[Johnnyboysmac]

Hi All,

I guess I'm something of a switcher in progress, as I've been vacillating about getting a new computer/Mac for some time, and have 'held' off for all those silly reasons of waiting for the latest and greatest etc, and I guess fear of the unknown to some degree.

Well I've just about had it with my P11, and windows generally, and with the just released updates, I've decided it's time to sink or swim

I went to a couple of Mac stores here in OZ/Melbourne, and the new models are still a couple of weeks away. However, I had a good 'play' with a DP867 MDD G4PM, + 20" display, and the outgoing 800Mhz 17" Imac.

I was a little disapointed with the Imac, in that it wasn't quite as snappy just opening apps etc, and loading some web pages using both Safari, and IE, as the tower. I checked the system profile etc, and both had the same base 256Mb ram, and both on Jaguar. I assumed(?) the dual processors wouldn't make much difference just opening and closing a few apps etc.

In doing the basic sort of stuff, ie emailing, chatting, surfin etc, and Iphoto, Itumes etc, would the upgrades in spec to the new Imac make much difference in 'snappiness' feel etc over the 'old' model Imac?

Would it be likely to be as 'snappy' as the 867DP I tried, on those sort of basic things?

I'm racking my brains deciding over either the 17"Imac, or the 1GB G4 tower.

I want it to be 'snappy' in feel/speed, quiet, and have a good display. Price for the 1Gb tower with the 17" LCD Apple display, tends to push me towards the Imac, as on paper at least, there apppears(?) to not be much in it spec wise, and it(1Gb tower + 17"LCD)would really go over my budget.

Also, I don't really want to continue with my old CRT monitor, or buy a new one for that matter - I wear reading glasses and find the LCD's better for my eyes. Hence, as I don't have a need for PCI slots in the foreseeable future, the combination of computer and display for the $$ makes the Imac a compelling choice.

I want a noticeable increase in speed over my current Windows machine, a more stable and less of a hassle system, and to be able to do more productive things with it, than spend so much of my time dealing with all the quirks/foibles/maladies of the windoze world.

But as I have mentioned, I was surprised, considering I'm using a 266mHz P11, that the Imac was definitely 'faster' but not like I was expecting it to be, and certainly not up to the 867DP tower.

I'm hoping the Dual processors wouldn't come into it much doing what I was doing, and that the speed bumps with the new Imac will at least be somewhere near the 1GB tower, or perhaps even the DP867 , in terms of feel/speed etc on the basic things I'll be doing with it from day to day.

If anyone has been able to subjectively compare the 800Mhz Imac, to the new 1gb one, or perhaps even the new 1Gb tower, I'd really appreciate hearing your opinion, as I want my new 'baby' to have a bit of 'get up and go' to it, and not be sluggish etc.

Hope you can set me straight/encourage me etc, as it was a bit of a concern, re the slight sluggishness of the 800Mhz IMac that I experienced. I'm not looking for the 'fastest' machine in the world, but at least with just opening apps etc,I would expect it to feel pretty snappy/speedy after this P11, but it didn't 'blow' me away unfortunately in that regard.

Hope someone can throw some light on this.

Cheers, and thanking you in advance,

Johnboi

[Dell Switcher]

I too am wanting to switch and I have experienced some of your same concerns. I went further by testing a HP with 2.5MHz P4 with 512RAM and was surprised how slow the HP was in opening apps compared with my 3 yr old P3 800MHz...about the same. Therefore, P4 vs P3 is not my answer. Then, I tested an iMac 17 (the 800MHz version) and it was slightly faster than my current PC (both with 256 RAM).

I wonder if added RAM in the iMac 17 would accelerate opening apps and surfing Internet.

Even though speed is certainly important, I cannot multitask with my Dell PC due to resources being "eaten up" and the resultant page faults, slowdowns, freezes, etc. Therefore, the iMac 17 has to be faster due to better OS, SW and HW.

Good Luck...the switching challenges!!!

[poulh]

I have the 15" 800mhz iMac and I am happy with the speed. It came w/ 256 mb of ram and i added an additional 512 chip. This seemed to help. Especially when you have a bunch of programs opened.

