Re: Someone talk me out of this.
- From: Jaimie Vandenbergh <jaimie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 01 Sep 2008 19:56:03 +0100
On Mon, 1 Sep 2008 17:55:28 +0100, me3@xxxxxxxxxxx (Isaac J.) wrote:
Jaimie Vandenbergh <jaimie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I'd also like to be back on a nice fast 3.5" hard drive again (and I
know that I can get the same sort of speed in 2.5", but I didn't get
around to upgrading from the stock slowish fujitsu yet).
If the iMacs are like the Mac Pros, Apple don't tell you precisely
what disk drives the machines come with. Oh, they tell you the
capacity, but not the model, which can be vitally important as
regards speed.
Yep. And if I do go iMac, I'll be getting the smallest HD and
switching it out for a quicker one myself when I can be bothered. And
indeed the same for a Pro. I'm not sucking down Apple's HD or RAM
prices, that's for certain.
But it doesn't matter with the Mac Pros. It's very easy to pop in a
replacement drive, and a very fast one of your choice. Not so easy
with the iMacs:
http://www.kodawarisan.com/imac_2007_mid/imac_2007_mid_01.html
Easy enough - glass out (it's held on by magnets), screen out, replace
HD. I've got the service manual here.
iMac: Got to be the 24", since that's the only one with a gaming-grade
video card.
But it also has a larger resolution display, so it *needs* a beefier
card just to colour all those pixels.
That's fine, it's a simple matter to choose a lower res than the
native one. In terms of non-games, the GMA950 I'm using at the moment
is perfectly capable of smooth desktop animation on 1920x1200.
Moreover:
The cards in the iMacs are all mobile (i.e., laptop) versions, so
they'll be slower than the desktop equivalents.
Are they? The specs say they're normal desktop version numbers rather
than M editions... I know they used to do that, up to rather recently,
but it looks like they've stopped.
They're still not very high end gfx cards, mind.
And you'll never be able to change that video card. Which could be
an issue, as some NVIDIA cards are failing at a higher than expected
rate. I'm not sure if you wanted the iMac with the 8800GS though.
I would; failures covered by warranty don't bother me. I'll still have
a spare Mini to revert to.
The Mac Pro base system comes with a low to mid range card (the
HD2600XT), but you can easily upgrade that. If you want a gaming
card that will work in OS X without any hacking, the options are:
NVIDIA 8800GT
ATi HD 3870
ATi HD 4870
(Soon supposedly: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=550708)
Compared with the rather anaemic nVidia 8800gs in the top iMac...
OTOH, I reckon I can buy an iMac now and another one later for the
same total price as a lowend Mac Pro and a decent card now, let alone
an upgrade later.
I'll definitely be waiting a bit. Apart from anything else I've just
been booked up for all sorts of things over the next three weeks, so
it'll be October before I get the chance to sit down again, let alone
put any money into Apple's coffers.
Mac Pro: Viciously expensive It's not small :)
And it is expensive, but for that you'd be getting an octocore monster
that is more flexible than any other Mac. Of course, I wouldn't presume
to say you need that flexibility and power. Many people don't.
And nor do I. I've had big computers, and I've gone right off them - a
dual-dual Xeon is the PC that's under the desk powered off because
220W just for browsing the web is ridiculous. Really, all I need is a
Mini with a decent video card in.
Good luck with your difficult choice.
"Oh, how shall I waste my money most sensibly?". Now that I'm serious
about upgrading, it's very frustrating that Apple don't sell the kit I
want.
Cheers - Jaimie
--
Growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional.
.
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- Re: Someone talk me out of this.
- From: Isaac J.
- Re: Someone talk me out of this.
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