finally! first mac ordered!

[mzd]

a bit silly maybe, but i'm super excited! this is my first mac and i've been wanting one for a long time. mostly lacking money up until recently and then waiting all summer for the iMac updates.

what i'm replacing...

PIII 600MHz (!!)
448 MB Ram
19" CRT
64MB GeForce 3
60GB hdd
windows XP.

originally put together in 1998 and upgraded periodically (proc, ram, hdd, vid).
lasted me a long time but is painfully slow now. there are simple internet flash games i can't even play. struggles to play DVDs and the latest quicktime / divx movies.

what i'm replacing with...
24" iMac
2.8 C2E
1GB RAM (will upgrade later)
500GB hdd
iWork '08
etc.

so in a couple of weeks i will be a very happy man.

 

[Dimwhit]

I'm pretty sure the 2.8 C2E iMac you ordered comes with 2GB RAM already. So there's that, too.

 

[iLionel]

I'm pretty sure the 2.8 C2E iMac you ordered comes with 2GB RAM already. So there's that, too.

It's cheaper to get the 1GB of RAM and upgrade it yourself...

 

[mzd]

It's cheaper to get the 1GB of RAM and upgrade it yourself...

yep. i did custom config on the standard 24" and upped only the proc & hdd. that extra gig of ram should cost me ~$40.
i've been deliberating over the 2.4 vs. 2.8 since tuesday. i decided w.t.h. - with the infrequency that i buy computers i'd best go up. also given that on my current system, the proc is the bottleneck. granted, that rarely happens - only if you wait so long to upgrade that technology has truly passed you by. but i do use proc intensive apps - photoshop/illustrator, some audio, some video, some 3D.

 

[Dimwhit]

It's cheaper to get the 1GB of RAM and upgrade it yourself...

I don't see a way to downgrade the machine to 1GB. (I'm talking about the 2.8 model.)

 

[mzd]

I don't see a way to downgrade the machine to 1GB. (I'm talking about the 2.8 model.)

you can't.
but you can upgrade the processor and hard drive on the 24" 2.4 model.

 

[Aea]

with the infrequency that i buy computers i'd best go up. also given that on my current system, the proc is the bottleneck.

I was always of the opinion that buying a medium tier computer and then putting the rest towards your next one was a better option then maxing out, the amount of performance you get decreases with the amount of money you get. Granted it depends on the setup and offers.

 

[mzd]

I was always of the opinion that buying a medium tier computer and then putting the rest towards your next one was a better option then maxing out, the amount of performance you get decreases with the amount of money you get. Granted it depends on the setup and offers.

in general that is a very good rule, provided you have a fairly frequent upgrade schedule. i haven't in the past. but the iMac is an AIO so we'll see now.
the other factor in this particular case is that going from 2.4 to 2.8 looks to be about a 16% performance increase which also happens to be a little greater than the increase in cost (13% - edu pricing).