A second monitor. USB 3.0, Firewire 3200, faster ethernet or wifi, or any other technology not yet ready. RAID. eSATA. Audio D/A converters. Whatever else Mac Pro owners use their three slots for.
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Limited iMac Availability Suggests Possible Refresh
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A second monitor. USB 3.0, Firewire 3200, faster ethernet or wifi, or any other technology not yet ready. RAID. eSATA. Audio D/A converters. Whatever else Mac Pro owners use their three slots for.
RAID is a good option. Sincee many of the Intel chipset SATA controllers natively support RAID, many PCs can be configured with a pair of drives in a RAID-1 mirror set for reliability.
Here are some of the options on the Dell Studio XPS:
- 640GB Performance RAID 0 (2 x 320GB SATA 3Gb/s 7200 RPM HDDs) [add $100 or $3/month1]
- 1TB Performance RAID 0 (2 x 500GB SATA 3Gb/s 7200 RPM HDDs) [add $150 or $5/month1]
- 1.28 TB Performance RAID 0 (2 x 640GB SATA 3Gb/s 7200 RPM HDDs) [add $175 or $6/month1]
- 500GB Data Security RAID 1 (2 x 500GB SATA 3Gb/s 7200 RPM HDDs) [add $150 or $5/month1]
- 640GB Data Security RAID 1 (2 x 640GB SATA 3Gb/s 7200 RPM HDDs) [add $175 or $6/month1]
Considering the chances of disk failures, RAID-1 is a good idea.
(waiting for 40 replies of "my disk has never failed, who needs RAID"...)
Dell Core i7 mini-tower price now $899
The price of the entry Dell Core i7 mini-tower has been lowered to $899.
Starting Price $899
Ship Date: 2/5/2009
Components
The price of the entry Dell Core i7 mini-tower has been lowered to $899.
Starting Price $899
Ship Date: 2/5/2009
Components
- Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1, 64-Bit
- Intel® Corei7-920 Processor(8MB L2 Cache, 2.66GHz)
- 1Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty, InHome Service after Remote Diagnosis
- 3GB DDR3 Tri-Channel SDRAM at 1066MHz - 3 DIMMs
- 500GB - 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache
- Single Drive: 16X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) w/double layer write capability
- ATI Radeon HD 3450 256MB
- Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
- Dell USB Consumer Multimedia Keyboard
- Dell Premium Laser Mouse
A RAID setup is only as good as the disks used.
For RAID-1, a disk failure does not mean data loss.
That's a huge improvement over non-RAID
. No matter how good your disks, failures happen.
What a concept - a computer maker that passes component price savings along to its customers
$229 for the 920 and under $200 for the basic Gigabyte X58 board with Crossfire. I don't think I've found an X58 without RAID support either.What a concept - a computer maker that passes component price savings along to its customers
Just bought one yesterday to replace my aging Pentium 4 desktop.
I paid $920 + tax for a similar Core i7 model with 6GB of RAM and a 23" Monitor.
I have however, and I don't find it so awesome for anything above the home family setting. there are things my ancient powerMac could do that the new iMac cannot because of inherent bottlenecks in AIO designs. In fact, it has basically the same disadvantages that my Performa 5200 had back in '95 and maybe even a few new ones.
You need to buy the 24" to upgrade to the 8800M GTS which means you start at $1950. The performance of the Radeon Mobility HD2600XT...excuse me Radeon HD 2600Pro as Apple wants to call it has been extremely disappointing.
When you're limited by a slow as molasses 8x slot loading notebook drive, I can understand why. It takes forever to install software or burn a disc.
Great if you bought the larger hard drive. If not and your hard drive is filling up and realize that since boot camp does not support external drives, your only real options are tear your machine apart to get replace the 320GB drive with a 640GB one or give Apple even more money on another flawed all in one, you aren't so happy.
Yes, it is delusional to have an opinion that doesn't come from Apple PR. I'm limited to 4GB on 2 DIMMs. If that's not enough, you wait for the master to realize something with a higher RAM sealing so you can give them more money.
- PCIe slots, the fabled "necessity"; what else is there that is not already available on an iMac? Or perhaps you talk of those old Orange Micro PC-emulation cards for Macs? They ran on NuBus, I am sorry;
When USB3 comes out or Wireless-N is replaced what do you do? Buy another computer of course.
As an all in one, its very competitively priced against offerings similar from Dell and Sony. However, if you price it against desktops since Apple insists on you using the wrong tool for the job due to their own preferences, you end up paying a lot for what you get because of the reliance on mobile hardware. In the desktop ranks, a 3ghz CPU with a 500GB and a Geforce 9800GS would be a very affordable computer. In the iMac, that is considered top of the line.[/quote]
I really hope you enjoy your PC clone while its manufacturer still exists...at any time, you are welcome to join the club of the best computers, anyway...
