Apple Unveils 24" iMac 487
beren12 writes "Apple today announced a new model in the lineup of iMacs, a new 24" HD model. It comes with a 1920x1200 LCD, 2.16GHz or 2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 1-3 GB Memory, 250 or 500GB SATA Drive, NVIDIA GeForce 7300GT or 7600GT with 128MB GDDR3 Video card. Also posted is a new lower end iMac, which looks very similar to the education iMac. Also available is a small speed boost to the Mini line, which now sports a Core Duo 1.83GHz Processor. "
No Link? (Score:5, Informative)
Wrong implication (Score:4, Informative)
Man Mini was updated as well (Score:4, Informative)
All Mac Mini now have Core Duo inside... (Score:5, Informative)
Now, all macs have dual core processors
Re:Seperation is needed (Score:5, Informative)
You are keeping backups, aren't you?
Re:Wrong implication (Score:5, Informative)
The highest card you're seeing in the "preconfigured" bundles is the 7300GT with 128MB, however select that and update the details -- you'll now have the option of choosing the 256MB 7600GT.
These are amazing prices for extraordinary levels of power. While I still need my Windows box (and no I wouldn't get a Mac as a Windows box), this would definitely serve as a very useful second PC. I think it's time that I'll take the plunge, maybe writing it off for "cross platform testing".
Re:FW 800 included (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Seperation is needed (Score:1, Informative)
Re:College Kids (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Cool... dammit... cool... dammit (Score:5, Informative)
Because you don't study the buying guide [macrumors.com]. Unfortunately, in a non too informative manner, it usually tells you to wait.
Curse the continuous flow of new technology, and the insatiable curiousity of the human mind if you wish.
Re:HD iMac? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:No Apple Remote? (Score:5, Informative)
The other 17" model does come with the remote, and that's the one that used to be the base model (it has an ATI X1600). The base model you're referring to now is the stripped-down model (Intel GMA950) that was previously sold only in the Apple Store for Education, and it didn't come with a remote back then either. So nothing has been done to the lineup remote-wise, it is just that the stripped-down model is now available to everyone instead of just students.
Re:Makes you wonder... (Score:2, Informative)
Well I ordered an iMac 10 days ago and the shipping date slipped to September 12, and for a reason. It got upgraded to the Core 2 Duo 2.16GHz, all for $200 less. Sweet.
Re:Reeeeally bizarre coinkydink (Score:2, Informative)
The new iMacs use Meroms. That 2.33 GHz Core 2 is a T7600.
Re:College Kids (Score:1, Informative)
Still, your point stands. DVD burning, especially, should be a bare-bones feature.
Re:Seperation is needed (Score:3, Informative)
Except that you can't, because pulling the drive would void your warranty (it's not user-servicable). You can pull your drive or you can send it in for warranty repair, but not both.
Boo! (Score:2, Informative)
"Intel GMA 950 graphics with 64MB of shared memory"
I was hoping for the upgraded intel graphics with the C2D, but why would Apple give the customers what they have been asking for(improved graphics).
Re:Reeeeally bizarre coinkydink (Score:3, Informative)
Yes, it's Steve Jobs.
Re:No Link? (Score:4, Informative)
You're probably in for a nice surprise (Score:3, Informative)
To Our Valued Apple Customer:
Apple is pleased to announce a price drop for the Mac Pro you recently
ordered. We have automatically adjusted your order to reflect the new price.
For up-to-date information on your order, please visit our Order Status
website at http://www.apple.com/orderstatus [apple.com]. Once your order is shipped, you
can also obtain tracking information on this site.
Thank you for your interest in Apple products.
Sincerely,
Apple Store Customer Support
Simon
Re:Apple made that mistake once (Score:4, Informative)
It:
- uses a smaller laptop hard drive (a bit slower than the iMac)
- has no video card
- "only" has a core duo (not a core 2 duo) [that may change]
- doesn't include a keyboard or mouse
- 2GB max of ram (ok, I'm stretching it a bit here)
That being said, it's clear that the Mac mini is a subset of the iMac beyond simply not having a screen.
Re:Slightly Wrong... (Score:3, Informative)
You can't, however, upgrade the GPU. What happened to that "laptop GPU card" standard, anyway?
Re:24" cinema display please? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Wrong implication (Score:3, Informative)
MacUpdate [macupdate.com]
Inside Mac Games [insidemacgames.com]
Mac Game Files [macgamefiles.com]
VersionTracker [versiontracker.com]
Emuscene [emuscene.com]
Pros and cons, hmm, let's see. OSX is more solid and user-friendly than Windows, but has fewer apps. PCs tend to be cheaper, Macs ALWAYS look better (just don't try to discuss that with people who think neon lights make a computer look good, they just don't get it).
Re:Wrong implication (Score:5, Informative)
WoW runs nicely on any Mac, better on the high-end stuff but it all runs pretty decently. The Macintosh operating system has a bit more overhead than Linux but it is pretty on-par with Windows. You'll get a bit more bang for your buck running Linux on the Mac hardware but then again you'll lose some of the nice GUI features of the Mac.
