20" Imac 2.0 vs 1.8

[aminadab]

So my school is running this insane deal on a NOS 20 imac 1.8 -- 1300 with apple care, wireless keyboard and mouse. My question: aside from the significant price, are there significant reasons to go with the 2.0 vs the 1.8? I can't see the Mhz making that much of a deal. I'm also looking for reliability comments; for instance, did apple use a lesser quality LCD for the 1.8? Is the 2.0 revision running much better? Thanks.

 

[mad jew]

You're comparing the original Rev A 20 inch iMacs with the Rev B ones, right? The newer ones have Bluetooth 2.0 (faster) and AirPort Extreme inbuilt which is cool. They are more reliable generally speaking (Rev A mid-plane replacements were common) and they have a much better GPU. The screen should be the same though and you probably would struggle to notice the 200MHz difference in CPU (and maybe slightly faster FSB).

 

[eXan]

I also heard that rev B has better power indicator (faster reaction to lighting changes?)

But for 1300$ I would definately get rev A 20-incher.

However the GPU in those was pretty weak compared to rev B

 

[rdowns]

Consider this a plug for the Rev. A. Had it just about a year now and wouldn't trade it for any other model. I can easily afford any Powermac and display but choose the iMac. The price is awesome. Go for it.

 

[aminadab]

Well, I don't know if it's an A or B. How do I tell? The B has the Radeon 7600
and the A the GeForce 5200? Or is there some other way to tell when I get to the store? Thanks for all the help so far.

 

[rdowns]

Rev A is 1.8 GHz
Rev B is 2.0 GHz

 

[Artful Dodger]

Hi, if it really bugs you the 2.0 is about 24% faster in some tests as per MacWorld (look at the review) but for $1300 for what they have to offer...lets just say putting another post up is less time from that nice "Big" 20" BIG screen, did I say 20" big

 

[AP_piano295]

If you can take advantage of the edu discount I would go with the rev B. selling the ipod mini you are looking at a 2-3 hundred dollar difference and you will be getting all the benifits of the newer model. More Reliable, Faster Processor 200 mghz does make a difference, far superior graphics card which does affect more then games, 512 ram, and a bigger HD I think.

 

[SteveG4Cube]

I got my Rev. A 20" 1.8 for $1399 from the apple store refurbished. It's supposed to have a 160gb HD and 256mb ram. It came with the same 250gb HD and 512mb as the Rev. B Machines! They still have some in stock. I also noticed that they've got refurb. Rev. B's for $1599 now. If that were available at the time, I probably would've gotten it instead - if anything for the better video card.

 

[carlos700]

Well, I don't know if it's an A or B. How do I tell? The B has the Radeon 7600
and the A the GeForce 5200? Or is there some other way to tell when I get to the store? Thanks for all the help so far.

The Rev. A iMac G5 has a NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra 64MB
The Rev. B iMac G5 has a ATI RADEON 9600 with 128MB

 

[neocell]

This will be very biased, but I would NEVER buy a rev A g5 iMac. Had two at work. First one was pathetic right out of the box. It didn't perform any better than the older G4 ones we had. Then we got a second one, didn't use it so I don't know how it initially worked, but both of them are now gone getting new hardware (graphics cards I think) after both crapped out with non stop panics. I was incredibly underwhelmed with them. These were both 17", don't know if the rev A 20" would be different, but I know I'd never "waste my money" on the rev A's.
Just 2¢ from someone screwed 2 for 2 = 100% failure

 

[chucknorris]

This will be very biased, but I would NEVER buy a rev A g5 iMac. Had two at work. First one was pathetic right out of the box. It didn't perform any better than the older G4 ones we had. Then we got a second one, didn't use it so I don't know how it initially worked, but both of them are now gone getting new hardware (graphics cards I think) after both crapped out with non stop panics. I was incredibly underwhelmed with them. These were both 17", don't know if the rev A 20" would be different, but I know I'd never "waste my money" on the rev A's.
Just 2¢ from someone screwed 2 for 2 = 100% failure

I can't vouch for the reliability, but I can almost guarantee the underwhelming speed was a power management issue.

If iMac G5's are set for energy savings (which they are out of the box despite the fact that they don't have batteries) the processor is keyed down and the speed lags. Turn it to high performance though, and prepare to be blown away.

 

[SteveG4Cube]

This will be very biased, but I would NEVER buy a rev A g5 iMac. Had two at work. First one was pathetic right out of the box. It didn't perform any better than the older G4 ones we had. Then we got a second one, didn't use it so I don't know how it initially worked, but both of them are now gone getting new hardware (graphics cards I think) after both crapped out with non stop panics. I was incredibly underwhelmed with them. These were both 17", don't know if the rev A 20" would be different, but I know I'd never "waste my money" on the rev A's.
Just 2¢ from someone screwed 2 for 2 = 100% failure

Like the above poster said, the power management needs to be set to high. Also, if you were getting panics it was most likely bad RAM. Was it OEM memory or some junk from Crucial? Mine performs flawlessly, blows away the speed of my G4 800 eMac, and I'd buy it again in a second.

 

[neocell]

Like the above poster said, the power management needs to be set to high. Also, if you were getting panics it was most likely bad RAM. Was it OEM memory or some junk from Crucial? Mine performs flawlessly, blows away the speed of my G4 800 eMac, and I'd buy it again in a second.

They've got the first one back, got some new hardware put in (like I said above I think it was a graphics card). I haven't used it again yet, but when I get back to work I'll give it another try and see if it's the processor setting, but I was pretty sure that I changed that once upon a time, though it's a multi-user computer so who knows what everyone else is doing to it.

Still, though, bad performance (maybe because of processor setting) and both having hardware crapping out on them (mac tech confirmed that it was the same hardware problem on both). Still not impressed, maybe the second revisions are better, or we just got a crappy lot. Needless to say, I'm very happy with my 1Ghz G4 iMac and I'll wait for Intel before buying another

 

[Naimfan]

I would say that unless you're doing a lot of heavy duty gaming or video editing that the Rev. A looks AWFULLY good. Applecare kinda clinches it. I thought about a Rev A. but I've not seen a deal as good as that one! So I went with a Rev. B.

Best,

Bob