Advice needed for iMac upgrade...

[tallcat47]

Greetings everyone!
I am self taught over the past 10 years on Macs. Started with an old Mac Plus and am now on an iMac with a 330 processor.
I am looking to upgrade to a faster machine with the 17" display because I do desktop publishing. I do not, howerver, play games, or watch movies online. I may get into downloading music as it's a love of mine.
Anyway... There are great deals now on 17" display iMacs with the 700 processor.
1. Would I notice much difference between the 700 and the 800 for my purposes?
2. Do I really need a Superdrive if I don't do a lot with cd's and dvd's?
3. Anything else I should particularly watch for?
I'm disabled, money is tight, and I don't want to under buy, but I don't want to over buy either!
Thanks in advance for helping...
Carol-Lynn

 

[tallcat47]

PS
Is the difference in the quality of the flat floating display rather than the all-in-one significant?

Thanks!
C-L.PS

 

[MontanaMacster]

go for the flat pannel lcd

The crt imacs screen is the first thing to go on them, and the lcd just looks so much clearer. You don't need a 800mhz model, but if you drop down to 700mhz you also have to drop down to a 15 inch inch screen. which is still very easy to look at. I suggest you look at the mid range Emac. 17 inch flat screen
800MHz PowerPC G4
256MB SDRAM
60GB Ultra ATA drive
SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW)
56K internal modem
for $1,499.00

 

[Chaszmyr]

Before buying anything, I would wait a week and see of the iMacs and or eMacs get updated. Right now though, I think the eMac looks like a better value than the iMac (even though I personally would rather have an iMac)

 

[dstorey]

Re: Advice needed for iMac upgrade...

Originally posted by tallcat47
I'm disabled, money is tight, and I don't want to under buy, but I don't want to over buy either!
Thanks in advance for helping...
Carol-Lynn

I second the wait until the imac/emac are updated as they are due soon.

I would however recommend the imac over the emac if the crt's are still the first to go on them and if you are disabled then the imac's floating screen may be a very usefull feature as you can adjust it to whatever hight and angle feels comfortable. I suppose it would be best to try one out first to see if it is any better for you. The superdrive is only useful if you are going to create your own dvd's otherwise just the plain cd rw would suit your needs.

 

[iJon]

hold on a second. if i remember right, the 17inch imac never had a 700 mhz processor, just an 800 since it was top of the line. i am probably just misunderstanding what the guy said but ill just point that out.

iJon