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iMac G5 Arrived So Fast
- Thread starter Toe
- Start date
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Do you live in California or near California (in the USA) by any chance? If you do, that would explain the short shipping time. I live in Ohio, and my shipping times are never that quick.Toe said:
I'd suspect you're right - since you ordered via Apple Corporate Sales, you got better shipping service. I think it's only natural for Apple to do that - every little thing helps Apple get better established in the workplace, which it desperately needs.Toe said:
I received my new iMac today too!! It shipped from Shanghai on September 18, stopped in Subic Bay Freeport, Alaska, Indiana, Chicago, then my suburban FedEx location, before going out for delivery.
I only payed for standard shipping, so I was very surprised that it showed up today, especially since the estimated arrival date was Friday the 24th.
I got a 20" iMac with upgraded RAM ordered over the phone from the Apple Education Store. I ordered on September 10th, so I'm really impressed overall with how fast I got my new iMac.
I only payed for standard shipping, so I was very surprised that it showed up today, especially since the estimated arrival date was Friday the 24th.
I got a 20" iMac with upgraded RAM ordered over the phone from the Apple Education Store. I ordered on September 10th, so I'm really impressed overall with how fast I got my new iMac.
jet3004 said:
In brief, I can tell you that it is great! You can hear it in a silent room, but it is very quiet. My PowerBook wasn't perfectly silent, and i wouldn't say this is louder. I haven't done anything that caused the fans to ramp up yet, even though I have done things that would have gotten my PowerBook's fans going (probably at full speed, too). I think Apple's claims are well justified in the "softer than a whisper" department. You have to remember that you can here a whisper in a silent room, and likewise, you can hear the iMac too.
The speakers as expected don't have much bass, but I think they are fine for being built-in. The way my desk is, the whole bouncing sound off the desk thing doesn't really work as Apple would have intended, so I think the speakers could sound better if I rearranged things. Personally, I don't care enough to bother. If I need better sound, I'll connect my external speakers.
I think the screen is very bright, but the room I am in doesn't have very bright lights. The room is by no means dark, but it isn't an office with large fluorescent lights or anything. In order to not hurt my eyes, I had to set the brighness a bit below half.
I went with the 20" model, and the screen is gigantic. Coming from my 15.2" PowerBook, I'm definitely going through an adjustment period. It looks like my sceen has no dead/stuck pixels, but I haven't run a pixel check program or anything. However, I think if there were any, I would have noticed them by now. Viewing angles are excellent as expected. Adjusting the screen is very easy, and can be done with one finger. As i had suspected, the 20" model does look much more proportional than the 17" does, thanks to the white space under the screen.
So far I've been very impressed with performance. I have 512MB of RAM right now, and haven't bothered swithcing the Processor Performance setting from Automatic. I haven't done anything yet that would really push the iMac, so I can't comment on performace too in depth.
That's all I can think of at the moment, but feel free to ask questions.
Maybe I should post all this somewhere else too so it gets more visibility...
Weekend shipping? Damn, that's fast.
Gonna check my school bookstore tomorrow and see they got G5 iMac in stock yet.
Gonna check my school bookstore tomorrow and see they got G5 iMac in stock yet.
I am SO tempted by these new iMacs. I was gonna wait till next year and get a PM G5, but at this price point the new iMac might just tempt me away...as long as there is a dual screen hack!
Keep the reviews coming in, and enjoy your new iMacs you lucky _______!
Keep the reviews coming in, and enjoy your new iMacs you lucky _______!
edesignuk said:I am SO tempted by these new iMacs. I was gonna wait till next year and get a PM G5, but at this price point the new iMac might just tempt me away...as long as there is a dual screen hack!
Keep the reviews coming in, and enjoy your new iMacs you lucky _______!
im the same as you.... thinking about selling the powerbook..... they are mighty impressive... i infact didnt like them when they first came out...but they are growing on me FAST
but then i was put off by the noises the xbench party have been making...
Elan0204 said:
Could you post some pictures ? That would be great. And how does the 15" screen compare to the 20" ?
Thanks.
The variable-rate blowers are kinda amusing. My iMac is pretty quiet... just a low hum. But the moment I open SETI@Home, I can hear it start ramping up. If I leave it going for a bit, it starts ramping up even more. Even at its loudest, it isn't as loud as my eMac was, but the pitch of the whine is a little more jarring. It'll probably take a little more getting used to... or a little less SETI.Elan0204 said:
The moment I quit SETI, the blower quiets right down. Very cool.I replaced an eMac with an iMacG5/17, and the change is remarkable. Both are allegedly 17" screens, but the iMac's wide-aspect screen just dwarfs the eMac. A very pleasant experience.CmdrLaForge said:
I'm wondering if the 20" wouldn't actually be too big... I get the feeling I'd actually have to turn my head to look from one side of the screen to the other... that's already kinda the case with the 17.
