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iMac G5 $1099 with GeForce 4 MX

nagromme

nagromme

macrumors G5
Original poster
May 2, 2002
12,546
1,196
If you enter the Apple Store as an education INSTITUTION (not individual), you get cheaper Mac options without optical drives--like an eMac for $599.

But there's now a new bottom-end iMac model just for education too:

17"
1.6 G5
No optical drive
40 HD
GeForce 4 MX / 32 VRAM

Cheap G5 power to run off an Xserve :)

Dug this info up after a tip on forums.MacCentral.com.
 
Snapshot attached.
 

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I'm in the Multimedia program at my school, and they are going ot be getting a whole lab of the new iMac G5s. I hope they don't get this model (I doubt they will, since we need the Superdrive and what-not). It would be a great system for high-schools and stuff though.
 
nagromme said:
If you enter the Apple Store as an education INSTITUTION (not individual), you get cheaper Mac options without optical drives--like an eMac for $599.

But there's now a new bottom-end iMac model just for education too:

17"
1.6 G5
No optical drive
40 HD
GeForce 4 MX / 32 VRAM

Cheap G5 power to run off an Xserve :)

Dug this info up after a tip on forums.MacCentral.com.
Click to expand...
The main problem I have with the education version of the iMac G5 is the amount of video ram. That's going to kill the speed of some applications.

However, for some schools and situations, not having an optical drive is a good thing.
 
Bear said:
The main problem I have with the education version of the iMac G5 is the amount of video ram. That's going to kill the speed of some applications.

However, for some schools and situations, not having an optical drive is a good thing.
Click to expand...
It should only affect 3D programs. I think that anyone buying these for a school would (hopefully) know what programs are going to be run on them. If the class is a 3D class or a Multimedia class get the real thing. If you are setting up a lab for students to type their reports and check there email, who needs more VRAM than 32MB?
 
kgarner said:
It should only affect 3D programs. I think that anyone buying these for a school would (hopefully) know what programs are going to be run on them. If the class is a 3D class or a Multimedia class get the real thing. If you are setting up a lab for students to type their reports and check there email, who needs more VRAM than 32MB?
Click to expand...
Actually it affects everything. Remember Quartz Extreme? It uses video ram.

It's just that on some applications it won't be really noticeable.
 
Bear said:
Actually it affects everything. Remember Quartz Extreme? It uses video ram.

It's just that on some applications it won't be really noticeable.
Click to expand...
I still ask why you need more than 32MB of RAM. Yes Quartz Extreme uses the GPU to do 2D and 3D. But it only requires 16MB on very old cards to take advantage of it. I thnk that, right now, the most GPU inntensive task I've seen that is Quartz Extreme is Expose and maybe the iTunes visulalizer. And the card they are including will run it fine. And remember, we are talking about computers for a school lab, not home use. They aren't going to be used for iPhoto, iMovie, games, or anything remote intense. Students who need those will have access to labs with appropriate equipment for it. We are talking about a system that will be used primarily for word processing internet, email, spreadsheets, and other basic functions.
 
it's actually not a very good deal IMHO, but i guess for a school, a few extra 100's can make a difference...

1) crappier video card with half the memory (not a big deal for schools)
2) half the hard drive capacity (ok if you are using xserve)
3) no combo drive (meh... can definitely come in handy...)
all these sacrifices for a mere $100? i wouldn't take it..

reality
 
$100 may sound insignificant, but when a school is looking at buying one hundred machines, thats a savings of $10,000! That could be the deciding factor in buying or not buying the machine.

Aaron
 
Obviously it's a special option offered for certain situations, not a mass-market be-all and end-all.
 
Optical drives

Schools don't ALWAYS need a Combo drive on every machine. Sometimes it's actually desirable not to permit installing software or burning CDs. Admins do that over the LAN. So why buy an optical drive?

(I see that Apple offers an optional external Firewire optical drive with these too--something you could lock up but get out if needed.)
 
$100 is not a very significant savings considering what you lose for that money. While it is true that if you buy 100 iMacs you save $10,000, we are still talking about less than a 9% discount.
 
Unless of course you don't want those things... and then you lose nothing.

If you want them, get the regular iMac of course.

I'm quite sure Apple has these BECAUSE schools have asked for them.
 
Apple introduced the eMac because the LCD iMac couldn't compete pricewise with the old CRT iMac , and they still can't hit the price point the current eMac sits at.

Apple really doesn't want to keep low-margine products (look at all of them that they killed, CRTs/15" LCDs/etc.), yet that's where Dell is hammering Apple.

This new education iMac G5 is still too expensive, compared to the eMac and the Dells.
 
