DaveB
Full Member
dwb
Posts: 93
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Post by DaveB on Mar 3, 2009 19:20:58 GMT
Well Apple has just updated the Mac Mini, iMac and Mac Pro ;D Looks to be just mainly speed bumps though, no real design changes. Check them out!
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Post by davidmn on Mar 3, 2009 20:14:30 GMT
The Mini seems appealing.
What have they changed on the iMacs apart from the RAM?
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swatty
Senior Member
Grumpy old Man
Posts: 256
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Post by swatty on Mar 3, 2009 20:51:31 GMT
Faster graphics cards in the iMac's especially the 24"
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Post by Forum Cat on Mar 3, 2009 20:59:50 GMT
…and a mini display port.
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Post by wierdostomps on Mar 3, 2009 21:34:27 GMT
Just priced up a new iMac for my wife. Couldn't help noticing that the 24" models a/ come with 4Gb RAM as standard and b/ can be upgraded to 8Gb - at the minor inconvenience of £752.10 - and that's with the education discount. As yet Crucial aren't offering the 4Gb modules required, so I think I'll hang on a few months and see whether she really needs the extra - if she does, we'll upgrade when the price is a bit more reasonable.
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keith
Senior Member
Posts: 269
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Post by keith on Mar 3, 2009 23:23:38 GMT
Unfortunately the prices have gone through the roof, but that's bringing them back in line with the dollar/pound exchange rate.
I was considering a Mac Mini when the new models hit but I'm afraid that having just spent the money for a Macbook Pro that I'm not going to be getting anything else for a while.
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Post by Forum Cat on Mar 4, 2009 8:49:29 GMT
Just priced up a new iMac for my wife. Couldn't help noticing that the 24" models a/ come with 4Gb RAM as standard and b/ can be upgraded to 8Gb - at the minor inconvenience of £752.10 - and that's with the education discount. As yet Crucial aren't offering the 4Gb modules required, so I think I'll hang on a few months and see whether she really needs the extra - if she does, we'll upgrade when the price is a bit more reasonable. My wife has the 24" 3.06Ghz iMac with 4Gb of RAM. She keeps anything up to twenty applications open at a time and still uses only about half of it. So far she has only managed to max out the two cores for a minute or two a week. She does this when ripping and encoding .cdg files from karaoke discs. This involves audio and graphics work simultaneously. I wonder what kind of work would massively benefit from 8Gb of memory? I know that for music the processor speed lets you multi-track and use effects in real time so faster is better but I don't really know what applications benefit from all that RAM
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Post by wierdostomps on Mar 5, 2009 17:58:01 GMT
Popped in to the Apple Store this afternoon to see whether they were discounting the old models - they are, but not massively, so I think we'll order the new model at the weekend when we're onto next month's credit card bill! The guy in the Apple Store basically said the same as Mr Cat - even with the old models, 4Gb was enough RAM for most domestic uses (I'm not talking pro graphics or video, of course, but who'd have an iMac for that?). The new models use DDR3 SO-DIMMS which he reckoned were about twice as fast as the old DDR2 DIMMS, so 8Gb for £750 seems like the sort of bling only a footballer would purchase. Mind you, she will be running the dark side and my experience is that whether under Fusion or Boot Camp it is very memory hungry, so we'll have to see. Once Crucial have started selling the appropriate DIMMS the price will drop pretty rapidly.
Tim
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Post by davidmn on Mar 5, 2009 19:17:19 GMT
4GB is enough for me, I can have never used more than 3GB.
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Post by CyberChimp on Mar 5, 2009 19:58:30 GMT
Popped in to the Apple Store this afternoon to see whether they were discounting the old models - they are, but not massively.... If you've got a John Lewis near by they might have some with decent discounts (I popped into my local one yesterday for something unrelated and they had a few models with around £100 knocked off the price) + of course the free 2 year John Lewis warranty period.
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Post by wierdostomps on Mar 6, 2009 18:13:13 GMT
If you've got a John Lewis near by they might have some with decent discounts (I popped into my local one yesterday for something unrelated and they had a few models with around £100 knocked off the price) + of course the free 2 year John Lewis warranty period. Yes, hadn't thought of JL - might go and have a look tomorrow. 2 year warranty is nice, but frankly, if it's going to die it'll probably die within the first 3 months anyway. After that, I'd put more faith in Cyberchimp et al, together with help from MacFixit and Google. Tim
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Post by beerbum on Mar 7, 2009 14:28:15 GMT
[/quote] Yes, hadn't thought of JL - might go and have a look tomorrow. 2 year warranty is nice, but frankly, if it's going to die it'll probably die within the first 3 months anyway. After that, I'd put more faith in Cyberchimp et al, together with help from MacFixit and Google.
Tim[/quote]
My wife's iMac G4 went kaput 2 weeks, I repeat 2 WEEKS, before the end of the 2 year JLP warranty... Guess where I bought mine from.....we love JLP...only they don't do beer.... but wait... Waitrose does! Hurrah! We LOVE JLP!
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Post by beerbum on Mar 7, 2009 14:33:43 GMT
(I'm not talking pro graphics or video, of course, but who'd have an iMac for that?). Tim Alex Lindsay from Pixel Corps pixelcorps.com/ and regular on MacBreak Weekly uses a couple of Mac Pros for heavy video processing (H264 etc) but most video editing is done on iMacs. I think people underestimate how much of a workhorse a fully loaded iMac is. BB
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DaveB
Full Member
dwb
Posts: 93
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Post by DaveB on Mar 7, 2009 15:18:05 GMT
(I'm not talking pro graphics or video, of course, but who'd have an iMac for that?). Tim Alex Lindsay from Pixel Corps pixelcorps.com/ and regular on MacBreak Weekly uses a couple of Mac Pros for heavy video processing (H264 etc) but most video editing is done on iMacs. I think people underestimate how much of a workhorse a fully loaded iMac is. BB I agree, the iMacs are powerful machines, and now with the option of up to 8gig ram and some nice graphics cards, its more than suitable for pro graphics, video for a lot of people. The only downside is upgradability - pci slots if ya need specific connections etc, buts that's never gonna change
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Post by Forum Cat on Mar 8, 2009 10:08:00 GMT
we love JLP...only they don't do beer.... but wait... Waitrose does! Hurrah! We LOVE JLP! They also only sell stock configurations of iMacs. So if you want a custom build, "maxed out" then you have to go to Apple.
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