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iMac G5 owners--are you happy?
- Thread starter sigamy
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I love my iMac G5 17" 1.8Ghz! There is some fan noise, but I would say it is less then most PC's on the market. I leave mine in the highest performance setting and it works well. At first it seems a little "whiny" but you get used to the noise because it is not that bad.
I don't care what benchmarks people might point at saying the Mini is about as fast as the iMac, the proof is when you sit down and start computing, then you feel a big, I should say huge, difference in overall speed. I have never ran a Mini, but I have a 1Ghz Powerbook with all the same specs (including HD speed) except my Powerbook has a better video card and the iMac will have it for lunch in the speed department!!! Now I know the Mini is clocked higher, but since they are both running a 167Mhz FSB, I bet the difference is not huge.
Another thing to consider is that the iMac is 10.4 Tiger friendly. It will be able to run all the cool "little details" like Core Image. Unless I am wrong about it, I don't think the current Mini has a compatible video card to do this.
I have had my iMac G5 for over a month and it has been a great computer. Not a lot of time, but I have Applecare if any problems develop in the future. I don't think a person can go wrong with an iMac if you want a good balance between speed and value. Plus it is a great looking computer to have in your home.
I don't care what benchmarks people might point at saying the Mini is about as fast as the iMac, the proof is when you sit down and start computing, then you feel a big, I should say huge, difference in overall speed. I have never ran a Mini, but I have a 1Ghz Powerbook with all the same specs (including HD speed) except my Powerbook has a better video card and the iMac will have it for lunch in the speed department!!! Now I know the Mini is clocked higher, but since they are both running a 167Mhz FSB, I bet the difference is not huge.
Another thing to consider is that the iMac is 10.4 Tiger friendly. It will be able to run all the cool "little details" like Core Image. Unless I am wrong about it, I don't think the current Mini has a compatible video card to do this.
I have had my iMac G5 for over a month and it has been a great computer. Not a lot of time, but I have Applecare if any problems develop in the future. I don't think a person can go wrong with an iMac if you want a good balance between speed and value. Plus it is a great looking computer to have in your home.
17" 1.8 owner here, and I have had not one single problem. No fan noise problem and it is verys speedy for FC Express, and iMovie/iDVD (my "hardcore" uses for the machine).
That being said, if I needed one now I would wait two weeks to see if there is going be an update. If there was no update by the end of April, I'd buy.
That being said, if I needed one now I would wait two weeks to see if there is going be an update. If there was no update by the end of April, I'd buy.
we love our 17". It's such a great piece of industrial design, it's an instant classic, like the Mies Day Bed or the Noguchi Table. My biggest problem is how to display it. Technically speaking, it's lived up to my expectations, and while it can get noisy if I'm really choking the processor, I can forgive it that. Overall it's a very quiet machine and probably the best Mac I've owned.
I think you can see it best in this picture I found googling:SteveC said:What's this clear polymer you speak of?What does it cover and what does it do for the looks?
20" and absolutely adore it. I'm a cubeowner, so these reports of fan noise are odd to me, as my 20" is pretty much always very nearly as quiet as my cube. When I use the optical drive, it's even quieter, because my cube DVD drive can be LOUD. Please understand what a big deal this is on the noise front: the cube has NO FAN and the iMac is hardly any louder.
I suppose I might as well chime in as well, I love my iMac G5. I can't speak to relative performance except to say that it easily keeps pace with the dual G4 powermacs at work, though I can't recall what their processor speed is, but I know my iMac has more RAM. This is the first Mac I've ever owned, and I'm never going back, that's for sure. My old XP box was very well maintained (no virus, spam, or malware problems), but it would still go down every now and then for unexplained reasons. Needless to say, I've had no instability issues with OS X, my 20" screen has only one dead pixel (off near the bottom left where I never see it except when the screen is totally black) and is utterly gorgeous, and the OS and other software can't be beaten. Hell, even MS Office works better on the Mac. Even the fan whine that everybody keeps mentioning doesn't bother me, since my XP box's fan was unbearably deafening, whereas the iMac's blower noise can be drowned out by iTunes or game music at even low volume. The optical drive does get loud, but I expected that just based on the layout of the computer. My only "real" complaint is that since my desk faces the wall, I never get to see the beautiful back of the iMac!
I guess that was a really long way to say that I'm more than happy, I'm absolutely thrilled with my iMac G5.
I guess that was a really long way to say that I'm more than happy, I'm absolutely thrilled with my iMac G5.
I have a few friends that have G5 iMacs and I have used several myself doing demos on campus, I have not once experienced this "rampant fan problem". I think a small percentage had problems when they first were released and made alot of noise about it (no pun intended) -- I can definitely say that the G5 iMacs feel faster than the G4s (provided you have at least 512 Ram)