Which iMac to buy? please advise!

[germanix]

I am interested in buying the "new" 24" iMac. I use my computer mainly for mail and correspondence but also to watch or stream videos. I do not plan to buy (after this buy) a new computer for at least 4-5 years. I have not owned an Apple computer before.
Question: Which configuration would be best to buy and why? Should I take the 3 year warranty package, is it worth it to spend the extra money for it. A one year warranty is included, do I realy need longer? What are Apple users experience with this?
Appreciate all help
Thanks in advance

[cyberdork33]

Are you wanting to use Ubuntu on it?

[germanix]

No, on the iMac i plan to use the apple software (OSX). I have Ubuntu on my laptop and my current pc

[looplu]

I've never taken out the extended apple care and never needed it as it turns out,if you can fix stuff you should be ok , unless the logic board goes, but thats the chance you take. (you can still fix that but its an expensive fix, costing loads more than the apple care)

if you can hold on wait abit a new Mac OSX will be around later in the year "Snowleopard" if you buy your iMac now you'll have to pay for the OS upgrade.. mind you if you keep putting off getting a computer untill the next OS you'll never get one.

surf and mail , the basic 24" Intel imac config is more than fine for that , but if your going to watch/store films from your hdd rather than the optical drive , look at the hdd upgrade.

like you i only boot linux through pc's, good call

[Unix-Man]

I would buy any iMac as long as its on the Apple website.

They are amazingly fast and compact machines that can handle pretty much any application you throw at it. they are all different and can be customized for order.

So just buy the one you want. if you need any tips feel free to email me at NNP-3@comcast.net i am pretty Fluent with EVERYTHING apple.

[carlf]

I am interested in buying the "new" 24" iMac. I use my computer mainly for mail and correspondence but also to watch or stream videos. I do not plan to buy (after this buy) a new computer for at least 4-5 years. I have not owned an Apple computer before.
Question: Which configuration would be best to buy and why? Should I take the 3 year warranty package, is it worth it to spend the extra money for it. A one year warranty is included, do I realy need longer? What are Apple users experience with this?
Appreciate all help
Thanks in advance
I'm curious why you are spending that much money for an imac since you will only use your computer for email and watch or stream videos. Don't get me wrong I like Apple products heck the last time I brought a computer was when I got a 12 inch g4 powerbook 1ghz 764 ram. It is still workng today though I have used Fedora 7 on it since it came out up through Fedora 10 and just now trying Ubuntu which seems harder for me so far on the ppc side compared to Fedora. Anyhow, it is the only computer I have owned since I brought it.

You see ,when I get a new laptop it will be a pc based with me installing a linux distribution on it so in a way I'm doing the opposite of you.

[germanix]

Looplu, Unix-Man and Carlf, I would like to thank you all for your response to my request for advice. I thank you all for the sound advice which I am sure will help me in making my decission. I realy like linux Ubuntu and will keep using it on my laptop but I do have some unresolved issues with it. 8.10 runs less stable on my Dell Dimension E520 than 8.04 did. Some things are better, others worse. I do not plan to store any films on the HDD, I mainly stream films direct from the internet. Here I have a problem with Linux. I have tried all of the "cures" offered on this forum but cannot get Divx streams to run (I can watch Divx on the various players from DVD but no streaming) Anyway I have been meaning to buy a Apple maschine for a long time now and would also like to test Osx with which I have no experience. I guess I could get to watch Divx streams on my Dell if I was prepared to re-install Windows on it, but I am not prepared to do that. I have been Windows free for over a year now and wish to keep it that way. I wish you all a nice day.

[carlf]

Looplu, Unix-Man and Carlf, I would like to thank you all for your response to my request for advice. I thank you all for the sound advice which I am sure will help me in making my decission. I realy like linux Ubuntu and will keep using it on my laptop but I do have some unresolved issues with it. 8.10 runs less stable on my Dell Dimension E520 than 8.04 did. Some things are better, others worse. I do not plan to store any films on the HDD, I mainly stream films direct from the internet. Here I have a problem with Linux. I have tried all of the "cures" offered on this forum but cannot get Divx streams to run (I can watch Divx on the various players from DVD but no streaming) Anyway I have been meaning to buy a Apple maschine for a long time now and would also like to test Osx with which I have no experience. I guess I could get to watch Divx streams on my Dell if I was prepared to re-install Windows on it, but I am not prepared to do that. I have been Windows free for over a year now and wish to keep it that way. I wish you all a nice day.

