iMac 20" 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo
It's almost a week to the day since I finally upgraded from my 17" 1.83GHz Core Duo iMac, which was bought in February 2006 from PC World in Glasgow long before the days of Apple retail stores here in Scotland.
I had always planned to upgrade around February/March this year, and it was in February that my Father-in-Law mentioned an offer being run by his employer, RBS, to receive discounts in various online and retail stores.
To cut a long story short I was offered the £782 20" iMac for £612. By the time the offer closed (February 27th) and the date payment was to be taken from my in-law's salary (March 18th), Apple launched a new range of iMacs. I was originally ordered this model at an increased price, to me, of £743 before RBS contacted Apple and rectified the situation to ensure the original model on offer was shipped. So here I am with the "old" 20" 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo, but am I bitter?
In all honesty, no. This system represents not only fantastic value at a little over £600, but is also a substantial upgrade to my (now) old iMac.
First impressions on opening the packaging and removing the familiar Apple sleeve box containing the usual keyboard/mouse/discs/manual combo, was the size of the system in comparison. I know it's bigger because it says so on the box, but when sat beside my 17" iMac it looks enormous. I can only begin to wonder how large the 24" would appear! With regards to the 24", it would be too large for me personally and 20" seems like a nice "solid" size for what I need the iMac do to.
The first thing I noticed right away was the superior build quality to the 17" white system. There is going to be very little chance of this system getting micro scratches from a simple wipe down, something that has plagued areas of my polycarbonate white iMac as the years have passed. The Aluminum feels sturdier and the black area around the screen has no gaps between it and the Aluminum where dust or other foreign objects can get lodged to ruin the appearance of the system.
On powering the system on, the brightness of the screen was astounding. My 17" iMac was powered on next to me and it suddenly looked very dull in comparison. The 20" system also boasts a far sharper display in comparison to my 17" and thus far the glossy finish has added a feeling of "professionalism" to the product. Also, the black frame around the screen of the 20" does a fantastic job of disguising the infamous iMac "chin", a quite clever optical illusion from Apple on that count. When sat next to my white 17", the previous system looks like Desperate Dan such is the magnitude of the "chin" area.
And finally in terms of performance I cannot fault this new iMac. Everything opens that little bit snappier, although I have ordered the 4GB upgrade from Crucial for £39.09 delivered, so that should enhance the system speed/performance considerably in apps like DW, PS, and FL.
So, while this isn't the all singing, all dancing, newly designed stand edition of the iMac, it isn't that far behind in my own opinion. When looking back I ask myself if the extra 260MHz (2.4 to 2.66), DDR3 over DDR2, and nVidia GPU over ATi GPU were worth the extra £130 or so it would have cost me had the order gone through. In all honesty, I would need to sit down with the new system to be completely sure of what I say, but I think the £130 is in a better place in my wallet!
All in all, another fantastic system from Apple that proves to me the old saying that you should buy a computer for what you NEED it to do, and not because it's simply the latest and greatest. If this system pops up anywhere at the kind of money I got it for, and you're sitting on a G5 or Core Duo iMac waiting on an upgrade, snap this system up. It is far from an out of date dinosaur ... and if my 17" felt good enough to use only last month at the age of 3 years old, I can imagine this system lasting longer.