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Hawkeye_a · Apr 25, 2006, 05:28 AM

Hey people,
I'm on the verge of getting a new 20" iMac (Intel CD). If you own one, i'd really appreciate your impressions on the machines and any quibbles or faults with the unit you have.

Ive heard that the responsiveness is not as good as on the G4/G5s. But ill put that down to a new architecture, and im sure it'll be resolved in software eventually. but apart from that, what's your experience with the machine been so far ?

Cheers

badnewsblair · Apr 25, 2006, 09:22 AM

What exactly do you mean by "responsiveness"?

Regardless, my machine is absolutely, positively flawless! As I've said before, when I got my 17-inch Powerbook (back in the day) I thought it was just the cat's meow. However, as much as I loved that machine it just cannot touch this thing.

I used it primarily for entertainment. I use Front Row for my music and pictures. I used to it play World of Warcraft... a lot (unfortunately) and it is more than powerful enough to handle that game. I have Bootcamp installed but I rarely use the Windows partition.

the screen is bright (almost too bright) and beautiful. All of the iApps are quick and powerful. The only flaw I suppose that I have noticed is that sometimes it will not hold certain settings after I restart (Auto Update comes to mind).

ekman · Apr 25, 2006, 10:28 AM

I've been very happy with my 20" Intel iMac. Granted, I was replacing a 400 MHz G4, but the iMac is very, very fast. Even Rosetta apps (like Photoshop 7 and Sim City 4K) are much faster than they were on the old PowerMac. My HP printer worked fine even without HP's software. The display is spectacular, although much brighter than the CRT it replaced. That's taking some getting used to.

All the iApps are very fast, iPhoto and iDVD are now actually useable. I also use PhotoMechanic for my digital photos, and performance is great.

I still plan on purchasing an Intel PowerMac in the next two years, but I've been very happy with the iMac so far. I did spring for 2 GB of memory, I expect that has a lot to do with the good performance of the Rosetta apps.

iREZ · Apr 25, 2006, 12:24 PM

it sucks with non universal apps through rosetta if you dont have at least 1gb of ram (illy and ps choked until i installed the full 2gb...now its plenty fast). other than that, i havent had any snafus and have been very pleased with its performance overall. i work with a dual 2.0 w/2.5gb ram at work every day and cant tell the two apart when working on universal apps, by the way...my imac is a 17" CD.

eddiecatflap · Apr 25, 2006, 02:39 PM

i played doom 3 on my imac without the ub update , it was very poor

then i added the ub update and it's like a rocket !

overall very happy with my imac 20" , after adding an eye tv dtt i use it for my main tv now , using a sony wega just for games

i'd give it 10/10 and it is an absolute bargain

acorder · Apr 25, 2006, 06:43 PM

I absolutely endorse this machine. I've had it for about six weeks now and have no complaints. The screen is nice and bright (just turn down the brightness setting, folks). The DVD drive is fairly loud and not quite as quick as I expected, but not worth complaining about by any means. I didn't realize how great it's small footprint would be, either, so that was a nice surprise. And even though I have a nice set of external powered speakers, the internal speakers on the machine are surprisingly adequate for day-to-day use.

Also, I ran it with the stock 512MB of RAM for the first couple of weeks and saw moderate performance gains when I added another 512MB stick. It's certainly not unusable without, though.

Hawkeye_a · Apr 25, 2006, 07:34 PM

Thanks guys.

When i said "responsiveness".... i meant like when ....lets say... your encoding something for awhile, and then you switch apps...there's always a little hesitation. but i can put that down to low memory and a not-so-universal OS (maybe?).

Anyway, im pretty much sold on this machine...... one last question. the upgradedgraphics card. do i need it ? (im not a hardcore gamer...but the price difference is almost negligable)

Cheers

jwoods · Apr 25, 2006, 09:03 PM

I don't know if anyone actually "needs" it, but I got it anyway. If you are comfortable with the price increase with it, it's a no brainer in my book. I figure, if anything, it future proofs the investment a bit more.

macintologist · Apr 26, 2006, 01:12 AM

The only problem with my intel imac is that every time I plug in a USB Audio device like a microphone or iMic, the machine completely locks up and requires a hard reboot.

iREZ · Apr 26, 2006, 05:50 PM

why would you connect an imic to your imac? just curious.

