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Waiting for iMac Nehalem + Snow Leopard

wrldwzrd89

wrldwzrd89

macrumors G5
Original poster
Jun 6, 2003
12,110
77
Solon, OH
I've decided that I'm going to wait to get a new iMac until the Nehalem architecture is unveiled and starts appearing in iMacs AND Snow Leopard is officially released. To me it looks like these things could arrive at about the same time... what do you guys think? Nehalem first? Snow Leopard first? Simultaneous launch of both? (That third option would be REALLY cool, in my opinion.) Also, anyone else doing what I'm doing?

I'm debating over whether to jump as soon as the conditions are met, or to wait until the first iMac revision after Snow Leopard. If Snow Leopard comes first, then my criteria may end up being met when this happens anyway. On the other hand, if Nehalem comes first, I kinda don't want to be stuck with a Mac that has one of those drop-in Mac OS X upgrade discs.
 
Well, you know, those CDs can get pretty heavy! :D Seriously, I can't imagine delaying getting a new system when you're ready for one, unless a newer version has already been announced and is definitely coming in less than 3 months. Any longer than that and you're wasting time that you could have been enjoying a new Mac! There will always be newer versions of hardware and software. As soon as you buy something, you know it will be relatively obsolete (even though it's still functional) in 6-12 months. If you want to buy something and know it's still going to hold its value for 10, 20 or 30 years, buy a Harley! :cool:
 
ggjstudios said:
Well, you know, those CDs can get pretty heavy! :D Seriously, I can't imagine delaying getting a new system when you're ready for one, unless a newer version has already been announced and is definitely coming in less than 3 months. Any longer than that and you're wasting time that you could have been enjoying a new Mac! There will always be newer versions of hardware and software. As soon as you buy something, you know it will be relatively obsolete (even though it's still functional) in 6-12 months. If you want to buy something and know it's still going to hold its value for 10, 20 or 30 years, buy a Harley! :cool:
Click to expand...
You know what, you're absolutely right... in that case, it really doesn't matter which comes first, I should just be ready when the time comes, and enjoy my Mac. :D
 
Happy waiting, why on earth would you wait a year for nehalem when these Imacs are already blazingly fast, and for a few bucks install snow leopard when it comes out in a year. I say buy it now and enjoy it, btw the nehalem quad will probably be high end model only
 
macsander said:
Happy waiting, why on earth would you wait a year for nehalem when these Imacs are already blazingly fast, and for a few bucks install snow leopard when it comes out in a year. I say buy it now and enjoy it, btw the nehalem quad will probably be high end model only
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You make a good point - only problem is, I can't afford an iMac right now. Hence the waiting, and saving up.
 
If you can't afford it now, then yeah, you might as well see how long it'll be until new models come out before buying once you do.

But Intel's next-gen CPU for notebooks won't hit until H1 next year. We could theoretically be a year off from it in the iMac. And Snow Leopard is further off still, if I'm remembering correctly. If you needed a system NOW there's no way you should wait. If you need one this December...maybe. Even then it could be four months off or longer for all we know now.
 
wrldwzrd89 said:
I've decided that I'm going to wait to get a new iMac until the Nehalem architecture is unveiled and starts appearing in iMacs AND Snow Leopard is officially released. To me it looks like these things could arrive at about the same time... what do you guys think? Nehalem first? Snow Leopard first? Simultaneous launch of both? (That third option would be REALLY cool, in my opinion.) Also, anyone else doing what I'm doing?

I'm debating over whether to jump as soon as the conditions are met, or to wait until the first iMac revision after Snow Leopard. If Snow Leopard comes first, then my criteria may end up being met when this happens anyway. On the other hand, if Nehalem comes first, I kinda don't want to be stuck with a Mac that has one of those drop-in Mac OS X upgrade discs.
Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing. I, Personally, have decided to go make a sandwich and tomorrow I think I'll mow the lawn, just in case anyone is interested :)
 
I'm with you here, wrldwizard89. Can't say I'm in any rush to move to an iMac either, my pc works just fine for now (but looks pants, but thats another issue!) but I know I'm going to do an upgrade sometime.

Thanks to pressure from my son, and the v. desirable looks, I'll be getting an iMac. But, like you, I have the luxury of picking the time. I can live without MacOSX for another year. Instead, like you, I can carry on saving.

Why bother? Because in about a years time my iMac will have the following - a blazingly faster Intel tock revision - the Nehalem, much more fitted memory, a far bigger hard drive, a new fully dual core optimised OS, and the chance of a radical new disk fs. All for similar money to today.

And if you're running XP in a virtual machine, then more horsepower will always be of benefit.

Plus a whole year of pleasurable anticipation. Can't put a price on that.
 
In my opinion, buy after Montevina comes out, and wait for the die shrink of Nehalem (which is the following Intel release) to buy your next. Shrinks drop prices, increase performance, and drop heat of existing CPUs. You'd think with up to 8 cores on those chips, they'd get hot, eh?
 
ihabime said:
Thanks for sharing. I, Personally, have decided to go make a sandwich and tomorrow I think I'll mow the lawn, just in case anyone is interested :)
Click to expand...

If you wait a few days the lawn will be a lot nicer when you mow it. Same for the sandwich--in a few days it will have tomatoes on it. Much tastier.
 
hmmm...

ihabime said:
Thanks for sharing. I, Personally, have decided to go make a sandwich and tomorrow I think I'll mow the lawn, just in case anyone is interested :)
Click to expand...

Macrumors seems to be morphing into Twitter.