The dual proc macs will make web pages and anything else seem to run faster because in the background at all times the os has a dozen or so little programs running (you can't quit them, they are required). These little programs share time w/ safari or whatever so they can slow down the computer. On a dual machine those programs can get dumped off to the other chip leaving one to concentrate on bigger loads (namely whatever program you are running).

so in conclusion i would say the new iMacs (1ghz, geforce 4mx) should do the trick for most of your needs. just add more memory!

[Mac Zealot]

RAM can considerably help speed.

And 1ghz. It should be rather snappy, if I'm not mistaken it has a better system bus and perhaps more cache.

[scottiB]

I have a 933mhz G4, and its specs closely resemble the new 17" iMac (133mhz system bus, same graphics card, 7200 rpm drive--only difference is 2MB of L2 cache and 67mhz less in clock speed). With a gig of memory, Jaguar feels very snappy and highly useable--not a productivity problem.

I strongly suggest maxing the memory in any iMac--even if you need to build-to-order to have a 512MB chip installed in the interior slot.

[CheesePuff]

To compare the 800 MHz iMac to the new iMac 1 GHz, there is a big difference. Not only the 200 MHz speed increase, but also now a 133 MHz system bus, PC2100 DDR RAM, AGP 4x 64 MB DDR video card, more output/input options, etc.

And for $200 less, this is a great buy!

[Johnnyboysmac]

Yeah, it absolutely is a great buy. I'm glad I waited (semi-patiently ) for the upgrades to come out, and I hope when I eventually get to try out the new model (in around a week to ten days the dealers were saying) that it'll be a lot snappier than the 800mhz model with the faster bus, hard drive, video ram, and processor etc.

It sounds as if getting as much ram in it at the outset is a good move, so I'll go for at least the interior slot with a full 512mb chip in it via BTO.

I'm very set, like 99%, with the 17" Imac, but I will wait till I can play with the new ones, and directly compare the feel with the 1gb tower, and also the two displays, ie 17" studio LCD, and 17" widescreen Imac before making a final decision.

But I can tell you, I'm getting really excited, as FINALLY I'm going to be getting a Mac

Having just been blue screened with a cryptic message telling me I'm running out of stack pages, and then followed by a freeze, I restrained myself from cursing the windoze box, and am eagerly anticipating 'salvation' from windoze woes, via a hopefully snappy, reliable and productive Mac. Yay!

If anyone else has been able to compare the 'old' and 'new' Imacs, please lets know your thoughts re the speed etc, as I've a week or so of hanging out/wondering etc before the new machines arrive and I can get to try one out, and some firm impressions from others would help heaps whilst I wait and wonder

Thanks All,

Cheers,

Johnnyboi

[Dell Switcher]

It sounds as if getting as much ram in it at the outset is a good move, so I'll go for at least the interior slot with a full 512mb chip in it via BTO.

Wish you luck...plan to buy iMac 17 by end of this month...agree with the 512Mhz on internal slot...appears easy to add more via with customer accessible slot...do keep us future switchers informed.

Still think 1G RAM the best for multi-taskers (confirmed by many users on various forums!)

[CheesePuff]

I have 512 MB RAM on my Titanium PowerBook G4 (stock, I want to get another 512 chip soon) and its fine for multi-tasking.

I do e-mail, word processing, web browsing, chatting (Hotline & iChat AIM), iTunes MP3, iPhoto, iCal and Address Book are all open and no slow down at all.

Also, my friend who I switched from Windows (about 5 years) to an iMac 17" (2 months ago with the 800 MHz model) upgraded with a 512 MB chip in the user slot (to make the total 768 MB) and what a difference that was! It feels just as fast, if not faster as my Power Mac G4 800 MHz tower (which has a faster bus, faster RAM, HD, graphics card, etc). So what I am trying to say is, you won't be let down with the speed on these new 1 GHz iMacs!

[garetjax]

Originally posted by Dell Switcher:
It sounds as if getting as much ram in it at the outset is a good move, so I'll go for at least the interior slot with a full 512mb chip in it via BTO.