Hawkeye_a · Apr 26, 2006, 07:36 PM

Originally Posted by iREZ

why would you connect an imic to your imac? just curious.

to digitize any analog audio input like from a record player for example. but yeah...that reminds me of another issue where the USB ports just freeze...the keyboard/mouse just stops working and needs to be unplugged and then plugged back again (no rebooting). software issue i reckon.

iREZ · Apr 26, 2006, 11:13 PM

the imac cd has audio-in...why would you need an imic to accomplish this?

addiecool · Apr 27, 2006, 12:15 PM

I sold off my Dual 2.0 G5 (June 2004) and my Samsung 17" LCD and got the 20" imac.
why?

PROS:

1. Sold my G5 for $2120 + Samsung 17" for $ 350. = 2460. Saved a lot of money and got a 20" intel imac with 1GB RAM.
2. Bigger 20" screen the best screen I have ever had.
3. Feels faster in some cases than my Dual G5
4. Got my FCP 5.1 upgrade and man is it fast? You bet it is... Benchmarks all over the net show it is 2-3X faster than FCP 5.1 on PPC. Yahooooo!!!!!!!!

5. All other apps I use are now native. (Safari, iPhoto, Speed download, mac the ripper, camino, opera 9.0-awesome, adobe lightroom, iTunes, iWork, canon MP780 Multifunction, HP 4650 Color Laserjet, doom 3, UT 2004, stuffit 10.1, VLC, transmit, handbrake, isquint). Photoshop will have to wait till next year till Adobe blesses us with a UB version.
6. Dual boot Windows XP with Bootcamp. Awesome just Awesome. Helped me work on some windows only apps, without leaving my mac. waiting for virtualization support so I do not have to reboot.
7. some PPC apps I use work wonderfully with rosetta.
8. Got iSight
9. Got Airport and Bluetooth built-in (was not there on my G5)
10. Overall a very smooth and satisfying experience.
11. 2X faster USB 2.0 port. My g5 usb 2.0 port sucked transfering files to the iPod. This is way faster.
12. Much better graphics then my Geforce FX5200 in the G5.
13. Uses only 95W power at max use. my G5 used 350-400W at high usage.
14. God I love the screen

NOT EXACTLY CONS (Just my experiences):
1. some minor Java problems.
2. very minor finder bugs.
3. Rosetta needs a lot of memory. So I will have to upgrade to at least 1.5GB
4. Mighty mouse sucks. Why??? Becasue the clicking is sad. you have to actually lift your finger on the left click to let the mouse realise your right click. The thumb buttons are useless. (Apple you goofed again. First the hockey puck mouse then this. (Fire the mouse design division and get some sensible people over there)

So I saved a lot of money, got a new better comp. I am impressed.

Many guys told me to hold off and not buy a first gen iMac intel. But I am glad I went ahead.

LagunaSol · Apr 28, 2006, 11:51 PM

My 20" Intel iMac is the best computer I've ever owned (and I've had a lot of them). I have had an issue a couple of times where the fan kicked in after waking from sleep and I couldn't get it to stop without shutting down, but other than that, it's been great. Hopefully Apple can fix that glitch with a software update?

The small footprint, the beautiful screen, the speed, the near-silent operation...this could be the perfect computer.

jwoods · Apr 29, 2006, 06:24 PM

My thoughts exactly. My 20" intel iMac is the best computer I've ever had. I love it.

I haven't had any problems with mine. While I think the mighty mouse might have potential, I hate wired mice, so I took the wireless keyboard and mouse combo. Now that boot camp is out, I'm keeping my eyes open for a cheap USB keyboard and mouse.

(I don't mind the one click. I thought I would, moving from XP to OS X, but....after a day or two, one click is fine)

Hawkeye_a · May 1, 2006, 06:56 AM

Originally Posted by iREZ

the imac cd has audio-in...why would you need an imic to accomplish this?

good point, i never thought of that.

Cheers

eddiecatflap · May 1, 2006, 06:59 AM

yet another plus point , eh ?

i don't think my imac G4 had that

macintologist · May 1, 2006, 10:47 AM

Originally Posted by iREZ

the imac cd has audio-in...why would you need an imic to accomplish this?

Because the built-in Audio In is Line In only and doesn't support pre-amped microphones.

stefanicotine · May 4, 2006, 04:06 PM

I love my iMac! The only issues I've ever had are:

- Video tearing (resolved through Apple update)
- a 5 minute boot time (Window's fault, I messed it up with Macdrive)
- freezed twice, both times while i was using iLife apps (garage band and idvd)

But my friend has a dual G5 with 5 gigs of ram and 660gb of Harddrive space and I must say, it doesn't keep up with the imac

Macpilot · May 5, 2006, 02:15 AM

I love mine. It is super fast and quiet. About the only machine Apple makes that will significantly outperform the 20" iMac is the Quad Power Mac.