CD drives just become another repair reliability in most schools, during my entire time in Middle School and High School I never used a CD drive, all the programs were already on the machine, besides most school techs don't install via CD they just re image machines over the network. If schools want power its not a bad deal. Except Apple should not have skimped on the GPU, imagine how much it costs to make a seperate mobo with that card, they should have saved the money and kept the same cards for the edu models.
 
kgarner said:
I still ask why you need more than 32MB of RAM. Yes Quartz Extreme uses the GPU to do 2D and 3D. But it only requires 16MB on very old cards to take advantage of it. I thnk that, right now, the most GPU inntensive task I've seen that is Quartz Extreme is Expose and maybe the iTunes visulalizer. And the card they are including will run it fine. And remember, we are talking about computers for a school lab, not home use. They aren't going to be used for iPhoto, iMovie, games, or anything remote intense. Students who need those will have access to labs with appropriate equipment for it. We are talking about a system that will be used primarily for word processing internet, email, spreadsheets, and other basic functions.
Click to expand...

You ask "Why would you need more than 32MB of Video RAM?" I bet you were saying the same thing about 8MB and 16MB video Cards. I guess you will find out in a year "Why you need more than 32MB of Video RAM" I wonder are you running Panther on that G4 of yours and if so do you still use it's Original 8 or 16MB Rage Card? How are things running for you?

Download this App and you will see first hand.

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/15566
 
Little Endian said:
You ask "Why would you need more than 32MB of Video RAM?" I bet you were saying the same thing about 8MB and 16MB video Cards. I guess you will find out in a year "Why you need more than 32MB of Video RAM" I wonder are you running Panther on that G4 of yours and if so do you still use it's Original 8 or 16MB Rage Card? How are things running for you?

Download this App and you will see first hand.

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/15566
Click to expand...

You know, QE is not compatible with the old Rage 128 from the G3 and G4.
 
Bear said:
Actually it affects everything. Remember Quartz Extreme? It uses video ram.

It's just that on some applications it won't be really noticeable.
Click to expand...
You bring up another point - Tiger's Core Image frameworks won't be fully supported on a system with a low-end video card (in today's terms) like the GeForce 4MX.
 
Spock said:
You know, QE is not compatible with the old Rage 128 from the G3 and G4.
Click to expand...
Yes I know that I was just trying to prove my point. Back when we had 10.1 and 10.2 Kgarner was probably thinking the same thing which is why anyone would need more than 16MB of RAM.
 
I don't see your point.

Schools do quite well with less than that. Its always great to see a 64MB GPU working hard in a Highschool lab when they teach students how to use Filemaker Pro to make a crappy database. They screwed with the entire FileMaker Pro experience....ARGH!! :p

I think the labs would do quite well, even with a 16MB video card, although its nice to get something more usable. No iPhoto use, possibly some iTunes use (if songs are transferred over via flash drive), word processing, email...... do you actually think they need a better video card? I only have a 32MB Geforce 5200 on my rev B 12" PB, and I'm fine and dandy, so like others have pointed out, the school is saving some valuable dollars this way, plus they don't have to worry about the issues related to having a disk drive on board. They don't need it anyway, and if they do need it for a particular subject, they should know their needs better than you and get a regular one. At least now they have a choice based on their needs. The smaller HD was also a good idea, but they would have been fine even with a 30 GB HDD. They probably provide student storage accounts anyway.

Of course, Macmania also makes a very valid point (concerning Apple making a new mobo just to sell these edu iMac models, and I agree with him there as well.
 
Lots of school labls are full of PCs with integrated video chipsets that a GeForce 4MX will run circles around.
 
kgarner said:
I'm in the Multimedia program at my school, and they are going ot be getting a whole lab of the new iMac G5s. I hope they don't get this model (I doubt they will, since we need the Superdrive and what-not). It would be a great system for high-schools and stuff though.
Click to expand...

Could you please install folding on every one of them and help our Macrumors folding team?!
 
nagromme said:
Unless of course you don't want those things... and then you lose nothing.
Click to expand...

Right. Isn't treo (or someone) offering two versions of a cell phone, one with and one without the camera? Same price. If you really don't want, or can't have, a camera, you're not considering the lack of cost savings.
 
sounds like good deals for schools. i wouldnt get one b/c playing a video game on 32MB video memory stinks.(not to mention needing at least a CD drive to read the game) a word proccessing/e-mail/web lab at a school would be fine, especially since so many people now use thumb drives. the only thing tha would stink would be FCP . . . but wouldnt someone desiring FCP run that on a dual PM anyway?
 
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