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new 17" imac. frikkin awesome.

G

gordon123

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 17, 2002
4
0
nyc
Went down to Soho store Saturday morning and picked up a sweet a** 17". I am blown away by the razor sharp and super brite screen. I was working on a Pismo 500 which now seems to be so dark and sluggish in comparison.

Apps are snappy as heck, itunes opens in one bounce, as does safari. This thing has handled everything I've thrown at it...and the best part, it's still sitting at the stock config of 256 mg ram. I'll update with 512 soon, and look forward to seeing how speeds increase as a result.

One thing: iMovie was 3.0.0 before I did a software update. It took over a minute to load and was leaden. No wondered they updated to 3.0.1 so quickly. It now works smoothly.

Anyway, this puppy definitely meets my photoshop, iMovie, FCExpress, Dreamweaver, Flash needs.

I keep asking myself, how did I manage before having the ability to move the monitor like this into so many previously impossible viewing angles?
 
You lucky dog!

I decided to order mine from the web-site as a BTO. Got 512MB, in the single slot. I've already ordered a 512MB upgrade from Crucial.

But get this, mine is shipping directly from TAIWAN! I'm supposed to have it by Thursday (2/13). CRAZY!

I am wondering if that is why the memory upgrade was so expensive, because Apple realized that to do a BTO for a 512MB single chip upgrade they would have to ship from Taiwan via Air Freight.

I am curious if anyone else out there has received their 17" iMacs with similar upgrades and where the unit shipped from.

It amazes me what is possible in this day and age.
 
Re: You lucky dog!

Originally posted by geocave
I am curious if anyone else out there has received their 17" iMacs with similar upgrades and where the unit shipped from.
Click to expand...

Apple does drop ship a lot of product directly from Taiwan. The put a bunch of systems on a pallet and give it to Fedex. Fedex flys the pallet to the US and breaks it down to the individual orders and gets them going to the right place.

It actually can save money over having them flown to California and then shipped from there.

My iMac and iPod came directly from Taiwan.
 
Thanks for the clarification...

Thanks for clearing that up for me regarding the shipping, Bear.

Just three more days till it gets here. I'm on pins and needles.

I don't think I've been this excited about a computer since my Dad and I went and picked up our Apple IIe.
 
Performance

Thanks for your post - I am torn between the new high-end iMac and a new Power Mac (which would really bust the budget because I'd have to buy a monitor, too).

You've given some information (and I appreciate it) - can you shed some more light on its performance? How does it do in Photoshop, Final Cut Express (or Premiere)?

Thanks much!
 
Screen height

When I play with the 17" widescreen on the iMac I always have the feeling that the screen height is too short. Is this a typical reaction when not used to the widescreen format? Is it just me?

(Note - I don't have this feeling when I play with the new 20.1" display!)
 
Everything I have ordered from Apple in the last two years has been shiped from Taiwan, very strange. It that time I have ordered two iBooks, five Power Macs, an airport extreme base station, and a replacement mouse, for my office. (I am a one button mouse kind of man, and I force my employees to use them two)

Personally, it's my hypothesis that Steve Jobs is actually from Taiwan, and that Apple is really located in Taoyuan city, Taiwan.
That would mean that everytime we see Steve Jobs at an Macworld expo, it is just computer animation of what they want us to think Steve looks like. And all the people there are just seeing an elaborate computerized holographic image, being controled from an office in Taiwan. (they probably have Geoge Bush riged too):eek:
 
When I ordered my ibook (approximately 20 minutes after the last update :D) I was told that it was shipping all the way from Taiwan because it was manufactured there - and as a "new" product there wasn't a stock of them in the US yet. Did you order all of your stuff shortly after it was released or updated? That may explain the Taiwan thing.

Or else they were lying to me on the phone, and the conspiracy theory holds :cool:
 
I receieved my 20GB Ipod last Friday, it was shipped straight from Taiwan as well.

The default launguage was set to spanish though. Took awhile ot figure out how to change it :eek:
 
Where to Buy

Funny... I just ordered a 17" 1GHz iMac from Maczone because they offer a free 512MB and free HP inkjet printer (as does Macmall)... and then the next day I read all of you describing how you ordered from Apple directly, either through the web site or at an Apple store.

I know some will say that the free memory from the catalog companies is inferior to Apple's memory. (How come I never see that benchmarked??) But I'm willing to bet there's not much of a performance difference between the different "qualities" of memory, plus it's FREE. I could always take it out, throw it away, and buy Apple memory if I wanted to and still keep the free printer.

Anyone have thoughts on where it's smarter to buy??
 
Re: Where to buy

I bought directly from Apple for two reasons:

1. I wanted to fill the internal RAM slot with 512 meg so that it's easier to max out the memory later.

2. Internal bluetooth.

MacMall only had the "stock" configuration, to which they added the 512 meg RAM in the "user" slot.

Jeff
 
I bought from Apple...

Obviously I brought from Apple (see above post).

I wanted to fill the internal memory slot to capacity (512MB).

I also wanted to get the internal Bluetooth adapter and the Airport Extreme card.

In addition I purchased a 512MB upgrade from Crucial for the user slot.

As was said before, buying from MacMall you get the stock 17" (the $1799.00 one) and then you have to upgrade everything. If you want to max out your RAM you need to buy an Apple upgrade for the internal memory slot anyway. I definitely wanted to max out the RAM.