One of the nicest things is it is easy now to double or triple boot Mac OS, Windows, and Linux on Mac hardware. There are even some free and commercial software out there that enables you to run Windows applications directly under Mac OS X, without having to boot Windows.
As far as price, well building it yourself will always be the least expensive method. However, once you figure in time spent, support costs if something goes wrong, overall compatibility of the hardware components, and so on I'd say that the difference between a Mac and a self-built are pretty close. When you buy a Mac you are pretty certain you'll get a solid machine with a solid operating system. Throw in the fact that the new Macs can run just about any modern software and are in some sweet form-factors and I'd say buying a Mac is a win.
After all, if you end up hating Mac OS you can just wipe the drive install Windows or Linux on it, no harm no foul!
Re:You're probably in for a nice surprise (Score:2, Informative)
Re:24" cinema display please? (Score:3, Informative)
How likely is it that you have the Dell monitors set to the wrong resolution? My Dell 19" is razor sharp...
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LCD_monitor#Drawbacks [wikipedia.org] :
Re:Wrong implication (Score:4, Informative)
Care to educate a noob on OS X and linux apps?
Most Linux apps either have a port to the native UI, or will still run under X Windows as a child of the native UI. There is also a good selection of the commercial, professional applications including most of the very popular games. What is missing is the odd, niche application for Windows. You can run most of these by dual booting, or more conveniently using Crossover or Parallels, which both do a good job of running different apps at reasonable speeds.
I was actually looking at a MacBook, but the 24" monitor with the "tower" built in is really really slick lookin.
The imac and macbook are both "all-in-one" solutions. As such, neither is very upgradeable. Don't plan to change the video card in either, or do much else other than add RAM. Personally, I really like portability, so my solution for years has been a mac laptop, driving the built in display and a second, larger monitor when I am at my desk at work or home. But then I'm the type who does a fair bit of work in coffee shops, or under a tree in a park. Since all mac laptops now support independent displays as well as mirrored displays, this provides me with more screen real estate than a single monitor on the imac, although the total price is probably higher.
I'm also curious as to how well the GPUs perform, as I'm still into gaming and might go back to WoW.
The GPUs are nothing to write home about in either model. They are adequate. You won't have any problem playing WoW or most other mainstream games, but you're not going to be getting any bragging rights for highest FPS with the latest and greatest games. If you're a casual gamer, don't worry. If you're a hardcore gamer dude, buy something else.
I also do a lot of simulation (of multi-agent/robot systems) for my masters thesis, so I need the horsepower. What are the pros and cons, as you see them, of buying this beast, and how does it compare with what I could build myself for the same price if I wanted to?
Depending upon what type of bottlenecks you have for your modeling, a mac may or may not be right for you. The raw horsepower CPU limited, non-multithreaded program will not perform as well in most cases on OS X as it does in Linux. OS X has a number of tradeoffs in this area and they are targeted at the desktop workstation, not number crunching in the background. If you build with the right compiler options, I'm guessing you'll be in the neighborhood of 90% of the performance of the same chip running Linux. If the process is more parallel or easily offloaded to the GPU using the built in dev tools, you'll do better yet. Also, if you can take advantage of the Xgrid technology, offloading batches of work to other machines on the LAN is pretty simple.
As far as price is concerned, macs cost about the same as any other vendor, which is to say not too much more than it costs to build a machine yourself. The disadvantage is they only offer a few models, so you'll almost certainly be buying features you don't want or particularly need. It simply is not as customizable as building yourself from the full set of available hardware.
Personally, that trade off is worth it to me, but it is hard to tell for another person, without really having a good idea what they are doing. Good luck.
Re:Wrong implication (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Wrong implication (Score:4, Informative)
Not a true replacement, but I swear by Terminal + screen [gnu.org] (included with OS X). The major advantage is that you can attach to the same screen session from anywhere in the world, resuming exactly where you left off. You can even be attached from multiple places at once (work, home, etc). This is also handy for viewing multiple screen windows at once by simply opening multiple Terminal windows and attaching them to the same session.
The keyboard shortcuts for managing "windows" are also quite handy, easier than clicking a mouse. I can't imagine why anyone would use anything else, but I guess that's just me.
Anybody have any other good Mac OS X "gotchas" for the average technically competant switcher that I've forgotten?
A couple off the top of my head:
If you're doing serious administration, learn niutil [apple.com] and its gui sibling, NetInfo Manager. User account settings, groups, NFS mounts, etc, are all stored in the NetInfo database. Learn it and love it.
OS X's built in fsck is crap. If you're ever unfortunate enough to get a corrupted HFS+ filesystem, invest in a copy of DiskWarrior [alsoft.com]. It's fixed everything I've thrown at it that wasn't a hardware failure, where most of the time fsck (also wrapped in the Disk Utility gui) gave up. I still don't understand why Apple doesn't just buy it and bundle it with the OS.
External disks are mounted by default with permissions such that the currently logged in user owns everything on them. This is not always desirable (when backing up files that should retain owner/permissions). To disable this behavior for a volume, either use vsdbutil -a
Short list of helpful command-line utilities to look up:
Finally: macosxhints.com [macosxhints.com].
pulling the drive (Score:2, Informative)