Its about time to upgrade to a new iMac

[Josh2022]

My last upgrade was in late '04/early '05. It was a Powermac G5. It has treated me well the past few years but I think it is about time to sell it and move on.

I am looking at the new alum. iMacs. I love how they look and when I was at the Apple store yesterday getting Leopard I got to take a look at one hands on and I really have to say that I am impressed with the over all look and speed.

My last mac lasted be almost three years, I was hoping to squeeze another year out of it but I do not believe I can. I currently have two 22" wide screen monitors hooked up to the stock ATI Radeon 9600 graphics card and it gets a bit laggy at times. I also have a custom gaming machiene build just for playing WoW and a few other games. I am planning on selling both rigs in order to fund my new iMac purchase. I am hoping to get around 900 for my G5, and around 1000 for my gaming rig(I already have a friend who is interested). That will give me around 1900 to work with. Money is an issue though. The more I can keep in the bank, the better.

A normal day on my computers(Mac and PC) is School Work (Coding, Graphic Editing (Nothing extreme, basic things)) I also play WoW for a few hours a night. I often have several programs running including an IRC program, Adium, iTunes, Comodo, iCal, etc..) My computers are rarely shut off.

I am tring to figure out which will be the best bang for my buck. I will be hooking one of my 22" monitors up to my iMac (I cant live without two screens =\)

I have done some research and have narrowed it down to two potential candidates:

20" iMac
* 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
* 2GB memory (Upgraded from 1GB)
* 320GB hard drive1
* 8x double-layer SuperDrive
* ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB memory


or

24" iMac
* 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
* 2GB memory (Upgraded from 1GB)
* 320GB hard drive1
* 8x double-layer SuperDrive
* ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB memory


I have to say that the 24", 2.8GHz is very impressive. I don't know if there is really a reason for me to get all that power though. I would really like this system to last for another three years if not more. Considering the two computers I am looking at are basicially the same, just different sized monitors. Would getting the 24" 2.8GHz system increase the "not-going-out-of-date" time by any considerable amount?

 

[Mundy]

I have to say that the 24", 2.8GHz is very impressive. I don't know if there is really a reason for me to get all that power though. I would really like this system to last for another three years if not more. Considering the two computers I am looking at are basicially the same, just different sized monitors. Would getting the 24" 2.8GHz system increase the "not-going-out-of-date" time by any considerable amount?

That was my justification for ordering the 2.8 GHz Core 2 Extreme iMac. I'd like this computer to last me until 2010 (or whenever the next version of OS X is released), so I figured I might as well max out the machine. Mine arrived yesterday and so far it's fantastic. It gives the Mac Pro I used to own a run for its money.

If you're not going to upgrade in a year, then I say go ahead and get the iMac with the Core 2 Extreme.

 

[Willis]

If you plan on keeping it for another couple of years, Max it out as much as you can afford. Get Ram elsewhere though, but then that goes without saying really.

I think 2.4 would be good enough for what you plan on doing, but the 2.8 will give you that little extra in the future when you may need it

 

[fireplace]

i got the 20" 2.4 in basic form in the middle of september - its great.

have now maxed out the ram to 4 gig from crucial (matched pairs are better i believe).

I'm very happy with it even though i chose to miss cheaper leopard. which i bought on the day of release!