Will be buying a 24' IMAC tonight

[BRUUUCE]

almost bought a 20' and an Apple rep was on campus yesterday and a bigger model was coming out. so...

i am buying this mac because i want an intel to boot windows as well. i will use this computer mostly for the adobe creative suite (i know, i have to wait a bit for solid running version). I like to dick around with audio production and occaisonally play games. I will probably buy supreme commander when it comes out. With that said.

I will be getting 2gig of ram. Should I 1) get 3gigs 2) is that extra gig worth the 750 price tag. cause it's seems off with how cheap it is to go 1gig -> 2gig

i'm getting the bigger harddrive, better processor and video card upgrade so i dont know if the extra gig is still worth it.

 

[I'mAMac]

2 gigs of RAM should be enough with that setup. If you have the money get 3 but if you don't get 2. If you find that you need 3 gigs down the line, you can always add it in.

 

[BRUUUCE]

so imacs ARE upgradable? I was under the impression they weren't. I'll probably get 2 gigs then since third party ram will be much cheaper.

 

[DeSnousa]

so imacs ARE upgradable? I was under the impression they weren't. I'll probably get 2 gigs then since third party ram will be much cheaper.

The new iMac 24" can have it's Hardrive, ram, and now vram upgraded.

•Macsimumnews reports that the new 24" iMac incorporates a Mobile PCI Express Module (MXM) connector for its video card. The use of this standard connector potentially means that the video card in the newest iMac is upgradeable.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/231476/

 

[mulletman13]

Wow! That 24 foot version must have cost you an arm and a leg!

 

[BRUUUCE]

Wow! That 24 foot version must have cost you an arm and a leg!

well don't I look cool.

 

[Sobering]

so imacs ARE upgradable? I was under the impression they weren't. I'll probably get 2 gigs then since third party ram will be much cheaper.

I wouldn't put 3rd part RAM in a Mac. I've heard that you get lots of kernel panics but I'm a newb to computer stuff so I could be wrong. Correct me if I am.

 

[mulletman13]

well don't I look cool.

Sorry, I share in your joy. I just sold my 17" PowerBook... one step closer to upgrading to a 24" iMac!

Please post some unboxing pictures and size comparison pics when you get it :-D

 

[BRUUUCE]

absolutely. I have nikon D50 all ready for when it comes. when i checked this morning, it should ship in 2-4 days. But this seems to be getting a lot of a buzz, hopefully this hasn't raised.

im not much of a hardware techy so maybe i should just get 3 gigs worth - i don't know, i'll be purchasing it in 3 hours when I get home. Maybe there will be a post swaying me one way or the other by tonight. thanks all for the help.

 

[admanimal]

I wouldn't put 3rd part RAM in a Mac. I've heard that you get lots of kernel panics but I'm a newb to computer stuff so I could be wrong. Correct me if I am.

3rd party RAM is absolutely fine as long as you either buy a brand that specifically advertises that it is Mac ready (like Crucial), or go on newegg.com and read the reviews to see which chips people have successfully used in their Mac.

I have used Crucial memory in an iBook, PNY memory in an iMac G5, and G.Skill memory in a Macbook without any problems.

 

[mrgreen4242]

I wouldn't put 3rd part RAM in a Mac. I've heard that you get lots of kernel panics but I'm a newb to computer stuff so I could be wrong. Correct me if I am.

Ya, this used to be an issue a few years back, but now a days, especially with the Intel switch (they are using Intel chipsets/mobo reference designs for the most part) it's really not an issue. Get good quality RAM from a good supplier (Crucial or Newegg as suggested) and you'll be fine.

That said, the Apple price for 2gb upgrade is fairly decent. The 3gb upgrade is so expensive because 2gb SODIMMs are still pricey. You could add one in a year or so when they get cheap(er) but in the meantime 2gb should get ya along just fine.

As for the GPU/VRAM upgradability - that looks promising, but I wouldn't count on it just yet... we don't know if they really use MXM or whatever, for one (no one's seem the inside and can verify it for us). We don't know if the Apple EFI or OS X kernel will take any ole' MXM card for another. If not, we don't know Apple will be selling them.

Anyways, get the iMac, enjoy it and let us know if the GPU comes out.

 

[^squirrel^]

Anyways, get the iMac, enjoy it and let us know if the GPU comes out.

This is great news. I was about to take the plunge on getting a Macpro becuase i dont like having out dated GPU's. I need pic I need pics....Need to see this thing apart!

 

[Caitlyn]

Good choice to go for the 24". Post some pictures, eh?

 

[ipoddin]

Y
As for the GPU/VRAM upgradability - that looks promising, but I wouldn't count on it just yet... we don't know if they really use MXM or whatever, for one (no one's seem the inside and can verify it for us). We don't know if the Apple EFI or OS X kernel will take any ole' MXM card for another. If not, we don't know Apple will be selling them.

Anyways, get the iMac, enjoy it and let us know if the GPU comes out.

Yeah, we don't know where you'll be able to buy new video cards - none are even on the market. For me, I wouldn't base my purchasing decision on the ability to eventually upgrade the video card.

 

[BRUUUCE]

well I was an ******* and waited until today to buy it. now it's 5-7 days until it actually ships. then 2-3 day delivery (paid the 30 bucks)

I got it maxed out w/ iwork. Now I just need to order XP and Microsoft Access through my school for free and i'm set!

off hand question, i see a lot of people recomending open source word processors. The only open source program I have used is NVU which is open source web editor. It was soooo buggy/slow which has kept me away from open source - are all open source programs like this? Or is this an isolated incident

 

[Allotriophagy]

I just placed an order for one. Was going to wait till Tuesday but can't be bothered.

 

[NorCalLights]

off hand question, i see a lot of people recomending open source word processors. The only open source program I have used is NVU which is open source web editor. It was soooo buggy/slow which has kept me away from open source - are all open source programs like this? Or is this an isolated incident

There is tons of great open source software out there... Have you ever used Firefox? Firefox is open source. The software that runs the vast majority of webpages is also open source... even parts of OSX are open source.

So you've probably used open source software without even knowing it. Give the word processors a chance and see if you like them. Some of them are great.

 

[DavidLeblond]

So you've probably used open source software without even knowing it

Yeah, a good portion of the websites out there run on Apache... thats open source. The website also uses PHP... thats open source. There is a ton of it out there.

 

[nitynate]

A TWENTY FOUR FOOT iMac?????!!!!!



...and I thought twenty would be enough...