[treebark7182]

I finally got my folks to switch to the mac world and am waiting to get a nice new imac. My father said to wait for a the next 3-4 weeks incase an upgrade should occur. Does it seem that in this time frame the imac will get a speed bump??? Any help would be fabulous. They want this computer to be their computer for many years to come and want it a spiffy as possible on purchase ( dont really blame them ) Thanks all
Trev

[Nebrie]

Doesn't seem like it; the retail channels are still flooded with iMacs. I gave up and bought one two weeks ago.

[Paul Stephen C.]

Hi Treebark7182,

Seems to soon for an iMac update to me, though you can never be sure. It'll happen of course, and I remember waiting for what seemed an eternity for the IGhz iMac with its added tweaks, before I finally bought one in the spring this year. The next major upgrade will be when the new G5 processor is fitted, and I suspect that will take perhaps another year or so.

Whatever you decide, be assured that for home use your Mac will last a long time. My previous Mac was a 1997 200MHz Powermac running OS 9.2, and it still works fine for many purposes. I expect my iMac will last longer than PCs some of my friend are buying now with seemingly better spec. For example I just got iSight, and everyone with a PC is envious. The iLife suite of apps is a dream to work with.

So, can you wait say 4-6months for an upgrade/speed bump. Will it make that much difference? The main features of the iMac won't be changing much in the near future (17" widescreen, overall design, MacOsX, iLife, significant processor speed etc).

So, in the end it's your choice, but whatever you decide, it won't be a "mistake". You'll have a computer to be proud of, and more to the point, a useable, reliable, beautiful, machine for many years.

For what it's worth, I would advise getting the top spec iMac, 17" widescreen and maxed out Apple Ram. It's not *that* much more, and it makes a difference. If your into digital photography and image manipulation, get Photoshop Elements, although iPhoto will do most of what you need; if your into home recording get Pro Tools. Most everything else comes free!

Enjoy.

[brucewayne]

As I have mentioned in other posts, I was planning on buying the 1 gig, 17" FP some time during the summer, and had figured that there would be some sort of an upgrade in July or August. Therefore, I was holding off making a purchase until the upgrade.

Well...nothing came and I finally picked up the computer of my dreams in early August.

Couldn't have made a wiser choice.

Mind you, there's nothing really wrong with my 333Mhz iMac, except that I can't really use iMovie, I can't use iTunes4, I can't use Speech Recognition (now that's FUN), I can't use...well the list goes on.

Plus, the screen is simply breath-taking.

So...I would say that whatever bump and/or price drop occurs will not compare with the fun that'll be had on this wonderful beast.

[Simon]

Originally posted by brucewayne:
Well...nothing came and I finally picked up the computer of my dreams in early August.

Couldn't have made a wiser choice.

Congratulations! Have fun with your new Mac. The 17" iMac is one hell of a great machine.

[BrunoBruin]

My guess is that the only change the 17-inch iMac is likely to see in the next revision is a speed bump. It already has Apple's "modern" motherboard architecture (AirPort Extreme, DDR SDRAM, Bluetooth optional). It might get a slightly better graphic subsystem but don't expect more than the current 64MB of VRAM.

That being said, if you can wait, wait. If Motorola is able to supply 7457 G4s in sufficient quantity, the iMac could get a speed bump to 1.25 or even 1.33GHz, and that's nothing to sniff at. A 167MHz bus wouldn't hurt, either, if Apple wants to implement it.

Sales of the iMac have been weak and I just feel they may do something to goose them along. That may just be a price cut, but even the current 1GHz model would be a good value at $1,599.