I did, then they stopped making them. People like you are going to buy whatever they make anyway and the much less demanding and much more trendy iPod users represent a much larger base and can be had by gimmicks instead of actually innovating.
Just bought one yesterday to replace my aging Pentium 4 desktop.
I paid $920 + tax for a similar Core i7 model with 6GB of RAM and a 23" Monitor.
With or without the webcam? I've been looking at that display since it came out. What's the picture quality like on that display?
Another price point.. - $579 C2D 2.5, 6GiB, 640GB + 19" LCD + Printer/Scanner/Copier
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...0050008&type=product&childSku=9191545&count=1
Has X3100 integrated graphics, so you might want to add $100 for a Nvidia 9400GT with 512 MiB and two dual-link DVI outputs or $80 for an ATI RADEON HD3650 1 GiB, or even $30 for an ATI Radeon HD 2400PRO 512 MiB.
The "value proposition" for the Imac doesn't hold up so well if you look beyond premium all-in-ones. Doesn't hold up at all, in fact.
Heck, the base Mini Mac is more than this complete system, it's $599 for only 1.83GHz, 1 GiB, 80 GB, no LCD, no printer.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...0050008&type=product&childSku=9191545&count=1
- Core 2 Duo 2.5 GHz
- 6 GiB RAM
- 640 GB disk
- DL DVD burner
- 3 open 3.5" disk bays
- 1 open 5.25" optical bay
- 3 open PCI/PCIe slots (one x16)
- 19" LCD
- includes multi-function Canon printer
Has X3100 integrated graphics, so you might want to add $100 for a Nvidia 9400GT with 512 MiB and two dual-link DVI outputs or $80 for an ATI RADEON HD3650 1 GiB, or even $30 for an ATI Radeon HD 2400PRO 512 MiB.
The "value proposition" for the Imac doesn't hold up so well if you look beyond premium all-in-ones. Doesn't hold up at all, in fact.
Heck, the base Mini Mac is more than this complete system, it's $599 for only 1.83GHz, 1 GiB, 80 GB, no LCD, no printer.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...0050008&type=product&childSku=9191545&count=1
- Core 2 Duo 2.5 GHz
- 6 GiB RAM
- 640 GB disk
- DL DVD burner
- 3 open 3.5" disk bays
- 1 open 5.25" optical bay
- 3 open PCI/PCIe slots (one x16)
- 19" LCD
- includes multi-function Canon printer
Has X3100 integrated graphics, so you might want to add $100 for a Nvidia 9400GT with 512 MiB and two dual-link DVI outputs.
Just goes to show what manufacturers go through just to sell Windows.
Never buy a video card at Best Buy, ever.http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...0050008&type=product&childSku=9191545&count=1
- Core 2 Duo 2.5 GHz
- 6 GiB RAM
- 640 GB disk
- DL DVD burner
- 3 open 3.5" disk bays
- 1 open 5.25" optical bay
- 3 open PCI/PCIe slots (one x16)
- 19" LCD
- includes multi-function Canon printer
Has X3100 integrated graphics, so you might want to add $100 for a Nvidia 9400GT with 512 MiB and two dual-link DVI outputs or $80 for a ATI RADEON HD3650 1 GiB
The "value proposition" for the Imac doesn't hold up so well if you look beyond premium all-in-ones. Doesn't hold up at all, in fact.
Heck, the base Mini Mac is more than this complete system, it's $599 for only 1.83GHz, 1 GiB, 80 GB, no LCD, no printer.
Why I hope today or later this week!
I added a link to a card at Newegg before I saw this....
Why the warning - does Best Buy have high prices, or is it something worse like the Geek Squad follows you home?
All this comparing with PC's is daft. I don't care if an iMac costs twice as much. It runs OSX not windows. I'll happily pay the premium for that. The 24" has an IPS screen, not some cheap TN panel. I'll happily pay the premium for that. It has an elegant, all in one design, without wires here there and everywhere. I'll happily pay the premium for that too.
I'll enjoy the new iMac, whenever it does get released (can't see it being February personally) but nothing would ever convince me that a Windows base unit was a better buy. Even if it was free!
I'll enjoy the new iMac, whenever it does get released (can't see it being February personally) but nothing would ever convince me that a Windows base unit was a better buy. Even if it was free!
The iMac is completely different from the PCs you're posting. Have you forgot that an iMac has everything inside it's screen (except for mouse and keyboard)? Now find PCs like THAT.
And there are plenty of people who agree with you. It depends on what constitutes "value" for each person.
Actually, it's easy to find PCs like THAT.
http://compreviews.about.com/od/allinonepcs/tp/AllInOnePCs.htm
Just goes to show what manufacturers go through just to sell Windows.
Sure is! And wouldn't it be Insanely Great if the same were true for OSX?
I know, I was encouraging people to post those kind of pcs, not that it's difficult to find them.
