My new toy (iMac)

[Matt Garcia]

I finally made the move over to a Mac here at home and couldnt be any happier. My previous Windows PC was just way too slow for what I do (graphic design and web development). I just wished I had done this a long time ago because I absolutely love OSX (operating system for those of you who dont know).

Anyway here are the specs:

24 inch Glossy Widescreen
2.8Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo Extreme
500Gb HD
256Mb ATI HD2600
4gb RAM

Also if you dont know this is a picture of the entire computer. The computer and monitor are one unit.

[ragboy]

Welcome to the family. I have had a mac since 1986, a mac plus with 1 meg of ram, you won't be disappointed.

[Matt Garcia]

Thanks.
Wow, 1meg ram! I bet that was big time back in the days too. I cant believe how fast and cheap home computers have become over the years.

[ragboy]

Cost me like 25k. I used tandys and other networked computers in HS learning some programming, and I remember buying it with my own money, thinking, "What will I EVER do with a meg of RAM?

I have 8 gigs of ram in my machine now, 2 dual core processors. Crazy.

[Matt Garcia]

Man I debated on going with a Mac Pro but just didnt have the coin for spending close to 5k. Instead I think I am going to go the route of upgrading to a new one every 2 years.

Those Mac Pros are sweeeeetttt though!

[ragboy]

Yeah, they are coming out with all quad core version shortly, and I will upgrade. The great thing about macs, is you can upgrade like every 18mos, and you will be surprised at the resale on ebay for your mac.

I also have 2 20" apple displays, and I think I am going to go to 3, its a pretty sweet setup. And the 8 gigs of ram means I can do everything at once, and almost never have to close anything. The 4 processors help that too.

Give that baby lots of ram, and os x will sing, never complain about 20 apps open at once.

[evil0ne]

Ragboy is right on the resale. My Original 17" 1.0GHz Powerbook still sells for decent coin and it is 6+ years old going strong. The new machines are plenty powerful enough for even what you're doing. The Mac Pros are more for Video guys. There is too large of a discrepancy between the iMac and the Mac Pros rights now. Those Mac Pros are pretty much a server on your desk. I'm surprised you didn't wait until the end of the month when Leopard comes out.

[Matt Garcia]

Ragboy is right on the resale. My Original 17" 1.0GHz Powerbook still sells for decent coin and it is 6+ years old going strong. The new machines are plenty powerful enough for even what you're doing. The Mac Pros are more for Video guys. There is too large of a discrepancy between the iMac and the Mac Pros rights now. Those Mac Pros are pretty much a server on your desk. I'm surprised you didn't wait until the end of the month when Leopard comes out.

Oh I was very tempted to wait for Leopard! However there were two things holding me back.

One was not knowing if all of my apps would be compatible. I use Adobe Creative Suite along with a bunch of other apps and since I do work on this site and others I couldnt take the chance of them not working or waiting for an update.

Second thing was I had the opportunity to buy it now or wait till the end of the month(most likely when Leopard comes out). Also did I mention my PC was a pain in the butt to work on!

I definitely will upgrade to Leopard whenever I know I can run all if not most of my apps in it. Leopard looks very impressive.

My coworker sells his Macbook Pro every year and says the same things you guys are saying. I think he says he pays roughly 200.00 more for a new laptop (after he has sold his old one).

[da.bell]

Thanks.
Wow, 1meg ram! I bet that was big time back in the days too. I cant believe how fast and cheap home computers have become over the years.

And expensive too.

[TeamAllen]

Cool iMac! They are a great machines!
We have a few around also. I'm planning on an 8-core and a Mac mini after Leopard is launched and loaded.

[evil0ne]

Oh I was very tempted to wait for Leopard! However there were two things holding me back.

One was not knowing if all of my apps would be compatible. I use Adobe Creative Suite along with a bunch of other apps and since I do work on this site and others I couldnt take the chance of them not working or waiting for an update.

Second thing was I had the opportunity to buy it now or wait till the end of the month(most likely when Leopard comes out). Also did I mention my PC was a pain in the butt to work on!

I definitely will upgrade to Leopard whenever I know I can run all if not most of my apps in it. Leopard looks very impressive.

My coworker sells his Macbook Pro every year and says the same things you guys are saying. I think he says he pays roughly 200.00 more for a new laptop (after he has sold his old one).

CS should work straight out of the box on Leopard. The nice thing is that since you bought it within 30 days of the release you may be getting it for free anyway. The other nice thing is that you can safely do an upgrade without having to do a reformat like you should on the PC.

[Matt Garcia]

CS should work straight out of the box on Leopard. The nice thing is that since you bought it within 30 days of the release you may be getting it for free anyway. The other nice thing is that you can safely do an upgrade without having to do a reformat like you should on the PC.

Is that true about getting it free after 30days? That would be awesome.

[evil0ne]

Is that true about getting it free after 30days? That would be awesome.

It is not a written rule, but they've been known to do it in the past.

EDIT: Found a decent recent thread talking about the situation.
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=365845

[ragboy]

Even if they don't, its only $100 bucks, and you get it. I am an apple dev, so I get regular seeds of leopard, I haven't tested all my apps, but I do have cs3, and it works.

The mac pro is great for video, but I wouldn't say its mainly for video guys. As a graphic artist, photoshop is a memory and processor pig. With 4 cores, and all that ram, everything is MUCH faster, and you notice it. But where you notice the most....

I can have parrallels running, with 512mb allocated for the VM memory, and it only uses one core. And still run all of my other apps at the same time, and I swear, my machine doesn't even notice. Writing apps, managing people, managing servers, etc, I use a ton of apps at once, and that is the huge benefit with the mac pro.

I can be ripping DVDs to video, and still do parallels and all else I do on this thing. Its amazing.

A while ago, on another list, everyone posted screenshots of their desktop while they were working, here is a screenshot of me updating the eventpix software app, and testing on mac, web, and windows at the same time.



Keep in mind I have 2 20" apple displays, so that is why it is so wide.

And right now, this is my current dock, and this is before I am really getting any work done.



Try that on XP. When I get going, there are at least a third more items on that dock.

[Matt Garcia]

thanks for the link evilone, I am on that site often. I'll check it out.

ragboy, that is pretty sweet. I run Parallels and it can be a resource hog. What is your guess on the Leopard release? I keep reading the 26th.

Overall I love the performance and havent had any issues with it. I also have the same setup at work.