Also, the printers that come 'free' with the Mac aren't really worth it. I purchased a Canon i950 printer in addition to my Mac purchase.
 
Reasons

I'm thinking:

1.) As to the "internal bluetooth" reason, do any of you have anything else that uses Bluetooth? Does your Palm? Does your cell phone? I don't have any such devices. And as with any new technology, I'm not so sure it won't all be replaced by some "Bluetooth 2" before I ever own an enabled cell phone, Palm, or dishwasher.

So I'm not sure it's worth investing in now. Particularly since I can plug in a USB external bluetooth port any time I want to, and it would be in the back of my desk, out of the way of everything, and in no way inferior to the internal version.

In other words, no downside to the external bluetooth later, and I'm not sure I'll even ever need this incarnation of the technology. So why pay now?

2.) As far as the 512MB in "slot 1" so you can later max out to 1G total RAM, that strikes me as a better argument. But is 768MB of RAM really insufficient? I suppose it depends on what you're doing, but I have 128MB now. I've seen posts on this web site saying the iMac runs just fine on the standard 256MB.

We all make assumptions about the future when we decide on a new system, e.g. eMac vs. iMac vs. PowerMac single processor vs. PowerMac dual processor -- it all requires an estimation of your future needs. I'm guessing that 768MB of RAM will start to seem shabby around the time the whole machine starts to seem shabby, and I'm in the market again.

If it's that bad, I can always address that later too, and get the 256MB chipset replaced with 512MB. But I'm not guessing I'll need to, and so why not take advantage of the free 512MB offered by MacMall, and deal with it later if it's an issue?

Those are my thoughts....
 
Re: I'm thinking

My Sony Ericsson t68i phone has built-in bluetooth, and I use it to synchronize with MS Outlook. Also, my next handheld computer will have bluetooth. On the mac, I'd like to be able to use the phone/handheld in conjunction with iSync. I know you can get an external USB Bluetooth dongle (that's what I have on my WinXP machine), but the iMac is going to be out in the open in our family room, and the fewer external add-ons, the better it will look out there. Plus, it's just cool to have it built in. :)

As far as the RAM is concerned, my main reason for wanting to max it out is for processing large Photoshop files. They can be pretty memory-intensive.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with ordering from MacMall. That's what my brother did with his 15" 1Ghz TiBook, and he was perfectly happy with their service. He hasn't had any problems with their RAM, either.
 
Well I ordered my new iMac via phone from Apple at 6:38 a.m. PST on February 4th. At that point lead times were showing 3-5 days before shipping. By that afternoon they went to 5-7 days. My order shows online that it will be shipped "before or on 2/11/2003. I just assume that date is February 11th, 2003 and not November 2, 2003.

Actally, the iMac isn't mine, its my wife's Valentine's Day gift, so shipping is a little more important to me than usual (yeah, right). How can you folks tell when something is coming directly from overseas Vs. Apple? Is it just included in the tracking info they give your once it ships?

Well ok, I've been checking every 2 hours since 6:00 am. Still no change.

AAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!

Glad I went ahead and got her a card the other day, just in case....

cheers!
John
 
Bluetooth and Memory.

Plan to mostly do photo manipulation and video editing. So I wanted to MAX out the RAM. Yes, I know, I should have bought a PowerMac. But, this is also the "family" computer. It is going on a desk/workstation in my kitchen so it had to be VERY aesthetically pleasing for my wife.

I decided on internal Bluetooth because my kid(s) (who are young - one is still renting a 'womb', but the lease is up on Feb. 21) are going to be using the machine and I wanted to limit the number of things "hanging off the back". Also I have a bluetooth PDA that doesn't work with anything I have right now and I am planning on getting my wife a bluetooth phone.

Also, in reference to the shipping question. The FEDEX tracking system will show Taoyuan City, TW as the point of origin. And just to be mean, when I ordered mine the lead time was 5-7 days, but mine shipped 2/10/03. I wonder if the 512MB upgrade is what got it shipped faster. Nanny, nanny, boo, boo.
 
Bluetooth

Is there any reason synching your PDA with Bluetooth is any better than using a cradle (which I have for my Palm)? Just wondering....

Sometimes new technology doesn't actually improve anything in your life.
 
Synching...

I use Infra Red on my WinTel Laptop to synchronize my PDA now. Also, you have to have the Cradle there, and it adds to the clutter.

I'M NOT SAYING IT'S PRACTICAL. SHEESH.
 
Me

Sorry... wasn't trying to be hostile. :)

Just want to learn other people's thinking....

-- Bob
 
We ordered our iMac last Tuesday. It arrived last Friday. It was all stock, no added memory or wireless cards. It shipped from Taiwan as well. We ordered it from Apple because we got an education discount.
 
Re: Bluetooth syncing

You can definitely get by without Bluetooth sync. However, I really like using Bluetooth with the phone. I keep my cell phone in its cradle next to our "regular" phone in the kitchen. The computer is in the next room. I find it convenient (and cool) to be able to leave the phone where I'm used to having it, and sync it up while I'm at the computer.

I also really like my bluetooth headset for talking on the phone while in the car. As long as I'm calling one of the 30 or so numbers with a voice command in my phone, I never have to look at the phone while driving.
 
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