[selowitch]

Hi,

I'm a longtime Mac lover and I'm about to buy an iMac (dual-core, 20"). Any recommendations for add-ons, cheap SO-DIMMs --- or do you think I should get a Mac Mini instead?

[nabilanwar]

Originally Posted by selowitch

Hi,

I'm a longtime Mac lover and I'm about to buy an iMac (dual-core, 20"). Any recommendations for add-ons, cheap SO-DIMMs --- or do you think I should get a Mac Mini instead?

Dont even think bout the MacMini if u've got enough money to drop on the 20inch iMac. I highly highly suggest that u DO NOT buy RAM from Apple, they are outrageously overpriced Samsung sticks. Go to a site like Compare prices on Mac and PC computer RAM and digital camera memory. Find the lowest priced memory, flash, ram and USB pen drives. - dealnews.com. They have Apple specific configurations for all their machines. Dirt cheap too. Although if you wanna upgrade ur hardrive, its probably better to upgrade it with Apple as you do not have 2 bays on the iMac, plus it just wouldnt be worth it financially to buy a HDD afterwards.

Good Luck with the purchase.
P.S. If u do get the iMac, i shall be eternally jealous of u.

[selowitch]

Originally Posted by nabilanwar

Dont even think bout the MacMini if u've got enough money to drop on the 20inch iMac. I highly highly suggest that u DO NOT buy RAM from Apple, they are outrageously overpriced Samsung sticks. Go to a site like Compare prices on Mac and PC computer RAM and digital camera memory. Find the lowest priced memory, flash, ram and USB pen drives. - dealnews.com. They have Apple specific configurations for all their machines. Dirt cheap too. Although if you wanna upgrade ur hardrive, its probably better to upgrade it with Apple as you do not have 2 bays on the iMac, plus it just wouldnt be worth it financially to buy a HDD afterwards.

Excellent advice, thank you. I just ordered a 20" iMac from Amazon with the Intel Duo 2.0 GHz processor. I got the stock model and got a 1GB SO-DIMM from Crucial.com as well (about $120 with 2-day shipping). I also got an i360 and an iLugger. The internal graphics card isn't wonderful, but my experience with Macs is that their value lasts and lasts and lasts. If you get a new one, you can expect to use it for years.

Consider that my current machine is a 450MHz AGP Graphic PMG4. It's been a great workhorse, but I've been using it for about 12 years now and it's finally time to retire it. My plan is to use it as a server running Ubuntu, actually.

My main motivation in this purchase is being able to run Windows XP via BootCamp (I ordered a WinXP upgrade, too) so I can test my webpages against IE, etc. I may also run a few games that don't run on the Mac. Other than that, I'll be booting Mac OS X the rest of the time.

Thanks again, Nabil!

[nabilanwar]

Originally Posted by selowitch

Excellent advice, thank you. I just ordered a 20" iMac from Amazon with the Intel Duo 2.0 GHz processor. I got the stock model and got a 1GB SO-DIMM from Crucial.com as well (about $120 with 2-day shipping). I also got an i360 and an iLugger. The internal graphics card isn't wonderful, but my experience with Macs is that their value lasts and lasts and lasts. If you get a new one, you can expect to use it for years.

Consider that my current machine is a 450MHz AGP Graphic PMG4. It's been a great workhorse, but I've been using it for about 12 years now and it's finally time to retire it. My plan is to use it as a server running Ubuntu, actually.

My main motivation in this purchase is being able to run Windows XP via BootCamp (I ordered a WinXP upgrade, too) so I can test my webpages against IE, etc. I may also run a few games that don't run on the Mac. Other than that, I'll be booting Mac OS X the rest of the time.

Thanks again, Nabil!

Very glad to know I Helped. :-)

[selowitch]

Originally Posted by nabilanwar

Very glad to know I Helped. :-)

Me, too, man! Actually, a correction: I cancelled the Crucial order and went with Mushkin instead. Got two SO-DIMMs for just under $200. Pretty fantastic — that maxes out my machine.

Funny paradox about maxing out is that you may never get to appreciate how much faster the memory made your new computer. I suppose I could run the new one without the memory sticks for a week or so then drop the new SO-DIMMs in. But heck, I'm not that curious!

[nabilanwar]

Originally Posted by selowitch

Me, too, man! Actually, a correction: I cancelled the Crucial order and went with Mushkin instead. Got two SO-DIMMs for just under $200. Pretty fantastic — that maxes out my machine.

Funny paradox about maxing out is that you may never get to appreciate how much faster the memory made your new computer. I suppose I could run the new one without the memory sticks for a week or so then drop the new SO-DIMMs in. But heck, I'm not that curious!

Lol ye, true that!