I am one phone call away from buying the 20� 1.25 GHz iMac with a 160 GB hard drive for the educational discount price of $2318 (including tax and AppleCare), and I would like to get some feedback from any of you who already have that specific model. I am curious about the following issues, but any other details about this model will be appreciated.
1) Does it make much noise? Adam Wilde mentioned that the hard drive is loud on older iMacs, but I wonder if that was improved any by the time they released the 1.25 GHz model. Also, is there a fan on the 1.25, and if so, is it loud? 2) Did the boost to a 167 MHz system bus in the models released after September 2003 (from the 133 MHz bus on prior models) significantly improve performance? 3) Is the NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra graphics card on the 1.25 GHz 17" and 20" iMacs a significant improvement over the previous card on the 1.0 GHz 17" (the NVIDIA GeForce4 MX)? I read a review awhile back that kind of suggested that the graphics card on the 20" is a little under-powered. 4) What chance is there that the 1.25 GHz processor will be upgradeable a couple of years hence? 5) I have heard that Apple is currently redesigning the iMac. Any rumors out there about when the new model will be available and what the changes will be? All I have heard is that the form factor will be unchanged but it will be made with cheaper/flimsier parts. What's your sense on whether they will move the iMac to the G5 processor, or if there will be a significant speed bump to the G4 iMac and how soon, or even if they might reduce the price of the current 1.25 GHz 20" iMac? I know it is foolish to wait around for such an upgrade, but I cannot help being curious. 6) Is the 20" 1.25 GHz iMac much faster than the 17" (viewable) 1.0 GHz eMac? I am really enamored of the 20" iMac, but the eMac is less than half its price, so I am a little curious about how they compare in speed. The most processor-intensive work I plan to do is digital video editing with FinalCut Pro 4 and a fair amount of Photoshopping, so I need to know if either machine can handle that. If there is only a small speed difference, I might just get the eMac and bank the $1000 I save. Although, there is a 4" difference in screen size between them, not to mention the resolution disparity..... 7) What's the cheapest place to buy an extra 512 MB of SO-DIMM PC-2700 RAM for the iMac? Apple RAM is too damned expensive, so I checked out the prices at Ramjet ($129), Crucial ($126), MemoryX ($110), 18004Memory (the cheapest so far, at $84), Computers4Sure ($97), and 4AllMemory ($95), but I wonder if there are any other cheap RAM sellers out there that I should check. 8) Has anyone used the Apple Wireless Keyboard? I would consider getting the Bluetooth module IF the keyboard has NO lag time between keystrokes and their onscreen effects, and if the On/Off button on the Wireless Keyboard actually works (since I heard that the iMac On/Off button is awkwardly placed). BTW, Geoffrey Loeffler mentioned that the USB keyboard must be plugged into a specific USB port for the On/Off button to work -- does anyone know which USB port? Thanks for your input. -- The iMac List is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | - Epson Stylus Color 580 Printers - new at $69 | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> iMac List info: <http://lowendmac.com/imac/list.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/imac-list%40mail.maclaunch.com/> --------------------------------------------------------------- >The Think Different Store http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---------------------------------------------------------------
