When I got my G4 mini a little over a year ago, I instantly fell in love with it. Then, when Apple switched over to the Intel base, I really wanted something new, but I was still in college, so I knew it had to wait. Now that I'm done with college, I purchased myself a new 20" iMac.
I got the base model. It has the 2Ghz Core2Duo, ATI HD 2400XT, 250Gb hard drive and 1Gb of memory. This machine is plenty for me (compared to the mini). I dont really do anything that is taxing on the machine, besides the occasional messing around with photoshop and iMovie. I am still going to upgrade to 2Gb of ram from crucial (around $50).
This thing is an absolute screamer. It is extremely fast (and it is technically the slowest of all the new iMacs). I havent had any problems running anything right now. Runs Aperture perfectly, it runs Photoshop perfectly (havent tested FCP yet..lol). Although it is very fast, it doesnt make a bit of noise. The only thing that does is the SuperDrive. But that is to be expected. Its a silent monster.
The new software suite (iLife) is really nice. The new iPhoto takes some getting used to. Mostly the new organization of where the pictures are if you were to look for them through finder. You have to "Show Package Contents" on the iPhoto Library within Finder. After that, you are good to go. I have noticed that if you use Front Row and go to your events within iPhoto and try to play a slide show, it locks up Front Row. You can view pictures with Front Row as long as they arent within an event. Troublesome. iMovie is very nice I think. I have heard some gripes about switching from the old version to this one. Since I never used the previous version, I have no clue. I made a short 30sec movie from some pictures that I had along with a song in the background and a title at the beginning in about 20 minutes. Once I got the hang of it, it went pretty smoothly. The new options to post directly to YouTube and such is very handy (havent used it tho). I havent used any of the other iLife programs, basically because I dont really have any use for them.
When it comes to the hardware, I only have one issue. And it might just be me and that I need to adjust to it. The screen is VERY bright. What I mean is, it seems to me that the Gamma is too high. There doesnt seem to be enough contrast sometimes. It might just be me, who knows. The glass screen is very nice. I have no problems with reflections at all (this is mainly because there is nothing behind me). If I am watching a movie, I can see me in the reflection, but if you focus on the movie then you dont notice anything. The new keyboard (wired) is awesome! It will take some getting used to, but I already love the thing.
Overall, this is a GREAT product and well worth the 1200 bucks. This was pretty short, but I hope it helps anybody.
I got the base model. It has the 2Ghz Core2Duo, ATI HD 2400XT, 250Gb hard drive and 1Gb of memory. This machine is plenty for me (compared to the mini). I dont really do anything that is taxing on the machine, besides the occasional messing around with photoshop and iMovie. I am still going to upgrade to 2Gb of ram from crucial (around $50).
This thing is an absolute screamer. It is extremely fast (and it is technically the slowest of all the new iMacs). I havent had any problems running anything right now. Runs Aperture perfectly, it runs Photoshop perfectly (havent tested FCP yet..lol). Although it is very fast, it doesnt make a bit of noise. The only thing that does is the SuperDrive. But that is to be expected. Its a silent monster.
The new software suite (iLife) is really nice. The new iPhoto takes some getting used to. Mostly the new organization of where the pictures are if you were to look for them through finder. You have to "Show Package Contents" on the iPhoto Library within Finder. After that, you are good to go. I have noticed that if you use Front Row and go to your events within iPhoto and try to play a slide show, it locks up Front Row. You can view pictures with Front Row as long as they arent within an event. Troublesome. iMovie is very nice I think. I have heard some gripes about switching from the old version to this one. Since I never used the previous version, I have no clue. I made a short 30sec movie from some pictures that I had along with a song in the background and a title at the beginning in about 20 minutes. Once I got the hang of it, it went pretty smoothly. The new options to post directly to YouTube and such is very handy (havent used it tho). I havent used any of the other iLife programs, basically because I dont really have any use for them.
When it comes to the hardware, I only have one issue. And it might just be me and that I need to adjust to it. The screen is VERY bright. What I mean is, it seems to me that the Gamma is too high. There doesnt seem to be enough contrast sometimes. It might just be me, who knows. The glass screen is very nice. I have no problems with reflections at all (this is mainly because there is nothing behind me). If I am watching a movie, I can see me in the reflection, but if you focus on the movie then you dont notice anything. The new keyboard (wired) is awesome! It will take some getting used to, but I already love the thing.
Overall, this is a GREAT product and well worth the 1200 bucks. This was pretty short, but I hope it helps anybody.
