of PPC was the last turning point of this scale) and although we have info about IBM's PPC970 and new G3s with altivec and fast FSB we really have no idea how/when Apple is going to deploy all these new technologies.

I would guess that at least some of this new stuff will hit market by the time you are looking to buy so keep in mind that the situation will very likely be very different than it is today, and that it is hard to predict right now what the best buy might be.

Freg3000 · May 24, 2003, 05:51 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by caveman_uk
Depends if you want sexy hardware

Everything is better when it is sexier.

Edit: My 500th post! Yippie!

May 24, 2003, 02:45 PM	#1
Frozone macrumors 6502 Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Atlanta, Georgia	1,499 Powermac OR 1,799 iMac My mom came so close to buying the lowend iMac today at CompUSA but held off and said that she would get the 17 inch iMac in a few months. Would it just be better for her to get the low end Powermac instead or should she stick with the 17 inch iMac?
	0

May 24, 2003, 02:51 PM	#2
Sun Baked macrumors G5 Join Date: May 2002	Re: 1,499 Powermac OR 1,799 iMac If you already have a CRT or LCD monitor that you are satisfied with the PowerMac is a decent buy, especially if there are more components that you can use from your old machine (HD, memory, CD/DVD drives...) __________________ MacRumors member fails resist iPhone glamour effect, suffers credit card damage 2d8.
	0

May 24, 2003, 02:53 PM	#3
jelloshotsrule macrumors 601 Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: serendipity	what all does she plan to do? would you have a screen ready to plug the powermac into? at this point, the baseline powermac is single 1ghz right? it's hard to give a good reason to get this over the imac... there are some things... graphics card, bus speed (i forget if this is still a difference), hard drive size (not sure about that either)... i think the key is the monitor. and i don't think the bottomline pmac has superdrive. ok, so i just checked out the 2 on the apple store.... the choice seems obvious to me. imac gets you: same chip (less cache i believe) same amount of ram same graphics card 20 gb more hd (same speed- 7200 rpm) superdrive appleworks 17" screen pmac gets you: expandability firewire 800 so i guess the question is. how important are expandability and firewire 800 to your mom? also, the powermac will allow for a higher max RAM... __________________ until the last lock breaks, none of us are free Last edited by jelloshotsrule; May 24, 2003 at 02:56 PM.
	0

May 24, 2003, 03:22 PM	#8
Freg3000 macrumors 68000 Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: New York	I'd say go with the iMac. I don't see a use for FW800 for you and your mom, and for expandability....it's nice......but I think I read somewhere that a really high percentage of people never upgrade their systems, even though they can. I'd go with the iMac, for these reasons, plus it looks cool. __________________ FregTK This Is Momentum.
	0

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May 24, 2003, 03:03 PM	#4
Frozone Thread Starter macrumors 6502 Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Atlanta, Georgia	She has an old monitor that came with her Compaq that she bought in 98', but it's about time for it to go. She will use iPhoto with our digital camera, Lot's of web browsing, iTunes, Word Processing, Maybe a lil video editing, watch DVD's, and I will use it for games like the Sims, WarCraft III, and mabye UT2K3. But she won't be buying it until this fall so she can get a few bills paid off first.
	0

May 24, 2003, 03:05 PM	#5
Frozone Thread Starter macrumors 6502 Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Atlanta, Georgia	Ohh and how easy is it to upgrade ram in the iMac?
	0

May 24, 2003, 03:24 PM	#9
Catfish_Man macrumors 68030 Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Portland, OR	Get the iMac. Period. For a home user it's just better. Quieter, smaller, and with an amazing screen.
	0

May 24, 2003, 03:53 PM	#11
Frozone Thread Starter macrumors 6502 Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Atlanta, Georgia	We have already bought an eMac. That was our first and to this date only Apple computer we bought. It was sorta a test run since we had never even used the OS. But now my mom wants the iMac and we are phasing out our 2 PC's and getting Macs.
	0

May 24, 2003, 04:20 PM	#12
AmbitiousLemon Demi-God (Moderator) Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: down in Fraggle Rock	Its good to start getting information early but if you are not planning on buying until Fall I do not think you should make any hard and fast decisions. We have no idea what will happen in the coming months, this is truly one of the biggest turning points in Apple's history (intro of PPC was the last turning point of this scale) and although we have info about IBM's PPC970 and new G3s with altivec and fast FSB we really have no idea how/when Apple is going to deploy all these new technologies. I would guess that at least some of this new stuff will hit market by the time you are looking to buy so keep in mind that the situation will very likely be very different than it is today, and that it is hard to predict right now what the best buy might be.
	0


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