I am going to get a 20″ iMac. The plan is to use it mainly for music (uncompressed files from an external HD), surfing & word processing. There may be some photoshop & video editing as well. Gaming is of no interest.
1. Will I notice the difference between the 2.4 & 2.66 chips.
2. If I get the 2.4 version would another meg. of ram be a good idea.
I can get a 2.4 (ex-display) from John Lewis, price tba (but I’m not sure ex-display is a good idea?)
2.4 for £736 (+ £20-30 if I want the extra ram), 1 year warrantee, available now.
2.66 from John Lewis for £925, 2 years warrantee, available now.
2.66, circa £805, 1 year warrantee, availability tbc.
Instant availability isn’t crucial, but sooner rather than later would be nice.
I am aware of the rumours about a new version but am concerned that with our exchange rate vs the dollar prices will be a fair bit higher.

Do the STW Mac afficionados have any opinions?

1. Not really. More is always better, but it’s a very small jump.
2. More RAM is always good (see above!), but has no effect of graphic performance really. And get the RAM from Crucial.com, as they’re probbly the best for price. mind, extra £30 or so seems ok; for 1 meg extra?

Always get the best you can afford. Ex-display is cool, as long as it has no damage, and a full warranty. But ask if the system software can be reinstalled first, so it’s completely back to new. And I’d try and haggle that down a bit further, or try and get a printer thrown in or something.

New models will almost certainly be dearer. And dunno when they might be coming out.

Bear in mind that Apple have recently upgraded iLife to iLife 09, and this might not be on a machine from Waitrose, that’s been in stock for a while.

I’d prefer to buy direct from Apple, myself. Anyone in Education in your family? Anyone at Uni? You can get a fair chunk off with Apple’s Educational discount program.

I forgot that the graphics card is higher spec in the 2.6 version – ATI Radeon HD 2400 128 XT vs ATI Radeon HD 2600 256. I have no idea if this is significant, I assume the 70 gig on the HD is fairly inconsequential.

I don’t know if I’m an afficionado, but I have the 2.4 version and for me it’s super fast (and more than I will ever need in almost every aspect) after the MacBook that I had previously. But buying from John Lewis is a good idea as we had issues with the MacBook (bought from our local Waitrose, ex-demo) and they were very at sorting out the problems, and refunding the entire purchase amount.

We actually got our iMac from Argos (as my Mum can get 10% there) but I’m sure that if we have any problems with the new one it’ll be a real ball-ache 😳

If you want to buy from JL, I have £500 of vouchers I would like to turn into cash 🙂

COnks

Decided to go for a 2.4 chip, ex-dispay @ £700 with 2 yr warantee – picked it up & they had made a mistake – it was the 2.66 version for the same price…….result!

Nice one

DEFINITELY get as much extra RAM as you can though. If it only has 1GB in at the moment, I’d suggest 2GB as a minimum really, and ideally just chuck 4BG in. RAM is mega cheap these days, 4GB will cost about £50 from crucial themselves, or most other reputable places.

£30 for a Gig is very expensive. I’ve seen a Gig for about £13 on its own these days, 2GB chips are £25 each now. It’s a very cheap and easy solution to extra performance, and makes a more noticable difference than the processor increase (though nice one for scoring the 2.66 anyhow!)

4Gb of RAM is less than 50 quid. In fact, it’s 35 quid, I put this into the 2.8 24in iMac that I bought my parents for Christmas.

I wouldn’t buy from JL or from Argos or any of the others. The machines they’re selling are the previous model (mid 2007 model) rather than the current (early 2008). Even the current is rumoured to be replaced soon.

Best bang-for-buck is the current 2.8 24in one with 4gb stuffed in it. 2.8 processor and the 265mb graphics card are plenty for just about every task (bar gaming, but you don’t buy a Mac for that). The screens on the 24in ones are vastly better than the 20in ones.

If you want to save a bit of cash buy this…

2.8Ghz 24in iMac in the Apple Refurb Store

I bought a couple of Minis from the refurb store to use as media centres and there’s no difference from buying ‘new’ apart from the plain packaging. Warranty is still the same.

