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zeebe · Oct 12, 2006, 11:26 AM

OK, here is the situation at the school I work at. We need new teacher computers BADLY! Most of the teachers are using old Blue/White G3s, with Mac OS 9 on them. We have a few who have old iMacs with OS 9 and a few who have been lucky enough to get a new eMac as we got money. I want all of the teachers to have the same computers so they all have the same look and memory etc. I want to get 15 Mac Minis, with Keyboard and Might Mouse and up the ram to 1GB. My principal, wants to TRY and get eMacs (yes schools can still get them until supplies last), if not then she wants the education iMac with ram bumped up to 1GB. The minis would cost $717 and the iMacs would be $967. I am not pricing eMacs, as I know we won't get the money before they are gone. Buying 15 Minis would save us almost $4500, yes, we have some extra monitors, and we may have to purchase a few extras, but CRTs are under $100 now. She like the idea of having an all in one.

Any ideas on who is right? Any ideas of a way for me to convince her to go the Mini route?

Thanks

badsey · Oct 12, 2006, 11:46 AM

I would buy one new 20" iMac (17" iMac ok if you need to beg) and everything else you have will look so antiquated and slow that they will quickly see that they need 1 more. Get the extra memory also so you have at least 1GB Ram.

Slowly update and maybe the prices will slowly go down and help you out also. RAM memory prices are very high right now. Maybe Apple will have a deal on iMacs for schools etc (be patient and wait for the right time to buy).

This is a big move for your school. You are going from PowerPC to Mac/Intel. Some changes will need to be made. I would buy 1 nice iMac for this change to see how it works as an example.

zeebe · Oct 12, 2006, 11:57 AM

Apple's only deal on iMacs is usually when you buy a lot at one time, so the slowly upgrade as you can doesn't really work that way. Why a 20"? The teachers don't need all the extras, they just need something new that is faster and can run certain Internet Programs (MAP testing for example).

Timetheus · Oct 12, 2006, 12:13 PM

Obviously you can save the school money by using minis, but way not let your principal spend more for better machines?

If you really want to pitch the minis just run with the price angle. Btw, What kind of moniters do you have? - you'll end with better screens with the iMacs in all likelyhood.

jamil5454 · Oct 12, 2006, 12:49 PM

I would stick with the default configuration of the educational iMac. Mabye sometime in the future bump the RAM to a gig.

iMacfan · Oct 12, 2006, 02:03 PM

I can see two reasons why the principal wants to get the iMacs. Firstly, it is much easier to slip a mac mini into a rucksack than a whole iMac, and security devices do cost extra and can look ugly. Also, there is the impact on visitors to the school. Having an iMac on every teacher's desk looks much more impressive to prospective parents etc than different old monitors. Also, the desktop HD and faster CPU does make the iMac worth the extra money.

David

zeebe · Oct 12, 2006, 02:05 PM

OK, I am kind of surprised about the responses, but I will go along with the iMacs when we get the money. Thanks for the answers everyone!

badsey · Oct 12, 2006, 03:36 PM

Why a 20"

The 20" LCD 16x9 is sort of the standard now. Get the iMac Core 2 Duo and not the older Core Duo.

I would honestly only buy 1 iMac 20" and let the others salivate over it for a month or two.

I agree with the others that Mac Minis with old CRTs just isn't a appealing as a new iMac. The iMac 24" is sort of pricey ~$2000 Getting rid of CRTs and computers will really free up space also.

I would also max the iMac memory out to 2GB if you have the chance = you want this new iMac to dazzle = wow them.

zeebe · Oct 12, 2006, 03:43 PM

OK, maybe I forgot to mention this is a small Catholic school with out a lot of cash. I think I will stick with the 17", The teachers and parents won't be to impressed with a little bigger screen. Also, why MAX out the RAM, this is a Pre-K to 8th grade school, we don't need to have much more then 1 GB, no one but me knows how to use power apps like photoshop and stuff like that.

::maroma:: · Oct 12, 2006, 04:01 PM

An added benefit to the iMac, as opposed to the Mini with a CRT screen, is that the flat panel displays use less energy than CRT's. Which, if you convert all your CRT's to flat panels, you could end up saving a significant amount of money in the long run.

Just something that's worth thinking about, since it deals with saving the school some cash.

SSharon · Oct 12, 2006, 04:23 PM

Do you have in IT dept to speak of? Would they rather come to the class to fix the imac or be able to bring the mini to their office and swap in a spare if you have one?

Chuckit · Oct 12, 2006, 04:47 PM

Originally Posted by SSharon

Do you have in IT dept to speak of? Would they rather come to the class to fix the imac or be able to bring the mini to their office and swap in a spare if you have one?