Is the interior slot inaccessible? Warranty voided? Is this the reason why everyone is ordering it BTO?

[Mac Zealot]

Yes.

[scottiB]

Originally posted by garetjax:
Is the interior slot inaccessible? Warranty voided? Is this the reason why everyone is ordering it BTO?

You pretty much need to disassemble the half-sphere to get to the internal slot, reapply thermal paste, etc. Some on these boards have done it, but to most people, the procedure is a little daunting.

Some Apple authorized resellers will install it for one wants to wait till a later time.

[Johnnyboysmac]

My reasons for going with 512Mb Ram, BTO, would be

1) I believe from comments here, that it would improve the sense of speed/snappiness etc, which is important to me.

2) Again as I understand it, the non user slot uses different pin sizes/numbers to the user accesible slot. To get the full capacity of 1Gb of ram, of which the machine is ultimately capable, means two 512MB sticks of Ram, one each in the non user, and user accesible slot.

Hence, if one gets the machine with the standard 256Mb ram, it can only be upgraded to 768mb with the addition by the user of a 512Mb stick, in the user accecisible slot. To get the full 1gb ram, would mean a return for service at the dealer, AND, the inbuilt/original 256mb ram stick would be redundant.

3) I'm going for built to order, as some of the dealers I've contacted say that they'll do this themselves onsite - which I'm not happy with, as I don't like the idea of a brand new computer being dissasembled by third parties, if it's not necessary, and it's not just like a tower re opening the door and slotting in the ram - risks of scratches, chewed screws, internal damage etc, unless the level of service is 100%, which it isn't always, despite the best of intentions.

The other catch, is that some dealers, or rather two that I spoke too, would dimply provide 512MB ram, by putting an additional 256Mb in the user accesible slot, which again means having to have the machine serviced at a later time to have the internal slot upgraded, as I mentioned above.

This is all how I understand it, please correct me if I'm wrong with this.

Ooooooohh, I feel like an expectant father :-) My Mac 'baby' is a-coming soon!

Yours in Mac excitement,

Cheers,

Johnboi

[Superchicken]

This won't make any sense to you as a windows user since more RAM for windows is like... all you do is run more programs... for OS X I dono exactly what does it but RAM makes it run faster... some have even said that a Mac with 100Mhz less but more RAM will seem more snappy.
Also the Graphics card on the 1Ghz is a better one than the 800Mhz so that'll be better too, you'll have faster RAM, a faster system bus, faster HD, all in all the profformance should be significantly better.

It will DEFFINATELY feel snappier than what you've got now

[Johnnyboysmac]

It will DEFFINATELY feel snappier than what you've got now

Heheh, thanx, I sure hope so; the only way I think this P11 could be faster, is if one day I give in to about the only incidence of violent thought in my otherwise peaceful existence, when this 'thing' gives me angst, and I have an almost overpowering urge to have it exit my life, via a long drop from my upstairs window to the hard pavement below!

You can tell I'm at my wits end with the PC? - funny that

I'm taking all the advice to heart, and am so hoping when I get to play with one of the new models when they arrive, that it'll be all that I'm expecting/hoping for.

Best,

Johnboi

[pliny]

At the Apple Store the BTO option is, one stick of 512, or two sticks equaling 512--I was wondering why this was, seemed odd. So if you get the iMac with BTO 512 in one slot, then that is in the harder to get to slot, right, leaving the easy to get to one open?

[Johnnyboysmac]

"At the Apple Store the BTO option is, one stick of 512, or two sticks equaling 512--I was wondering why this was, seemed odd. So if you get the iMac with BTO 512 in one slot, then that is in the harder to get to slot, right, leaving the easy to get to one open?"

Pliny,as I understand it, this appears to be the case. Does anyone know for sure/can confirm this?

Thanking you in advance

Johnboi

[scottiB]

Originally posted by pliny:
At the Apple Store the BTO option is, one stick of 512, or two sticks equaling 512--I was wondering why this was, seemed odd. So if you get the iMac with BTO 512 in one slot, then that is in the harder to get to slot, right, leaving the easy to get to one open?

Yep, the user-accessable slot is free to add your own.