I have been windows free ever since I brought my 12 inch g4 powerbook. I brought it refurbished from Apple. I just got tired of windows. I brought the extended warranty with mine. I'm glad I did. My superdrive went bad and also it would not latch. So paying for the warranty worked in my favour. If I recall though you really only get two years instead of three with it, so it is misleading. I never used any of the I programs except for Itunes. I was using opensource and freeware.

http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-491592.html

[germanix]

Hi Carlf, You seem to have gotten some good mileage out of your g4 powerbook. I believe Appel does make quality products but they also have a premium price. The first computer I ever bought was the Omega (1990) with I think 32 mb ram. I threw it away a couple of months ago although it still worked I have not used it in years. My son bought this Dell maschine about a year ago and absolutely hated Vista which came installed with it. He tried to install XP but it would not install, that was when he sold it to me. I did not want Vista either but found the solution by installing Ubuntu. As I have said I am happy with Ubuntu but I cannot resolve the streaming issue with 8.10 which I also had with 8.04, and both open office as well as Firefox are quite unstable and firefox crash when I view videos, even flash videos. I do not want to part with Linux and will keep running it on the Sony Viao laptop I have, and hope for a better and more stable Ubuntu in the future which will hopefully allow me to stream without problems. My son now has a MacBook (Black) 2,4 Ghz with 4 Gb Ram and he can watch all those videos that I cannot and i have checked out his iWork and find it a lot easier to work with than open office. I am all for open source but some things still just work better in licensed software and there is no Divx for Linux as yet but I remain hopeful. So I will do with Osx what I cannot do with Linux and use the best of both worlds for the moment (as long as I do not have to go back to Windows I am quite happy)
Thank you for your input

[paintbalforjesus]

Maybe I missed it, but why do you want a Mac? They are way too expensive and they are generally slower than other operating systems. I know, I'll have some mac people jump on me for that statement, but look at the facts, look at the benchmarks, take time to use both yourself, it's true. My girlfriend has a mac and she can't stand using it, and neither can I. I actually installed ubuntu on it and it is much faster now.

As for benchmarks take a look at this article:

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=ubuntu_macosx&num=1

You will notice that mac is significantly faster in the game frames per second time, and that's good, that's the one thing mac is good at, graphics. This doesn't seem to be something you're worried about anyway, but if it is you'll also notice the conclusion that mentions this is in large part because of the poor integrated intel graphics on the machine that was tested. This integrated graphics is not well supported in ubuntu. With any NVidia graphics card Ubuntu would come much closer, if not pass mac OS even in these areas. And it's already significantly faster in anything you plan to do.

As for your problem with streaming video, I will give you that it is extremely annoying. I use "Ultimate Edition" on my Dell laptop, which is basically Ubuntu with some preinstalled goodies to get a lot of things working out of the box. I can stream DivX videos without any problems without having made any changes. If this doesn't work, I would also recommend that you check what kind of graphics card you have. I know ATI has terrible support for Ubuntu, especially with compiz, I don't know if that affects DivX streaming, maybe somebody can speak to that.

I think your best idea would be to get a computer without any operating system pre-installed on it with an NVidia graphics card. That way you won't have to switch from computer to computer. A computer without an operating system preinstalled may be hard to find, and you may have to make your own, but it will save you a lot of money and you will end up with a much better computer. If you're not into making your own computer get a refurbished one with XP or something and just install Ubuntu on it, either double boot or outright, depending on if you want any games.

I guess it comes down to a personal decision, and maybe your mind is made up, but in all my experience I can say that the better decision is to buy a PC instead of a mac.

[looplu]

[quote=I can say that the better decision is to buy a PC instead of a mac.[/QUOTE]

If your gonna use Linux sure, i agree :)

if this is a Windows/mac thing all i can say is M$ is around 90% of the computer OS market, thats bad , for you, me and computers.

good advice from a forma sub. to the thread , if your gonna buy a mac , buy from Apple , that way you get the latest spec machines.

[germanix]

Looplu, your advice to buy direct from Apple is good advice and I will certainly do that. I am just at a loss as to which configuration of the Imacs would be best to buy. My son argues that I should buy the top of the line 3,06 Ghz with the Gt130 graphics card. He feels it would be more "future secure" as he knows I would probably not buy another computer for many years to come, and argues that future software need more and more speed and graphics and I should therefore buy the best I can right now so I would not have to update the hardware anytime soon. I think I could probably do everything I need to do at the moment with the bottom of the line 20" 2,66 Ghz at half the price of the top model although I do fancy the bigger screen. I do not play games so I am not so sure if I realy need all that power, but he could be right about possible future needs. I posted this in the hope of getting some pro/con arguments as to which configuration people would advise me to buy and why, to help me make up my mind. I am thankful for any arguments but I have made up my mind to buy an iMac, it is just a question of which one.
I have a PC at the moment running Ubuntu as sole OS and if it were not for the fact that I cannot stream Divx with it, I probably would not be buying anything at this time. It would make no sense for me to buy another Pc as I would only want to install Ubuntu again and the problem would remain. I do not want windows, so the alternative is to get a mac.

[cyberdork33]

I have a 20" model (an older one though). It works fine for me. If you would like a bigger screen then get one, but 20" is enough for me at home.

there is not that much of a difference between a 2.6 Ghz and 3.0 GHz CPU. If you plan to do a lot of CPU-demanding tasks then the extra CPU speed would be appreciated, but for the most part, anything in the 2.x range is a pretty good processor.

