[megasad]

A couple of questions:

1 - To get student discount on a Mac, do you need to have started your course already? I start my degree at the end of September this year, but was wanting to buy and get used to a new iMac around a month before, in August. Does an acceptance letter from your university work?

2 - From what little I've read, the Merom processor is due to be released in the second half / third quarter of this year. So, between July - September? What do people reckon Apple will do? Put it in the iMac straight away? Or not update the iMac until next January? Obviously, the current iMac is already a wonderful machine, but since I don't need the computer until I start my course (Computer Science, no less) a shiny new processor and maybe a slightly lower price would be powerfully welcome.

...

Hey... It just occurred to me... Merom is 64 bit whereas Yonah is 32 bit. Whilst there is a 64 bit version of Windows XP, my friend has actually given up on it, reverted to normal XP on account of lack of drivers and such... I'm guessing Apple will update Boot Camp / Leopard to support 64 bit Windows, so it shouldn't be a problem... My mind wandered, never mind.

[mduell]

1 - Yes; Apple is generally pretty lax about it, but if they ask for proof you can show the acceptance letter.

2 - I expect Apple will bump the MBP to Merom within a few weeks of Intel releasing it, and the iMac to Conroe within a few months of Intel releasing it.

64-bit is mostly meaningless for the MBP and iMac lines, since we won't be seeing 4GB SO-DIMMs for quite a while.

[megasad]

Originally Posted by mduell

2 - I expect Apple will bump the MBP to Merom within a few weeks of Intel releasing it, and the iMac to Conroe within a few months of Intel releasing it.

You think Apple will use Conroes in the iMacs rather than Meroms? I know it's a desktop processor, but the iMac is so thin and tightly packed inside, that I figured they'd stick with the "laptop" components, keep the "desptop" processors for the PowerMacs...

Any particular reason you think they'd take a few months rather than a few weeks?

Originally Posted by mduell

64-bit is mostly meaningless for the MBP and iMac lines, since we won't be seeing 4GB SO-DIMMs for quite a while.

I know, I was speculating purely from a Boot Camp / installing Windows perspective. I don't even know if Windows XP (normal 32 bit version) works on 64 bit processors already, nor do I much care right now. The degree I'm going to be doing requires no Windows specific software, most of the programming being taught in Java. If I do install Windows, it shall be for games...

[mduell]

Originally Posted by megasad

You think Apple will use Conroes in the iMacs rather than Meroms? I know it's a desktop processor, but the iMac is so thin and tightly packed inside, that I figured they'd stick with the "laptop" components, keep the "desptop" processors for the PowerMacs...

I think they'll use the lower clocked (and smaller cached) Conroes (1.86/2.13Ghz and 2MB at launch) in the iMacs, so TDP should be fine. Conroe's maximum TDP is 65W, but that's for the 2.67Ghz/4MB version. For reference the final generation of G5 iMacs had ~50W CPUs.

Originally Posted by megasad

Any particular reason you think they'd take a few months rather than a few weeks?

There's not as much rush to get the new chip into a consumer product as there is with a professional product.

Originally Posted by megasad

I know, I was speculating purely from a Boot Camp / installing Windows perspective. I don't even know if Windows XP (normal 32 bit version) works on 64 bit processors already, nor do I much care right now.

x86 Windows runs on both AMD's and Intel's x64 chips. Many x64 owners run the x86 version due to driver availabilty.

[jasong]

If you don't need it now, I would wait to see what happens. However remember that new products tend to have long shipping times, so I wouldn't recommend ordering something you need next day the day it is announced.