Bought a new iMac. Stock 27″ quad core (i5), I paid AUD$2339. I then went on holiday, so couldn’t even use it until yesterday.
This thing is a fucking monster. The screen is huge – you don’t realise how big it is sitting in the shop, because all the other screens there kind of desensitise you, but when you get it home you realise how god damn huge it is. It’s almost TOO big. And it was an utter bitch to carry home.
The performance is just wonderful. I’ve become more and more frustrated with my Core 2 Duo laptop – it just seems laboured and out of breath and spins its fans up at the slightest load. That machine just seems sluggish to me these days and this was becoming a hindrance in my work – I am *often* waiting for the machine to restart a server, switch apps, whatever – it’s just slow all round.
The new machine is a whole lot faster – a rough factor of 4. It’s got 4GB of memory, soon to be 8, and can take up to 16, which should do for now. It’s got 4 slots, so I can use cheap 2GB modules – the upgrade to 8GB will cost $142.
Basically I’m totally delighted. Apple really nailed it with this machine. The thing is almost too good, since there seems to be little point getting a Pro when you can have this much capacity and performance for such a low price. Check out ; I agree with everything that guy says.
Tags: mac
January 5th, 2010 at 12:37 am
Yes, it’s great. But it’s really nothing new. The iMacs have been sweet ever since the first Intel-powered ones came out. And yes, this is the newest, shiniest one, with a fantastic display and a nice quad-core processor.
Certainly looking forward to picking one up. I don’t really have the cash laying around for it right now, but I might have if I’m able to collect some payments which are currently owed to me for contract work.
January 5th, 2010 at 1:11 pm
Yeah, they’ve been good for a while I agree. But they always felt like a compromise compared to a Mac Pro and a good external display.
Mine is an upgrade from a 15″ core 2 duo macbook pro, so another core 2 wouldn’t have cut it – I’ve been wanting a next gen CPU for a while. I thought it would have to be a Mac Pro, so was extremely delighted when they put i5/i7 into an iMac. And the screen is just wonderful.
So yeah. I’ve never really wanted an iMac before, I always wanted the Mac Pro and failing that, a laptop connected to a screen. But this iMac is just so “right” that I changed my mind.
Good luck with those payments. I do contract work too so feel your pain : /