I have 2 Gigs of RAM in mine and it never lags doing anything, except the occasional Rosetta program. But most of my Rosetta stuff works fine, like Firefox, LogTen, BOINC, and Vuescan. In fact, I notice no measurable performance hit on these apps compared to my previous G5 iMac.

eddiecatflap · May 5, 2006, 07:27 AM

i seem to get the sbod with idvd a lot , especially when it's encoding audio

apart from that it's very nippy

ironfrank · May 6, 2006, 11:22 PM

Long-time reader, first-time poster.

I bought a 20" Intel iMac about a week ago, and I absolutely love it. Just to echo was has been previously posted: quiet, fast operation (I upped the memory to 2GB); stunningly bright, beautiful screen; small footprint; Adobe apps run a little slow but are still lightning quick compared to what I was using before (Pismo 500MHz...go ahead, laugh). I use a PC at work, so I plan on buying XP and installing Boot Camp, since Virtual PC doesn't work on this machine. I haven't had an issue with this computer yet.

It's the perfect machine for me and is definitely the best computer purchase I've ever made.

rhashem · May 6, 2006, 11:30 PM

I concur. The mighty mouse sucks. It gets really nasty really easily (and I keep my hands pretty clean), which makes it kind of disgusting to use unless you clean it every week. The little roller-BB isn't very responsive, and has start to stick after only five or six months of use. Right now, I've got a microsoft mouse hooked up to my PowerMac (don't have anything else around), and let me tell you it sucks!

Hawkeye_a · May 26, 2006, 02:36 AM

Got my imac 20" yesterday, and so far loving it. thatnks for your responces guys.

Cheers

mavherzog · May 26, 2006, 02:47 AM

Originally Posted by Hawkeye_a

Got my imac 20" yesterday, and so far loving it. thatnks for your responces guys.

Congrats on the new purchase. I bought my 20" iMac right away when they were first announced and have not regretted that decision one bit. I LOVE my iMac!

flashboy · May 26, 2006, 10:27 AM

Originally Posted by math ho

Long-time reader, first-time poster.

I bought a 20" Intel iMac about a week ago, and I absolutely love it. Just to echo was has been previously posted: quiet, fast operation (I upped the memory to 2GB); stunningly bright, beautiful screen; small footprint; Adobe apps run a little slow but are still lightning quick compared to what I was using before (Pismo 500MHz...go ahead, laugh). I use a PC at work, so I plan on buying XP and installing Boot Camp, since Virtual PC doesn't work on this machine. I haven't had an issue with this computer yet.

It's the perfect machine for me and is definitely the best computer purchase I've ever made.

math ho-
I have a iMac 20 Intel with the standard 512 ram and found the Adobe Apps are sluggish when switching from Photoshop to Illustrator, with 2GB ram does this happen for you? Did you notice a big improvement from before you added ram? I am needing to add ram for Adobe but don't know how much. 1GB? or more.

eddiecatflap · May 26, 2006, 11:28 AM

i went back to a macally icemouse after my mighty mouse totally went awol

that ball thing is useless

addiecool · May 29, 2006, 02:34 PM

flashboy - you need a minimum of 1.5GB RAM to help adobe apps run smoothly. That is what I saw when I upgraded from 512MB to 1.5 GB - BETTER PERFORMANCE.

Give it a try

ironfrank · May 29, 2006, 08:33 PM

Originally Posted by flashboy

math ho-
I have a iMac 20 Intel with the standard 512 ram and found the Adobe Apps are sluggish when switching from Photoshop to Illustrator, with 2GB ram does this happen for you? Did you notice a big improvement from before you added ram? I am needing to add ram for Adobe but don't know how much. 1GB? or more.

It was a big improvement. I ordered 2 1GB modules from RamJet the same day I bought my 20" iMac from the Apple store. They arrived about 3 days later, but during those 3 days I played around with PS, Ill & InDesign, and they were relatively slow. I have PS7, Ill10 & InD2 (not going to upgrade until CS3 comes out); you probably have different versions, so your experiences may vary. Before, it would take 6-10 "bounces" in the dock for them to open...now, it's never more than 2...and switching between them is smooth as silk.

As mentioned above, get at least an additional 1GB. You won't regret it...I know I don't!