[Krusty]

I own a 400mhz DVSE/384/DVD and I have a friend that would like to buy it from me (heard me talking about the new iMac and how I'd like to buy one). Thing is, once I started thinking about a couple things, it almost seems like a good idea to go with the 700mhz G3
1) I don't need a superdrive anytime in the near future
2) The G4 is nice, but I can live w/o it.
3) I could wait another year or more for the inevitable Rev 1 bugs to be worked out of the new iMac. Plus there would likely be price drops and feature bumps over the next year that I'd be happy to have.
4) Though the new machine would be visually identical to my current one I would essentially be upgrading my hard drive from 13gb-->60gb, upgrading my speed from 400 --> 700, getting an internal CD burner (but losing DVD), getting a whole new crop of software (Appleworks 6 instead of 5, a CD copie of all the crap I've downloaded thru updates over the last coupla years), a GOOD keyboard and mouse (I have the little keyboard and a puck that I upgraded to an optical), and my blown left speaker would be a thing of the past. (buyer knows about this and all the limitations of this machine -- she's my bud). A giant upgrade in one fell swoop ( oh yeah, and another year of AppleCare).
5) The whole shebang is $1049 - $250 (yep, she's a buddy) = $800 bucks.

Now that I've mused publicly on my reasoning, can anyone tell me what they think of their 700 ? Does anyone have both a 400 and a 700 who can talk about how much faster it seems in real world use? Is the graphics performance any better (16mb vs 8mb -- but same crappy chip) Are there any problems that are unique to this Rev ? Are there any other special "extras" with this model that I can expect over the older DV SE's ?? Does anyone think this seems like a good idea (it seems likea helluva good idea to me right now --- instant gratification and should curb my new iMac lust for a year or so). Or, is this just a waste of $800 that I should put toward a new iMac?

Whatta ya'll think ? What would you do in my shoes ?

[Dan Szwarc]

What's interesting is that you CAN'T BUY a 700MHz iMac anymore!! They're gone! Apple has deliberately shorted the classic iMac because it would be the same speed as the G4 iMac.

While I think the 700Mhz imac would be a nice machine, if you run OSX, the G4 iMac is the way to go. Remember everything they say about the speed of the processor only being one small factor in the overall speed of a machine. You have to take into account bus speed (same for 700MHz and 400MHz), Hard disk speed (?), video chip, and a couple other factors like cache. In this case, a G4 iMac would run OSX much more nicely than a G3 iMac.

You have to weigh the costs versus the benefits.

[Krusty]

I wouldn't really be expecting a HUGE improvement in the speed department but, rather, would be getting a whole slew of upgrades in one easy move. I have had to work around the 13gb HD issue a few times (though I probably don't need 60) and I would like the pro keyboard/mouse (which I couldn't justify spending $59 a piece on since I knew they'd come with whatever new machine I bought - I HAD to replace that sucky puck though). I DO actually use OS X a lot. -- Its bearable 400/384mb and would hopefully be a little more bearable at 700/512 (yes, another benefit I could move my 256 over to the new machine and the free 128 I'd get from the online places to make a 400/256 for my friend).

BTW, you CAN get the 700mhz G3 at the apple store. They are on the "Special Deals" page. (They have all of the 2001 models listed). They are NEW but state that they come with the 2001 software bundle and default boot into OS 9. Also, all of the Mac resellers I've visited online (about 4 of them) still have some of the G3 700's in stock. $1049 at apple store -- $1044 at the resellers (plus they usually sweeten the deal with extra ram).

Crap, I hate that I even came up with this idea. I'd orignally planned on a new iMac in the May -August time frame but when my friend told me she'd buy mine (I set the price -- and now she REALLY wants it) it suddenly pushed this up to a right-now kinda choice (except for the fact that I can't get the new iMac right now -- who knows how long apple's shipping delays will be. They're really bad about that stuff with new products)

[ 01-12-2002: Message edited by: Krusty ]

[kstevens]

You can still buy it in the Apple Store's special deals section. They are selling both the graphite and snow versions for 1049 until they are gone. these are new not refurbished models.


Ken

[chris_h]

Originally posted by Krusty:
<STRONG>...I instant gratification and should curb my new iMac lust for a year or so...</STRONG>

Or... you could buy my iMac500 ;-)

I'm asking $850 for it (free shipping, as I get free UPS shipping where I work)

I'm selling it to put towards a new imac.

More towards your point though, I spent alot of time fixing up a 400mhz iMac that I wound up giving to cheerios, and I was surprised the difference that even 100mhz made.
I've never used an iMac700, but my understanding is that processer speed travels forward on a slightly downward curve with Mhz. In other words, a 700mhz chip wouldn't be twice as fast as a 350mhz, because the higher up you get in mhz the less each hertz is "worth". Or something like that.

mine is only 100mhz "faster", but my percieved speed increase was substantial (sorry rachael ;-) )... much more than, say, going from a 400mhz to 500mhz Intel chip.

But anyway, let me know if you're interested.
Indigo iMac500mhz, cd-rw, 512mb ram, 20GB hd

chris_h@mac.com

[pizzasub]

I just bought a 700 MHz Snow iMac yesterday and love it -- it's a huge bump over my old Bondi Blue iMac.

It's fast -- really fast. I plugged my digital video camera into it last night and it worked a lot better than on my wife's PC.

System specs are also just about the same (save for the processor) as the new low-end iMac.

[slider]

It's still a good machine for most users and being able to do things like iMovie is something that is hard to put value on. Just when you compare it with PC offerings it seems to come up short hardware wise, with the software like iMovie PCs can't touch it, especially if that is why you buy it. At work we are using mostly Bondi iMacs with 96MB of ram, for word processing, spreadsheet, email, and internet it's all you need. For the heavier work like Photoshop or Vectorworks we have G4's, we need another one and it looks like it will be the new iMac. Just because they make, or will, a G5 running at 2GHz doesn't mean you need it. I wish they would keep the old iMacs around until the newer ones dropped in price. I know they still have them at the store, but someone said that they cancelled all of their CRT contracts, that means they are just clearing inventory.

[Jansar]

You can still buy the 600 MhZ version for $999, that is, unless you're really looking forward to purchasing a real powerhouse. It would be a good idea to buy, considering that Apple computers are usually incredibly expensive, and the G5 is coming out real soon.

[BRussell]

Originally posted by Dan Szwarc:
<STRONG>While I think the 700Mhz imac would be a nice machine, if you run OSX, the G4 iMac is the way to go. Remember everything they say about the speed of the processor only being one small factor in the overall speed of a machine. You have to take into account bus speed (same for 700MHz and 400MHz), Hard disk speed (?), video chip, and a couple other factors like cache. In this case, a G4 iMac would run OSX much more nicely than a G3 iMac.</STRONG>

Bus speed: same on the G4 and G3 iMac
HDD speed: same, as far as I know
Video: much better on G4 iMac. The G3 iMac will play games from 2001 and early just fine, but there's not much hope for future games.
Cache: Exactly the same on both (256 L2 at chip-speed, no L3).

The only real difference is Altivec. People say that OS X is tweaked for it, but I haven't seen any direct evidence of that. My guess is that it doesn't make that much of a difference in day-to-day tasks. But it will make a difference in certain apps, like iMovie and Photoshop.

The big factor to me would be screen size. The G4 is going to have much better quality at 1024X768. I can't even stand to run my iMac at anything higher than 800, but apparently some people don't mind it.