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New 24" iMac a best buy?

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
The new iMac at $1999 direct from Apple, pushes the envelope for the integrated computer.

With a 24" widescreen LCD, 1920x1200 resolution, in a windows networkable slick unit, makes itself worth of consideration as an image processing workstation.

We are, of course waiting for Adobe to make their software optimized to the Intel processor. Still, the lack of a confounding array of connecting cables, makes this computer an amzingly attractive choice.

I can also see it as a point of sales screen or in a photography studio to monitor shooting or to show clients their pictures.

The simplicity of the computer leads to elegant solutions. However, it is likely to be coveted by your family.

http://www.apple.com/imac/

I'd remember to get Applecare which runs an extra $169. I suspect a new version of Aperture, $299, is due and I'd want an assurance that it would be upgraded for free. Maybe a new version will be announced htis week but I have no special inside track.

Asher

4-inch widescreen LCD
1920x1200 resolution
2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor1
4MB shared L2 cache
1GB memory (2x512MB SO-DIMM)
250GB Serial ATA hard drive2
8x double-layer SuperDrive (DVD+R DL, DVD±RW, CD-RW)
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT with 128MB GDDR3 memory
Built-in AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0
Apple Remote
 
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Alain Briot

pro member
Asher,

You are right, it is a very attractive unit.

The monitor is also a newer model, indicating that there may be a newer line of stand-alone Apple monitors coming up :) for those of us who prefer the G5
 

Erik DeBill

New member
It is certainly drool-worthy. With a DVI out, it will give better dual monitor support than most other computers (that have VGA and DVI, thus forcing one monitor to go through an analog stage). The form factor is very nice, and that 24" monitor (1920x1200 resolution!) would be a nice upgrade for most folks.

Still, I have a hard time swallowing the price tag. I don't think it's worth $500 to go from a 20" LCD to a 24" model. I know they also bump the video card, but I don't think that's going to make much difference for photography work.

The 20" model is staying on my wish list. With an extra gig of RAM, since I noticed PS using 1.4g on my poor little mac mini a couple days ago.
 

Rob.Martin

New member
It's nice alright.
DVI Output the key forme, who wants to run his 30" Cinema in tandem.
You cannot have "too much" room.
rob
 

Stan Jirman

New member
You can't attach a 30" to an iMac, even with the upgraded video card. Only the MBP and MP can drive a 30" - for good reasons. I have a 30" + 20" attached to my MP, equipped with two 7300 cards, since I realized too late that my 4500 Quadro from my Quad G5 won't work in the MP (silly me). Currently thinking about options :)
 

Stan Jirman

New member
Asher Kelman said:
I suspect a new version of Aperture, $299, is due and I'd want an assurance that it would be upgraded for free. Maybe a new version will be announced htis week but I have no special inside track.

:)

Whatever is announced, if history is any indicator then Apple has always given $20 updates to people who bought some software within 15 days of a new announcement. Furthermore, historically, all Pro Apps had an upgrade price less than their full price (in contrast to say the OS or iLife). So no matter what happens, I think you'll spend (far) less than $299 on any potentially announced upgrade. Again, that's just based on history, which may or may not extrapolate into the future.

As for the iMac, my personal take is that people don't realize it today yet, but the whole 64-bit thing will be cool very soon. I consider them downright ugly but that's a matter of personal taste (my mom is getting a Mini with 23" screen instead). But this 64-bit architecture will come in very handy sooner / more often than people think.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
And 64 BIT Aperture or iphoto? I wonder. when is the next big Apple show ususally? Photokina? Hmmm?

Asher
 

Stan Jirman

New member
Asher Kelman said:
And 64 BIT Aperture or iphoto? I wonder. when is the next big Apple show ususally? Photokina? Hmmm?
Well first of all, there will be neither iPhoto nor Aperture in 64-bit until Leopard ships next year. It's kinda hard to do without the OS underneath :) Even then I doubt we'll se iPhoto in 64-bit, simply because it would be overkill and the drawbacks would probably outweigh the benefits. However, apps such as Motion or Aperture which consume memory like candy (and that run on very high end systems) definitely would make sense. Photoshop would naturally be a 64-bit candidate as well, but Adobe's ways are at times bizarre and unpredictable.

As for shows, the whole iLife suite always comes at MacWorld SF in January; hard to tell about Aperture because it's so young, but Photokina or whatever the show is in February sound like good candidates.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Did Apple say when Leopard might ship?

Sort of feel that my dual G5 is not really doing anything special. 64 Bit!

Will Panther allow everyhing to work faster on the dual G5s? Maybe that was reported but didn't see it.

Asher
 

Stan Jirman

New member
Asher Kelman said:
Did Apple say when Leopard might ship?
At WWDC, Steve said "Spring 2007" if I recall correctly, that means by 6/21/07.

Asher Kelman said:
Sort of feel that my dual G5 is not really doing anything special. 64 Bit!
Well, let's say that you're not really taking advantage of any of the G5 64-bit-ness. In this respect, the G5 was really ahead of its time. However, you did get a fast memory bus etc. - quite a step up from the G4. Still, IBM didn't deliver on their promises and the machine was pretty much dead.

Asher Kelman said:
Will Panther allow everyhing to work faster on the dual G5s? Maybe that was reported but didn't see it.
You mean Leopard - Panther was 10.3... You won't see any real speed improvements on the G5: the G5 runs 64-bit apps just as fast as 32-bit apps (actually, strictly speaking the G5 processor doesn't have a "64-bit mode", but that's a hardware detail), but gives you all the drawbacks of 64-bit apps. So cycle for cycle, your apps will be a bit slower. On the other hand, if you have an app that needs the extra memory and knows how to use it, you will see a performance benefit simply because the app can use the memory instead of paging to disk (or doing other tricks to live with less memory).

In contrast, the Intel architecture has clear benefits for 64-bit, because it does have a special 64-bit mode. You will still see all the drawbacks of 64-bit, but the advantage will be beyond memory usage: your application has twice as many registers and there are some machine instructions that don't exist in 32-bit mode. As a result, even "normal" apps sometimes show more or less significant speed improvements in 64-bit mode on the new Intel machines.

The important thing is not to see 64-bit-ness as a solution to everything. It does carry a significant price tag, mainly a waste of memory, even for normal apps such as Mail. For that reason it won't make sense to have all apps 64-bit compiled, at least not for PPC.
 
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