mid-2007 iMac unboxing

[evoWALO]

I got this last Friday and only had time to post today.

[watto]

Oh that is sexy. Specs??

I'm keeping my Mac Mini till I graduate Uni (end-2009) and then I'll be upgrading to a Pimp-daddy iMac or whatever will be around then.

[evoWALO]

Just your stock 20-inch 2GHz iMac. I ordered a single SODIMM 2GB stick to bump up the RAM a bit.

I will then get the 1GB that came with the iMac and exchange it with the 512MB in my Macbook Pro.

iMac = 2.5GB
MBP = 2GB

[Dsemaj]

Not really a fan of macs (actually a loathe 'em) but that is a very pretty setup! Very nice!

[Viper007Bond]

All looks, no go.

[evoWALO]

if you look deeper you'd be amazed at the engineering and industrial design of this baby. what follows is a little review i wrote about that machine.

Introduction

We've been wanting to buy an iMac for the past few months for a business we're starting up in the province. Due to the age of the 1st Gen iMac Core 2 Duo and this unofficial Apple Buyer's Guide we hesitated from making any purchases until this month's announcement. Good thing too as the new iMac lowered the price of the 20-inch model and spec'd it better. Coupled with a strong Philippine Peso it made it a no-brainer to get.

For those who don't follow anything Apple the iMac is an All-In-One consumer desktop personal computer. It uses a mix of mobile and desktop parts to achieve very low power consumption, generate very little operational noise due to less heat (aka heat sink fan noise), reduces its already petite size further and beautiful design.

Design
Other than the better specs the mid-2007 iMac model received an aesthetic update following Apple's design shift. It's thinner than the previous iMac and is made from aluminum and glass. Apple claims that these materials are being used to make them simpler to recycle. The use of aluminum and glass would also translate to a lower weight and better passive heat management. I find the design changes makes the iMac look more like a widescreen HDTV than a computer.

I noticed that unlike the other Macs I've used this one has rather sharp corners rather than rounded ones. Holding on to the corners when lifting it onto the table felt a bit uncomfortable but nothing dangerous.

Keyboard
Another prominent change to the iMac is its now minimalist keyboard that closely resembles the one found on the Macbook. Other than this it also has two USB2.0 ports placed on the sides. I mention this as keyboards for PC or Mac tend to only have USB1.1 ports. I've tried my friends Macbooks before and the keyboard is OK despite the less tactile and auditory feedback. The new keyboard feels similar and I feel a lot of people will stick to it.

Display
It also has a glossy screen which creative professionals may hate and consumers may love. It is so glossy that it can serve as a mirror of sorts. Great for the vain and not too good for those with spot lighting and a TV running behind them. The video card is slightly better than found in the older iMac and geared towards video rather than gaming. A newer 1.3 megapixel webcam is integrated. More hard disc drive space is offered but isnt user upgradeable.

Speakers
As Apple built-in speakers goes the iMac speakers are plenty impressive. The sound quality was better than I was expecting from Apple.

Memory
You can now put in 4GB memory inside from a base of 1GB of RAM. From my initial use the 1GB that comes with the iMac is enough for most people targeted by this model but I opted to order up another 2GB giving me 3GB as we'd be doing lots of video and photos with it. To put things in perspective on a Vista machine 1GB would be barely enough to get you anywhere.

The only thing you can personally upgrade without voiding warranty with the iMacs is the 1GB RAM and access to the memory slots is located at the bottom of the screen. Unlike previous models a single screw secures this slot instead of two. The CEO of Apple claims that this is the only visible screw you will see in the whole computer. IMO they should've gone the distance and have no screws at all.

I/O ports
One FireWire 400 (IEEE1394a) and now a FireWire 800 (IEEE1394b) makes its debut on the iMac. This means you can plug in current and future DV camera and external storage drives easily. USB 2.0 ports are now three from the original two. For those who don’t know Apple doesn’t include legacy ports so no parallel, serial or MIDI ports.

Power Consumption
As I mentioned before the the iMac uses some mobile parts which helps it achieve about 75-84 watts power consumption which is notebook-like and roughly half of a powerful PC desktop without considering the external monitor. When it's in "sleep" it draws about 2 watts.

Heat
The iMac does tend to run very warm in a room without air-con or running desk fan. This doesn’t mean it’s about to fail or it is defective but you will notice it when you touch the black back part of the computer. In my opinion this is a good thing as the aluminum that is used as the case material is doing what it was designed to do, which is expel heat.

Noise
The iMac is very, very, very quiet. The only thing I hear when I use it was the very low RPM fan and the DVD writer when a disc was inserted. Other than that you’d think it wasn’t turned on unless you really try hard to look

Software
Notable updates to Apple's iLife and iWorks makes its debut on the iMac making it a more interesting buy.

Price
Without improvements the 2GHz 20-inch iMac I got should start at around P63,000.00 with 12% VAT. The 2.4GHz 20-inch, 2.4GHz 24-inch and 2.8GHz 24-inch models should come in at P79,000, P95,000 and P121,000 with 12% VAT respectively. As usual your mileage will vary. The price given is based on the current forex rate of PhP46.70 to USD1.00.