To save a bit more cash you can get 4% cashback if you buy through http://www.quidco.com.

Oh, and I’m a bit out on the memory, Crucial have put it up to 40 quid now…

4Gb iMac Memory from Crucial

Cor, wish it was that cheap for my Mac Pro! Needs specific RAM, with custom heatsinks. 4GB (2x2GB) is £100!! And it can take up to 32GB! And the 4GB chips are £270 a pair!!!

Nice result on the higher spec model! Bargainous!

Bensales – I’ve bought the 2.66 version from my local JL – they said it had been in stock since Dec ’08 – it’s running OSX version 10.5.4 & comes with 2GB RAM.
I’m not sure if it’s because it was the display unit but it has a ‘tour’ loop on it which I can’t seem to get rid of, it also is asking me for the network password each time I turn it off. If anyone can help me cure these issues I would be grateful.

A ‘tour’ loop? What do you mean, exactly?

Sounds like it may have demo software on it, for display.

I’d say, the best thing to do would be to re-instal the OS on it. Back up all your files to an external HD, then re-install the OS. Then, you will have a completely new OS, untouched by grubby meddling shop customers.

This is one of the pitfalls of buying an ex-demo model. Apple refurbs are thoroughly checked, and the OS and all software installed from the beginning. A better option, if you want to save money, tbh. One out of JL will just have been put back in the box. God knows what someone else has done to it. You do know, that they could be controlling your webcam, don’t you…?

When you back up, make sure you back up your emails and stuff. You can export all your emails, then import them back in when you’ve got a brand new OS.

RudeBoy – Member

Cor, wish it was that cheap for my Mac Pro! Needs specific RAM, with custom heatsinks. 4GB (2x2GB) is £100!! And it can take up to 32GB! And the 4GB chips are £270 a pair!!!

Nice result on the higher spec model! Bargainous!

If you will be such a tart and spend all you money on the most expensive Mac, which requires specific an expensive RAM, no wonder you can’t afford to put any gears on your bike!

😉

Heh!

It is an industrial beast; weighs a **** ton. About 25kg, with 4 HDs and 2 DVD drives! I wouldn’t want to push it up a mountain, that’s for sure.

What I want now, is a tiny Mac notebook thingy. Come on Apple; sort it out!

What I want now, is a tiny Mac notebook thingy. Come on Apple; sort it out!

With you there mate. Much as I love my MacBookPro and my iPhone, a 10″ notebook too would be absolutely ideal.

That said though I know of a couple of people running the new 10″ Samsung Notebook with a cracked version of OSX, and they’ve had nothing but good experiences so far!

4HD’s in your Mac Pro though, what you using it for, you a media professional?

They’re in the advanced stages of producing their own version of the netbook running full OS X (rather than some mobile version). Shouldn’t be too long before it’s on the market, last I heard they were working on balancing battery life with processing power.

I’ve no doubt it’ll be suitably dinky and bling to keep everyone happy 🙂

Has anybody been hands on with the new 17″ MacBook Pro yet? I’m hesitant to go that route without the swappable battery unless the 7 hours they claim is actual use not just powered on.

4 HDs- One main, with OS10.5 pont; one as back up. That also has 10.4 pont, on another partition, as well as a Windoze partition. 3+4 are a mirrored RAID set, used as storage. 250, 250 and 500GB. Plus, other stuff stored on DVDs and 500GB external HD.

I also have 2 old CRT iMacs; one with OS 10.3; the other has OS9!! Good to have all sorts, to test compatibility with older machines.

I know of a couple of people running the new 10″ Samsung Notebook with a cracked version of OSX

Hmm, sounds inertesting! I was half thinking of an NC10, but really want OSX. You got any info on how they did that?

They’re in the advanced stages of producing their own version of the netbook running full OS X

They want to bloody hurry up!!!

RudeBoy

What’s your email address, will forward you the info I got off someone a month or so ago…

rudeboyATvirginDOTnet