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crl21 · May 21, 2007, 02:42 PM

I'm going to buy my first mac soon (as soon as mac announces the next updates; I sure hope that soon). I'm trying to decide between buying the 24 inch or the 20 inch + an external monitor. The 24 inch imac is amazing, but sitting in front of it at a desk it's almost overkill (if there really is such a thing). I'm not likely to use the computer to watch movies, but I'll be using it for typical home computer uses (email, websurfing, etc.) and photo editing. For a just a little bit more than the 24 inch, I can buy a 20 inch imac and another 20 inch monitor. I'm wondering if anyone has a setup like this or an opinion. The thing I like about this idea is that when the imac becomes obselete, I'll still have the monitor (of course the monitor could be obsolete by then too).

ibook_steve · May 21, 2007, 04:15 PM

If you don't need the bigger screen, just get the 20" iMac and the external display. That seems more than adequate for what you want to do.

Steve

P.S. Apple will announce the next updates, not "mac."

crl21 · May 21, 2007, 07:41 PM

Whoops. Thanks for the correction.

Simon · May 22, 2007, 02:26 AM

Have you ever worked with two screens? I don't like it at all and I always prefer working on one very large screen compared to two smaller ones. But that's a personal preference and also depends very much on the kind of work you do.

Also, if you say you probably don't need the 24" screen, I doubt you'll need two 20" screens.

The 24" iMac offers other improvements. For example a very nice GPU upgrade option. If that is of interest I'd go with the 24". You could still add an external display months later.

If OTOH the 20" iMac offers all you need and you're on a tight budget, you'd probably be better off just saving $500 and forgetting about the 24".

crl21 · May 22, 2007, 10:10 AM

Thanks for the response. I have worked with the two screens a bit, but I've never worked with a screen as large as 24 inches. With photo editing I like being able to have a full screen view without any of the tools and then the smaller view surrounded by all of the tools on the other screen. On the other hand, the budget isn't that tight, so I might just go for the larger screen to begin with as you suggest. I can't imagine I would be unhappy with it, and like you said I can always add another screen months down the road. Another question. Is the VRAM in the Imac upgradeable after the fact? The problem is that I can get great deals on preconfigured machines at the university, but they include the lower end video card and only 1 gig of ram. I've already figured it's still much cheaper to throw away the 2 sticks of ram and buy third party RAM to upgrade to the 2 gigs I'd like after the purchase, but I'm wondering how the VRAM works. Can I do the same thing?

Simon · May 22, 2007, 12:03 PM

The VRAM is not upgradable. In theory you should be able to swap the 7300/128MB card for the 7600/256MB card by yourself. But I haven't heard of anybody who's actually done it. You can't buy the 7600/256MB card off the shelf. You would have to get it from Apple as a replacement part.

crl21 · May 22, 2007, 01:30 PM

I know the value of money is relative, but what do you thinkg about the upgrade on the graphics card? It would cost me an extra $260. I dont' play many games, but I am interested in using Aperture. Will I notice a big difference in speed? Thanks for your help.

peeb · May 22, 2007, 02:05 PM

2 vs one large depends on what you are doing. For graphics work I prefer one large, but if I have two documents open, and referring to one while editing the other, I like two.

Simon · May 22, 2007, 02:44 PM

Originally Posted by crl21

I know the value of money is relative, but what do you thinkg about the upgrade on the graphics card? It would cost me an extra $260. I dont' play many games, but I am interested in using Aperture. Will I notice a big difference in speed? Thanks for your help.

If you plan on keeping the iMac for more than a year or so I would certainly do it. For the simple reason that this is one of those updates you can probably only do when you BTO your machine.

kcmac · May 22, 2007, 08:58 PM

I really prefer one screen. When I am editing two docs at once, I like having them close together so my eyes don't have to travel so far. With the 24", there is plenty of room for a big graphic and lots of tool palettes/inspectors.

Plus the 24 inch has a smaller footprint. I am dying to see the next iMac rev. I'm all in with it when Leopard is released.

Veltliner · May 23, 2007, 01:24 AM

The 24" iMac gives you the choice to upgrade for a better videocard. If you exchange it on a 20", you might void your warranty.

Simon · 02:59 AM

Originally Posted by Veltliner

The 24" iMac gives you the choice to upgrade for a better videocard. If you exchange it on a 20", you might void your warranty.

Actually, you can't upgrade any graphics on the 20" iMac. It's all soldered to the MLB.

On the 24" iMac the GPU is on a daughter card. But that doesn't mean it's upgradeable. There is however a CTO option.

crl21 · May 23, 2007, 08:52 AM

Thanks for all of your help. I know I asked the question, but I imagine that this conversation is somewhat moot since I plan on waiting for the new machines. Hopefully, they come out with some significant upgrades and then I'll have to make my decisions based on the new machines. Once again thanks for the help. It's nice to have such a welcome to the mac forum. CTO? So can or can't it be upgraded on the 24 inch (I'm sold on the 24 inch)? I recognize it's not user upgradeable, but will apple do it for me later on?

triplezoom · Jun 7, 2007, 07:59 PM

I think the best thing you could do is buy a 24" and add a second monitor to it down the road.

ginoledesma · Jun 8, 2007, 01:34 AM

For graphics work I think having one big monitor is better than 2 small ones. The other benefit is that you only have one screen to worry about in terms of color accuracy. With 2 monitors, especially non-matching ones, there's always a tendency of color not looking the same when you move the document from one monitor to the other.

I work with a MacBook and a 22" monitor, but right now wish that I just sprung for a 24" instead (higher res = more screen real estate). I also work with 2 x 22" widescreen monitors -- that can get tiring fast (either mouse scrolling or eye travel).