Conclusion
The new iMac is a good bargain for those who puts a premium on silence, desktop space, power consumption and aesthetic design. You can load up Mac OS X, Linux and even Windows via Bootcamp, Parallels or Fusion. Given a choice I would've gone with the 2.8GHz 24-inch iMac but alas it is too large to be easily moved from place to place.

Pro’s
Small desktop space used
Very very quiet on the verge of silence
Low power consumption
Award winning industrial design
Operating System software choices
Hi-res webcam

Con’s
Price
Lack of internal expandability
Limited gaming
Lack of overclocking options
Difficulty in modding
Impending release of Mac OS X Leopard this November. I know but it'll be released late October and shipping the following month.

Full specs of review machine

* 20-inch widescreen LCD display (1680×1050 native resolution);
* 2.0 GHz 64-bit Intel Core 2 Duo processor (T7300);
* 1 GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM expandable to 4 GB;
* 8× SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD+R DL/DVD+/-RW/CD-RW);
* ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT with 128 MB of GDDR3 memory
* Built-in iSight video camera;
* Built-in AirPort Extreme wireless networking & built-in Bluetooth 2.0+EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) module;
* Firewire 400/800 Ports
* 250 GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
* Mini-DVI out (adapters for DVI, VGA and Composite/S-Video sold separately);
* Built-in stereo speakers and microphone;
* Mighty Mouse and a newly redesigned Apple Keyboard;
* Apple Remote & Built-in IR receiver;
* 12 watt amplifier w/ included speakers.

[Ventura6]

I hate to tell you this, but the sleek industrial iMac goes with your rustic homemade birdhouse and wood paneling like Michael Vick's dogs in a nice neighborhood.

[cvrefugee]

What do you do when you want to upgrade parts?

[ryosuke]

good that you only put it on the desk just after the earthquake apparently made all the pictures fall over.

[evoWALO]

Originally Posted by Ventura6

I hate to tell you this, but the sleek industrial iMac goes with your rustic homemade birdhouse and wood paneling like Michael Vick's dogs in a nice neighborhood.

i'd explain but your comment's just too good to reason out away.

[evoWALO]

Originally Posted by cvg

What do you do when you want to upgrade parts?

The only parts that won't void your warranty when you upgrade is the RAM.

You can crack open the case and replace the mobile Core 2 Duo with another Socket P part as it isn't soldiered on. Replace the 3.5" HDD SATA drive with another 3.5" HDD SATA Drive. Change the optical drive if you can find another one with the same slot-in form factor. Doing so voids your warranty

That's about it I guess. the logic board/motherboard is difficult and expensive to buy. The iMac is after all a battery-less laptop with some desktop parts. I forgot to mention that the iMac's logic board/motherboard is based on Intel's "Santa Rosa" Centrino Platform.

Again this isn't for everyone. Some people like to DIY and there are drawbacks to that. I'm happy to chug along with it for 3 years then sell it or sell it a month before the replacement model comes out. The way I think is I don't mind spending $1200 if I make $2400 and then some. If spending $1200 gives me less than a headache than say $600 DIY PC then the $600 is well worth it.

Sometimes it's worth laying down the green for something that just works and I've had about 7yrs to know this.

[hansvonaxion]

Youre gonna have a 2GB and 512MB stick in there? Isnt it much better to have 2 of the same size?

[evoWALO]

Originally Posted by hansvonaxion

Youre gonna have a 2GB and 512MB stick in there? Isnt it much better to have 2 of the same size?

ideally but what'll i do with the 512MB? i could sell it for less than $25.00? having more mismatched ram is better than having less combined capacity matching ram

[ChaoZ]

I got a 24" 2.8ghz Core 2 Extreme iMac sitting on my desk at work here (top of the line iMac). In most cases, it doesn't feel very fast, but it is VERY good with running Photoshop. I also have VMWare Fusion installed with XP SP2, but even booting into Windows doesn't lead to very good gaming results. For example, 3Dmark refuses to run. Could be a driver issue at the moment.

It does run VERY warm, but for the most part, it's stable. OSX, which I recently been introduced to, isn't bad, but everything feels so dumbed down. Also, I'm not convinced OSX is more stable for Windows XP for instance - I've had a couple of instances where applications froze for no apparent reason.

Conclusion: Do not buy an iMac and hope to game on it even if you boot into Windows. If you do graphic design and the like, the iMac is a capable machine, and much less than the Mac Pros. The display is pretty sweet as well. I just hope Leopard fixes the little niggles I've been experiencing on Tiger.

[hansvonaxion]

Originally Posted by evoWALO

Just your stock 20-inch 2GHz iMac. I ordered a single SODIMM 2GB stick to bump up the RAM a bit.

I will then get the 1GB that came with the iMac and exchange it with the 512MB in my Macbook Pro.

iMac = 2.5GB
MBP = 2GB

Your MBP had one 512MB, which youre gonna replace with "the 1gb that came with the iMac", so how does that make 2GB for the MBP?

