iMac

I was just about to go out today and buy a MacBook Pro and I was wondering what iMacs are like. Are they good computers to own?

Does anyone here who owns one recommend them and if so, for what reasons. Are they a better bet than a similar value PC? They seem pretty reasonable in price, even for a 24inch one.

Thanks,
Jason.

I know it's a bit shallow, but I liked iMacs more when they had the igloo base; quirky and interesting looking, just like Apple Macs should be. iMacs don't have great performance - don't forget that they're intended to be general purpose, entry level family computers.

I have an intel iMac, I love it. The last computer i had was the half-sphere iMac with a positionable screen-on-an-arm, which was a PowerPC machine. I like the new `all built into the screen` style.. it really does save on space and you are left wondering `where is the computer?`.

I have a 17" but the 20 and 24 inch sure look nice. They are fast, with at least a 2ghz intel core 2 duo, and a decent graphics card. The bigger 24" model has the best card and features. It'll come with OSX tiger.

I got an iMac rather than another iBook type thing mainly because the laptop graphics performance is less and they cost more just to be slim and portable. You get a lot more for your money with an iMac.

I definitely recommend it for like blitzmax development because you can set it all up to double or triple boot (which you should look into right from the start - you'll want to partition and stuff), then you can have windows and linux and osx all on the same machine running natively. Great for cross-platform BlitzMax development. Reach all your audiences from one machine - except PPC perhaps.

They are modern and smooth and quick and responsive and reliable. Good choice. But make sure its an intel not a G5 ppc model which are already obsolete. One thing to bear in mind with a 2-core cpu is if you run a single-process application it will only run on one core, leaving half your cpu time unused - BUT, then the other core can be used to do some other task without interruption. Great for doing stuff fast in the background while using the remaining 50% time for foreground work.

I bought mine as a `refurbished model` direct from apple - you can save a few hundred that way. Refurbished means someone returned it, then apple went over it with a fine tooth comb, replaced any defective parts, cleaned it, all new boxes and packaging etc, good as new. Perfect working order and you still get a warranty etc. You wont find it cheaper.

Well, Leopard should be released soon with a full version of Boot Camp, so that way you can boot OSX Leopard with Vista or XP, sounds like that may be worth the wait for that release...

You can do that already with the beta of boot camp, but it might be worth waiting for leopard since it's not too far away.

I guess you'll save some more money buying one instead of a laptop...

I think that the iMac has most bang for your buck..
The specs are quite good, and the screen is very good, in my opinion..

but if you're thinking of buying, there's a rumour that it's getting a nice (well deserved) upgrade in August (or thereabout)..

Personally, I'd wait for that.. (in addition, if you wait until October, you get the new OSX version too)...

I have an 20" iMac Core Duo 2 GHz/2GB RAM/256 MB VRAM Revision A with a second 20" Cinema Display at home and I also have the same set at work, where I run Vista as the main OS on it. With BootCamp 1.3, it is a great system on both OS X and Vista. Quiet, low energy consumption, and yet powerful enough for current games and things like Aperture and Photoshop.

A great machine and one of the best computer purchases I've ever made. :)

It really depends on whether you want to do any sort of mobile computing or not. If you do, get the MacBook. If you don't, get the iMac.

Also, I wouldn't follow LarsG's advice about waiting for a possible upgrade. The fact is, you will always get a faster computer if you wait a few months. Waiting for it to happen is a false economy, because you have lost out on having the new computer for those few months, and end up in the same situation again, where if you keep waiting it will just get faster.

Once August rolls around, you could just wait until October to get Leopard. Of course, if you're willing to wait until October, you might as well wait until the pre-Christmas sales push to get another little bump in processor speed. Etc, etc. If you keep waiting long enough, maybe you can get your grandchildren to buy it for you, and you won't have to pay a dime.