Why could they swap a mini but not an iMac?

badsey · Oct 12, 2006, 05:55 PM

Apple - iMac - Tech Specs

17-inch model with 1.83GHz processor
512MB (2x256MB) of PC2-5300 (667MHz) DDR2 memory
Two SODIMM slots support up to 2GB

17-inch model with 2.0GHz processor, 20-inch and 24-inch models
1GB (2x512MB) of PC2-5300 (667MHz) DDR2 memory
Two SODIMM slots support up to 3GB

Graphics and Video
17-inch model with 1.83GHz processor
Intel GMA 950 graphics processor with 64MB of DDR2 SDRAM shared with main memory
17-inch model with 2.0GHz processor and 20-inch model
ATI Radeon X1600 graphics processor using PCI Express
128MB of GDDR3 SDRAM
Optional 256MB of GDDR3 SDRAM on 20-inch model

Nothing wrong with the 17" iMac, but get the 1GB ram one if you can, and make sure you get the one with the X1600 graphics card. = You want the 2.0Ghz iMac and not the 1.83Ghz one. With the 20" iMac you don't need to worry about this. Make sure you get the new Core 2 Duo CPU and not the older Core Duo also. 1GB of RAM is OK.

applenut1 · Oct 12, 2006, 07:33 PM

Originally Posted by badsey

Apple - iMac - Tech Specs

Nothing wrong with the 17" iMac, but get the 1GB ram one if you can, and make sure you get the one with the X1600 graphics card. = You want the 2.0Ghz iMac and not the 1.83Ghz one. With the 20" iMac you don't need to worry about this. Make sure you get the new Core 2 Duo CPU and not the older Core Duo also. 1GB of RAM is OK.

what the hell are you talking about? Do you even read what the guy is writing?

He doesn't need that.

And I also would go with the education iMac. I'm actually shocked that you took the other side of the argument.

zeebe · Oct 13, 2006, 08:36 AM

Originally Posted by applenut1

what the hell are you talking about? Do you even read what the guy is writing?

He doesn't need that.

And I also would go with the education iMac. I'm actually shocked that you took the other side of the argument.

Thanks, someone who finally realizes, the teachers don't need the high end graphics cards or all of the extra bells and whistles. The only reason I was going with the Mac Mini was for cost savings. All of our education budget comes from donations from local companies and people. I am amazed at the number of grants I have written which have been turned down, and I suspect, but can't be sure, that it is because we are a Catholic school. A local company called Medtronic, who supports schools in our state, has given to many of the public schools, but when I wrote a grant asking for money for science iBook cart a couple of years ago, I was turned down.

Kind of frustrating.

Again, thanks for the advice, I have talked it over with my principal and we will be getting the educational iMac, not sure if we are going to bump up the RAM to 1GB or not yet, I am going to be pricing RAM today from other dealers to see how they compare to Apple.

Thanks again.

Gossamer · Oct 13, 2006, 12:46 PM

I vote wait on upgrading the RAM. For just basic email/internet, 512MB should suffice, and you can always up it later. Upgrading to 1GB on 15 iMacs will cost an extra $1020 or so, which is more than another iMac.

iMacfan · Oct 13, 2006, 03:53 PM

Originally Posted by Gossamer

I vote wait on upgrading the RAM. For just basic email/internet, 512MB should suffice, and you can always up it later. Upgrading to 1GB on 15 iMacs will cost an extra $1020 or so, which is more than another iMac.

Remember that you will have to ditch the two 256Mb DIMMs if you upgrade later, and while I'm sure you are not a klutz, I'd imagine that there is a real risk of damaging one of such a large number of machines during the upgrade.

David

mitchell_pgh · Oct 14, 2006, 04:28 PM

I'm just nervous that the kids would damage the LCD screens.

IMHO, I would go with the education iMac. I don't think you even need 1GB of RAM in them, but I'm sure everyone else here will say 1GB isn't enough.

zeebe · Oct 14, 2006, 07:57 PM

Originally Posted by mitchell_pgh

I'm just nervous that the kids would damage the LCD screens.

IMHO, I would go with the education iMac. I don't think you even need 1GB of RAM in them, but I'm sure everyone else here will say 1GB isn't enough.

Remember, these are for the teachers, not the kids

badsey · Oct 14, 2006, 08:56 PM

Originally Posted by zeebe

Remember, these are for the teachers, not the kids

= better get those iMac screen protectors.

tooki · Oct 15, 2006, 04:52 AM

Originally Posted by badsey

Nothing wrong with the 17" iMac, but get the 1GB ram one if you can, and make sure you get the one with the X1600 graphics card. = You want the 2.0Ghz iMac and not the 1.83Ghz one. With the 20" iMac you don't need to worry about this. Make sure you get the new Core 2 Duo CPU and not the older Core Duo also. 1GB of RAM is OK.

Bad advice all around.

These are machines for office tasks, where the added cost of a full GPU is completely wasted. The GMA950 graphics exceed the requirements for office work by a great deal, and are beyond adequate for any of the iApps.

Similarly, the difference between 1.83GHz and 2GHz will be essentially undetectable without benchmarking software. The users of these machines will never know the difference.

The money for the extra GPU and CPU speed would be much better spent on RAM (I recommend 1.5GB RAM on Intel Macs, due to Rosetta's voracious appetite for RAM; until MS Office is UB, this is a significant concern). 1GB will certainly do fine, though.

I wouldn't worry about the RAM slots, either. It's extraordinarily unlikely that the slots would get damaged during an upgrade. They are very well designed in the iMac.

tooki