Toe said:
Was it a BTO (i.e. upgraded hard drive, bluetooth module, etc.) or stock model? BTOs seem to be taking longer, as can be expected. But that's what I want to order
No, it was stock. We figured BTO might take longer, so ordered stock.coconn06 said:Was it a BTO (i.e. upgraded hard drive, bluetooth module, etc.) or stock model? BTOs seem to be taking longer, as can be expected. But that's what I want to order
An interesting note, however... if you are thinking of adding your own RAM, read the developer note on RAM expansion (framed version). It says:
If only one DIMM is installed, the memory bus is 64-bit. If two non-identical DIMMs are installed, there are two 64bit memory buses. If two identical DIMMs are installed, the memory bus is 128-bit. Identical DIMM pairs have the same size and composition and provide the fastest and most efficient throughput.
I don't know how identical they mean by "identical." Do they mean just the same specs, or actually the same manufacturer, etc.? If the latter, then you might want to consider BTO'ing the RAM on your iMac to get identical DIMMS. Or you could just buy two DIMMs from someone else, but of course would then need to find a home for the 256 that comes with the stock iMac.
dswoodley said:
No they don't, but the speakers at full volume are actually not that loud. Louder than I would probably listen too, but I don't really like to listen at things too loud because my ears are really sensitive and start to hurt.
One thing I have noticed about the speakers is that they seem to have a problem playing two things at once. When listening to iTunes, the little clicks that are made when changing the volume don't play exactly right. They become kind of harsh, like the speakers don't know what to do with the sound. Same thing with the poof sound when removing something from the dock. I guess it could be best described as a "pop" sound, but it only lasts for a split second at the start of whatever the second audio is. For example, I can play two songs at once, and the pop occurs when I press play for the second song, but then goes away leavong the second song playing normally.
Do you only have 256MB of RAM?Elan0204 said:
I suspect that this sort of sluggishness may be caused by the memory not being available to keep the sound in RAM, so it has to page the memory in. If that's the case, more RAM might solve this for you.
I don't understand why Apple sells Macs with 256MB. That is no longer enough RAM for anything but the most basic (or patient) of users. Anyone who likes to have a bunch of apps open at once is going to experience a lot of delays when switching programs or initiating new tasks (like loading a sound).
AL-FAMOUS said:
That's actually what I did. I wasn't using the portability of my 15" PowerBook, so I sold it to get an iMac G5. So far I'm very happy with the trade, and I feel like a got a great value.
Stop worrying about the xbench results, xbench is bad. Any benchmark that can produce results spanning over 50 points on the same computer is not doing its job right. Barefeats has there iMac G5 test results up. I'm very happy with them, but you can see in the game tests that the graphics card is going to be a real problem if you are a hardcore gamer.
If you want to discuss the Barefeats results, check out the MacRumors thread here
Toe said:
No, I have 512MB. I agree with you though, Apple should include 512MB from the start.
The audio issue isn't sluggishness, it is that there is a "pop" or crack in the audio, almost like the speakers are getting too much information at once and can't handle it immediately, causing distortion for the first half second of an additional audio signal.
By the way, in case people were wondering, the 160GB drive is from Seagate and spins at 7200 RPM with 8MB of cache. Here is a link to more information.
Toe said:
Yeah, that was posted previously in these forums. It takes advantage of the iMac's dual channel memory capability. As long as the RAM chips have the same specs (they don't need to be the same manufacturer) there will be an advantage. Though I'm sure most people will just order 2x512MB from one place.
Well, I gave in to temptation, 20" iMac winging it's way to me sometime in the next 2 weeks...it's gonna be a long 2 weeks!edesignuk said:I am SO tempted by these new iMacs. I was gonna wait till next year and get a PM G5, but at this price point the new iMac might just tempt me away...as long as there is a dual screen hack!
Keep the reviews coming in, and enjoy your new iMacs you lucky _______!
edit: oh, and BTW
edesignuk said:Well, I gave in to temptation, 20" iMac winging it's way to me sometime in the next 2 weeks...it's gonna be a long 2 weeks!
edit: oh, and BTW
LOL, that didn't take long . . .
p.s. everytime I see your posts I think that its Keira posting and not some dood.
edesignuk said:Well, I gave in to temptation, 20" iMac winging it's way to me sometime in the next 2 weeks...it's gonna be a long 2 weeks!
edit: oh, and BTW
Finally!! I was wondering how your dilemna would work out!
Trust me, you will not be sorry! I have had tons of macs, and I always could think of a bunch of pros and cons. With this one, I would not change one thing. (Yes, even the video card) Congrats and good luck waiting. I ended up cancelling my order and driving to Austin to pick mine up. Funny story about that too. My dad called me and said, "Hey, I just talked to the Apple store in Austin and they have the new imacs in stock, so it looks like I will get mine before yours ships!" He thought he was funny and he was laughing until I said, "I am walking into the Apple store right now to pick mine up!" He did not believe me for a second. Then, he had me pick his up too. So I guess he got the last laugh, because I made the roady for him.
Toe said:
Same reason most manufacturers do--to keep the base price down.
Why does BMW sell a car without any of the niceities, like leather, auto transmission, etc.? So they can list a price below $30k, knowing that most people will be teased in by that price and spend more.
But, yes, Apple should just put 512 in every machine and charge another $50 or so.