I'm in my cube, munching on a granola bar.
 
I'm doing the same thing, except that I'll get a Mac Pro when Snow Leopard comes out. I also want OS X Server. Provided the pricing structure stays the same, (Mac OS X = $129.99; Mac OS X Server = $499.99,) I'll just buy the Mac Pro on Snow Leopard release day and buy my copy of Server separately. Here's why:

The new Mac comes with Mac OS X, for free. On launch day, they just throw in a copy with your new Mac and you do the upgrade yourself. Personally, I like this better than a preinstall. This way, you've got a non-system specific copy of the OS installer.

If you want Server, however, you pay the full $499.99. This is whether you buy it preinstalled on your Mac, (or thrown in on launch day,) or buy it separately, as it's own purchase. If you buy it WITH the Mac, I'd assume that they do NOT also give you a copy of the regular Mac OS X install disc. (I do not know this for certain, but based on configuring a Mac Pro on Apple's site, it seems so.)

Since you pay full price for Mac OS X Server no matter which way you order it and you get regular Mac OS X for free with a new Mac, it seems like the best way to order this would be to get your Mac with your free copy of Snow Leopard thrown in on launch day, and on a separate order, buy Snow Leopard Server. Now you've got both install discs.

I know that with a Mac Pro, the extra $129.99 you'd save isn't much, but on the other hand, with a Mac Pro, you'd probably like to save every dollar you can. Of course, all of this could change by the time Snow Leopard is released.
 
I'm riding my power mac g5 out...

Waiting till the code is more optimized for all this multi-core craziness. As it is right now, I feel like have a stacked eight core system is like walking up the escalator backwards, or something like that.
 
snes said:
I'm with you here, wrldwizard89. Can't say I'm in any rush to move to an iMac either, my pc works just fine for now (but looks pants, but thats another issue!) but I know I'm going to do an upgrade sometime.

Thanks to pressure from my son, and the v. desirable looks, I'll be getting an iMac. But, like you, I have the luxury of picking the time. I can live without MacOSX for another year. Instead, like you, I can carry on saving.

Why bother? Because in about a years time my iMac will have the following - a blazingly faster Intel tock revision - the Nehalem, much more fitted memory, a far bigger hard drive, a new fully dual core optimised OS, and the chance of a radical new disk fs. All for similar money to today.

And if you're running XP in a virtual machine, then more horsepower will always be of benefit.

Plus a whole year of pleasurable anticipation. Can't put a price on that.
Click to expand...

Don't fool yourself here m8.
1. The Nehalem will very likely be top-end only
2. You probably won't even notice the difference when you're not using pro applications, so it won't be noticeably, blazingly fast unless you use pro apps.
3. Snow Leopard won't come till ~ WWDC time next year (June-July)
4. All the other thing like extra RAM slots will probably not happen the same time as the Nehalem upgrade because they will never get the Imac grow to a Mac Pro, because than why would people buy a mac Pro? so forget about that.
5. I very much doubt if there will be blue-ray drives in around that time, around 5% chance I would say because they will first put them in the Mac Pro's and than it takes at least half a year before it gets the Imac, probably top-end only as well at fist.

zombitronic said:
I'm doing the same thing, except that I'll get a Mac Pro when Snow Leopard comes out. I also want OS X Server. Provided the pricing structure stays the same, (Mac OS X = $129.99; Mac OS X Server = $499.99,) I'll just buy the Mac Pro on Snow Leopard release day and buy my copy of Server separately. Here's why:

The new Mac comes with Mac OS X, for free. On launch day, they just throw in a copy with your new Mac and you do the upgrade yourself. Personally, I like this better than a preinstall. This way, you've got a non-system specific copy of the OS installer.

If you want Server, however, you pay the full $499.99. This is whether you buy it preinstalled on your Mac, (or thrown in on launch day,) or buy it separately, as it's own purchase. If you buy it WITH the Mac, I'd assume that they do NOT also give you a copy of the regular Mac OS X install disc. (I do not know this for certain, but based on configuring a Mac Pro on Apple's site, it seems so.)

Since you pay full price for Mac OS X Server no matter which way you order it and you get regular Mac OS X for free with a new Mac, it seems like the best way to order this would be to get your Mac with your free copy of Snow Leopard thrown in on launch day, and on a separate order, buy Snow Leopard Server. Now you've got both install discs.

I know that with a Mac Pro, the extra $129.99 you'd save isn't much, but on the other hand, with a Mac Pro, you'd probably like to save every dollar you can. Of course, all of this could change by the time Snow Leopard is released.
Click to expand...

I can understand your choice but personally I don't think the new OSX snow leopard will cost $129.99 since it is more of a HUGE upgrade without new looks and applications etc. I think it will be more of an upgrade price around $79.99, so I would consider if it's worth waiting at least a year for that.
 
wrldwzrd89 said:
Three reasons that doesn't interest me:
  1. I don't need a new Mac now.
  2. I can't afford a new Mac now.
  3. I have never resold a Mac before, and I don't exactly like the idea either.
Click to expand...

Okay, so the point of this thread is to...?

If you cant afford it now, then I can understand. If you dont need it now, then sure, wait. But if you need it now there is no reason to delay your purchase, especially when nothing is set in concrete regarding a "oooo redesign!"
 
Life is short, jump on and enjoy the ride.

You can wait, but not me! My Mac should arrive in about a week or 2.
Life is short, so why wait for the end-all be-all of preformance when that will be old news 6 months after it comes out.
Life is short, jump on and enjoy the ride.
 
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