It is really just preference... the pros and cons would be those that you experience. con: higher cost; pro: bigger screen, faster CPU

[perpetualcacophany]

Looplu, your advice to buy direct from Apple is good advice and I will certainly do that. I am just at a loss as to which configuration of the Imacs would be best to buy. My son argues that I should buy the top of the line 3,06 Ghz with the Gt130 graphics card. He feels it would be more "future secure" as he knows I would probably not buy another computer for many years to come, and argues that future software need more and more speed and graphics and I should therefore buy the best I can right now so I would not have to update the hardware anytime soon. I think I could probably do everything I need to do at the moment with the bottom of the line 20" 2,66 Ghz at half the price of the top model although I do fancy the bigger screen. I do not play games so I am not so sure if I realy need all that power, but he could be right about possible future needs. I posted this in the hope of getting some pro/con arguments as to which configuration people would advise me to buy and why, to help me make up my mind. I am thankful for any arguments but I have made up my mind to buy an iMac, it is just a question of which one.
I have a PC at the moment running Ubuntu as sole OS and if it were not for the fact that I cannot stream Divx with it, I probably would not be buying anything at this time. It would make no sense for me to buy another Pc as I would only want to install Ubuntu again and the problem would remain. I do not want windows, so the alternative is to get a mac.

As far as Apple's computers go, you really don't need to worry about getting features that would make them "future proof". Apple seems pretty good at making sure that their software works on as old of computers as possible. For your purposes, any of the iMacs will do the job just fine for many years. The 20" screen is plenty for just about anybody really. If you feel that the extra real estate is worth it, go ahead and get the 24".

If I was you, I would probably go for the lowest price 24" configuration actually (I just pulled up the website). It provides more than enough power for your purposes and is plenty "future proof". It should be able to run anything you throw at it for a long, long time (in computer terms).

[germanix]

So, I have finally done it. Today I ordered my iMac. I thank you you all for your advice and in helping me to make up my mind. I ordered the 20" iMac, increased the Ram to 4 gb, keyboard and mouse without cable and iWork pre-installed. I guess this will suit my needs just perfectly. My son is somewhat disappointed I did not go for the top of the line but as I am no gamer I realy dont need that. In the end I decided against the 24" as I cut a piece of cardboard the same size and placed it on my desk and realised that size screen was way too big for my liking.
So in a couple of weeks I should have my first Mac and I am realy looking forward to it.
Thanks again to all for your help

[cyberdork33]

Good for you!
If you'd ever like to try Ubuntu on it, we are here to help.

[looplu]

Looplu, your advice to buy direct from Apple is good advice and I will certainly do that. I am just at a loss as to which configuration of the Imacs would be best to buy. My son argues that I should buy the top of the line 3,06 Ghz with the Gt130 graphics card. He feels it would be more "future secure" as he knows I would probably not buy another computer for many years to come, and argues that future software need more and more speed and graphics and I should therefore buy the best I can right now so I would not have to update the hardware anytime soon.

I have a PC at the moment running Ubuntu as sole OS and if it were not for the fact that I cannot stream Divx with it, I probably would not be buying anything at this time. It would make no sense for me to buy another Pc as I would only want to install Ubuntu again and the problem would remain. I do not want windows,

hey germanix!!

futuer proof iMacs , well all i can say is i run a 2003 f/p mot/ibm cpu G4 17" imac, running all the latest stuff, leopard and photoshop cs3 stuff like that ,

buy the best you can and what you can afford, what more can i say , Intel iMacs are gonna be cool for a while to come. but who knows we might have the "carbon" cpu next year, its a hard thing to predict.

mmm!! streaming div x in linux , its not a linux thing but the providers, try setting up a windows (exe) player in Wine , maybe that might work ..

[germanix]

Here is an update. In the end I did change my mind and ordered the 24" 2,66Ghz, 4 Mb Ram instead. It was delivered 2 weeks ago, so I have had plenty of time to check it out. I can only say that I am extremely happy with my mac. This 24" is awsomea nd the more I work with OS X the more I like it. Ofcourse I remain a Linux fan and still run Ubuntu on my laptop as ever, but it is also very nice to learn a new OS as well. The only problems I have experienced on the iMac is the bluetooth mouse looses connection sometimes (3 times in two weeks) I read on the various Apple forums that this is a common problem at the moment but a fix is on its way. Apart from that everything else is super.

[stream303]

And don't forget that you aren't forced to use Apple's own desktop software.

For example, I hardly touch Safari, apple mail, ical etc, and run Firefox, Thunderbird, Sunbird, OpenOffice and Gimp under OSX - that way I can take my existing application knowledge across Linux, OSX, or even Windows depending on where I am.

Sounds like you made a wise decision.

[nathang1392]

get the cheapest 24' i was just looking at them and i think this is the most worthwhile upgrade. i think it is 2 or 300 dollars more than the baseline 20' model but you get 4 more inches of monitor and 2 more gigs of ram. i think the 2.66 gh c2d will be fine and you will not see that much differnce between that and the 3.06 version. also the intergrated nvidia graphics on the cheaper 24' inch imac are light years ahead of intel and they will also be great. i think you should get the cheaper 24' model, unless you need to sqeeze out every bit of power it is the best deal.