You could get one extra 1GB and slot it in the iMac (=2GB) and one 512MB for the MBP (=1GB). That way youve got it matched, and I dont know how much difference you'll see with 2.5Gb over 2GB.

The 2GB stick is $500 as opposed to $150 for 1GB. Hell, you could buy 2x 1GB sticks and put one in your iMac, and one in your MBP, save $200 and be down only 512MB.

[Blind_Io]

It's sleek and shiny and I loathe it. My roommate has a Mac and that thing has more network problems than my three PCs put together.

[evoWALO]

The MBP initially had 512MB of RAM then we bumped it up to 1.5GB.

The iMac now has 1GB of RAM and we're buying another 1x2GB SODIMM.

I'm swapping the 1GB from the iMac with the 512MB from the MBP making it 2x1GB.

This effectively makes 2.5GB on the iMac.

One site compared a Santa Rosa & Napa based machine with matched and unmatched RAM. It always came out that any performance decrease with unmatched SODIMMs are always compensated by having more RAM.

So 2x1GB of RAM is not better than 2GB+512MB of RAM

I think matching RAM does really matter when you're using a machine with an Intel GMA graphic processing unit like the Macbook or Mac mini.

A 2GB SODIMM stick costs between USD100-150 and 1GB costs about USD30-60.

Originally Posted by hansvonaxion

Your MBP had one 512MB, which youre gonna replace with "the 1gb that came with the iMac", so how does that make 2GB for the MBP?

You could get one extra 1GB and slot it in the iMac (=2GB) and one 512MB for the MBP (=1GB). That way youve got it matched, and I dont know how much difference you'll see with 2.5Gb over 2GB.

The 2GB stick is $500 as opposed to $150 for 1GB. Hell, you could buy 2x 1GB sticks and put one in your iMac, and one in your MBP, save $200 and be down only 512MB.

[evoWALO]

I could think of a lot of reasons why VM Fusion isn't that fast.

First you're running two OSes at the same time one on top of the other.

Second this is VMWare's first version virtual machine on a Mac so there's tonnes to tweak and upgrade.

It isn't that surprising that it does get very warm as that's an X7900 part. The case is made from aluminum so instead of heat getting trapped it just escapes easily. It runs on a very low RPM fan (below 1200RPM if I'm not mistaken) which you'd only hear if you tried really listening hard enough and if everything in your office was turned off. One can conclude that Apple is with it when it comes to passive cooling for a "quiet PC". Why else use a mobile & desktop parts hybrid for a desktop? It would be cheaper/faster to go all desktop.

Macs arent really designed for the DIY but for people who want to do a certain task and rather not learn how to use a computer. It took me less than two weeks to figure out a Mac.

I only notice problems with freezing apps when they're version 1.0, they're running under Rosetta or permissions weren't fixed.

If you want to play games dual boot using BootCamp. Virtualization was created to easily run multiple OSes at the same time and not for full native speed.

Originally Posted by ChaoZ

I got a 24" 2.8ghz Core 2 Extreme iMac sitting on my desk at work here (top of the line iMac). In most cases, it doesn't feel very fast, but it is VERY good with running Photoshop. I also have VMWare Fusion installed with XP SP2, but even booting into Windows doesn't lead to very good gaming results. For example, 3Dmark refuses to run. Could be a driver issue at the moment.

It does run VERY warm, but for the most part, it's stable. OSX, which I recently been introduced to, isn't bad, but everything feels so dumbed down. Also, I'm not convinced OSX is more stable for Windows XP for instance - I've had a couple of instances where applications froze for no apparent reason.

Conclusion: Do not buy an iMac and hope to game on it even if you boot into Windows. If you do graphic design and the like, the iMac is a capable machine, and much less than the Mac Pros. The display is pretty sweet as well. I just hope Leopard fixes the little niggles I've been experiencing on Tiger.

[hansvonaxion]

Originally Posted by evoWALO

The MBP initially had 512MB of RAM then we bumped it up to 1.5GB.

The iMac now has 1GB of RAM and we're buying another 1x2GB SODIMM.

I'm swapping the 1GB from the iMac with the 512MB from the MBP making it 2x1GB.

This effectively makes 2.5GB on the iMac.

One site compared a Santa Rosa & Napa based machine with matched and unmatched RAM. It always came out that any performance decrease with unmatched SODIMMs are always compensated by having more RAM.

So 2x1GB of RAM is not better than 2GB+512MB of RAM

I think matching RAM does really matter when you're using a machine with an Intel GMA graphic processing unit like the Macbook or Mac mini.

A 2GB SODIMM stick costs between USD100-150 and 1GB costs about USD30-60.

OK gotcha.
I always look for the cheapest way of doing things, so I wouldve made done with a little less RAM and saved my money. (I just ripped the prices off the mac store for reference)
I had it in my head that there was quite a benefit from having matched RAM due to a review I read some time ago, but when I checked again I found the speed increase is negligible.
Enjoy your new toy.

[killpanda]

If I recall correctly, it's the MacBook that needs to have matched RAM.

I love the new iMac BTW