Today's iMac or Yesterday's iMac?

[oawong]

Yes, it does seem like a less obvious choice on reflection. One other factor arguing in favor of the older model (for us) is that we already own one of the original models. My plan was to buy 2GB of RAM for the new iMac, and transfer the 1GB of RAM from the new one into the old iMac, giving me the option of maxing out the RAM in new iMac in the future.

Seems like reason enough to tilt it in favor of the older model. BTW, here is another benchmark test.....this one seems to favor the older model 2.4 over the new entry level whereas the other test seemed to favor the new entry level...... Seems to confirm that the two are essentially equal.

http://www.macworld.com/article/133253/2008/05/imac_benchmarks.html?t=201

 

[earnjam]

I pulled the trigger on the 2.8Ghz Refurb on Tuesday. I'll be using it mostly for web design and personal use.

If all you are using it for is web browsing, email, music, photos, maybe watching some movies....you won't need the extra processor speed or graphics card of the upgrade.

If I were you, I'd go with a refurb to cut some cost. You won't notice any difference between the two unless you plan on doing some serious gaming or using doing some real processor intensive work like lots of HD video editing with Final Cut Pro or, rendering with Shake or After Effects, etc.

 

[IJ Reilly]

Seems like reason enough to tilt it in favor of the older model. BTW, here is another benchmark test.....this one seems to favor the older model 2.4 over the new entry level whereas the other test seemed to favor the new entry level...... Seems to confirm that the two are essentially equal.

http://www.macworld.com/article/133253/2008/05/imac_benchmarks.html?t=201

Thanks for the info. The substantially better video performance on the older 2.4 validates my decision.

 

[PcBgone]

Im in the same boat. Although Im looking at the Old 24 inch Model, and the New 24 inch Model with the 8800 GS Card...

Im a wannabe gamer.. Meaning I dont play alot of NEW games, definately not crysis, or cod4, or anything like that. I like the older games such as Civ4, WOW, Settlers, Sims, Medievil War...

Amazons price on the old generation 24 inch model is 1494 with the rebate with no tax and free shipping. The new model with the 8800 GS, comes from the apple store, in which I qualify for a corporate discount, but with taxes comes to 1983. Thats a $500 dollar difference between the two.

Being that Im new to macs, Im not familiar with this Radeon 2600 card. Is it going to play some of the above games well? Or should I just fork out the money on the GS card...which I know will be capable of handling anything I throw at it for a few years? My Current Pc is a 3400 Amd Athalon with 768 megs of Ram...It has the integrated graphics, which can play the above games ok, although CIV4 Seriously starts slowing down the longer I play with any more opponents then 4. It will take at least 10 minutes to shuffle between turns if I have any more then 4 players..

So what would ya'll do?

 

[IJ Reilly]

The above-linked Macworld article provides some frame-rate results for two games for a variety of iMacs. That might help some with your decision.

 

[PcBgone]

Thanks, I saw that article. However it doesnt disclose which card was tested in the 2.8ghz Imacs, was it the radeons or the 8800 gs?