Hello,
I currently have a 1.42 mac mini superdrive with 512MB and a 20" ACD that I bought almost 3 years ago. I originally bought a 20" imac G5 but after having so many problems with it and growing tired of the white plastic Apple agreed to exhange it for the mini and ACD.
I was going to purchase 1GB of ram to upgrade the mini then realised that by the time I upgrade the memory, buy leapord and possibly iLife08 I could trade-in or sell the mini for 375-425 and use the upgrade money to buy a new mini. If I go that route I would also buy a new apple wireless keyboard and probably get a vesa mount kit and arm to mount my ACD.
If I also sell the or trade-in the ACD for 350-450 and use the money from the new keyboard,vesa mount and arm I would be very close to getting a 20" imac.
I'm torn on which way to go. The imac is obviously the better perfmoring machine but my needs a not that great. I usually have open mail, itunes, safari, ical, dictionary. I also use pages to make posters for local events. I play guitar and would like to get into garage band but currently don't use it. I have some photos in iphoto, not much. I manage finances with moneydance and we do use a weather program that is graphically (2D) intense and sometimes alone maxes out the mini cpu and memory. I'm also going to be importing a hundred or so tapes into itunes and have noticed encoding (is that the right word?) of the tapes after importation in pretty slow on this machine and uses alot of memory.
My concern with the 20" is the screen. The 20" ACD I have is very nice. Very little color shift, great viewing angles. I don't now if it makes sense to get more computing power and a worse screen when my needs are not that great and I look at the screen everytime I use the computer. Also by mounting the screen I can rotate into portratit mode which I think would be great for making larger 11x17 posters and viewing some websites. But not being able to rotate now I don't know I big a deal it would be. I do love the new design of the imac and generally prefer and all in one machine for neatness but also I think in a couple years they will be signifitly more awsome, better screens, LED backlinght possibly solid state memory etc.
So I could just upgrade the mini and mount my ACD, see I how great I think rotating my screen is and in a couple years or whenever I think the imac has improved enough get one. Or just figure that I've lived without rotating my screen all these years and If Im going to be spending the same amount of money get the better computer. I will be going to apple reseller soon I checking out the 20" screen more closely. I did see them once and thought the glossy screen was cool I just didn't get a feel for the angles or compare to an 20" ACD. thanks.
I currently have a 1.42 mac mini superdrive with 512MB and a 20" ACD that I bought almost 3 years ago. I originally bought a 20" imac G5 but after having so many problems with it and growing tired of the white plastic Apple agreed to exhange it for the mini and ACD.
I was going to purchase 1GB of ram to upgrade the mini then realised that by the time I upgrade the memory, buy leapord and possibly iLife08 I could trade-in or sell the mini for 375-425 and use the upgrade money to buy a new mini. If I go that route I would also buy a new apple wireless keyboard and probably get a vesa mount kit and arm to mount my ACD.
If I also sell the or trade-in the ACD for 350-450 and use the money from the new keyboard,vesa mount and arm I would be very close to getting a 20" imac.
I'm torn on which way to go. The imac is obviously the better perfmoring machine but my needs a not that great. I usually have open mail, itunes, safari, ical, dictionary. I also use pages to make posters for local events. I play guitar and would like to get into garage band but currently don't use it. I have some photos in iphoto, not much. I manage finances with moneydance and we do use a weather program that is graphically (2D) intense and sometimes alone maxes out the mini cpu and memory. I'm also going to be importing a hundred or so tapes into itunes and have noticed encoding (is that the right word?) of the tapes after importation in pretty slow on this machine and uses alot of memory.
My concern with the 20" is the screen. The 20" ACD I have is very nice. Very little color shift, great viewing angles. I don't now if it makes sense to get more computing power and a worse screen when my needs are not that great and I look at the screen everytime I use the computer. Also by mounting the screen I can rotate into portratit mode which I think would be great for making larger 11x17 posters and viewing some websites. But not being able to rotate now I don't know I big a deal it would be. I do love the new design of the imac and generally prefer and all in one machine for neatness but also I think in a couple years they will be signifitly more awsome, better screens, LED backlinght possibly solid state memory etc.
So I could just upgrade the mini and mount my ACD, see I how great I think rotating my screen is and in a couple years or whenever I think the imac has improved enough get one. Or just figure that I've lived without rotating my screen all these years and If Im going to be spending the same amount of money get the better computer. I will be going to apple reseller soon I checking out the 20" screen more closely. I did see them once and thought the glossy screen was cool I just didn't get a feel for the angles or compare to an 20" ACD. thanks.
