Most of you know by now that I sold my last 'Home built" pc a few weeks ago. And as it is with geeks.. Money from sold off hardware .. just sitting there .. has slim chances of ever getting back to the bank. Lets face it 🙂 It's toy-money. And what do you buy with money from sold off toys ? Right ! New toys ! I had some other "play-money" tucked away on the side and together with the cash from my old computer .. lets say its time for a little "well thought-through" shopping.
There are several kinds of Geeks. Some buy stuff and hang on to it forever, some buy stuff and give it away to buy new stuff. Some buy stuff to sell it right away for a profit and buy more stuff and so on. I'm the kind of geek that buys stuff, holds on to it as long as it is still valuable and then sells it in order to put down a tiny bit of extra cash to buy something new. Never do I make a purchase without selling something else first. I would die in horror if I had to subtract the full price of the new computer/laptop etc from my bank account. Usually I just put aside little bits of cash and when the time comes for me to make my move I sell something in order to make the last "big leap" towards the amount needed for my new purchase. Some BUY new things and say they will "sell the old stuff later" and put the money back in the bank. I know for a fact that that does not work. Once you have your new toy you are seldom motivated to sell off the old stuff, and even if you do you are tempted to spend THAT money one MORE toys. So I drive a hard bargain with myself : Sell something to buy something (its amazing how much that the crave for that 'new computer smell" helps you to get through those hundreds of bargain sites to get your old stuff posted).
So with some $$$$ in the pocket it was time to look around. What would i really like, what could I really use. What do I really need. Well : I could do with a nice fast workstation (not another laptop) that would have plenty of diskspace, plenty of processor power and plenty of ram. A system I could sit behind all night without having to strain my back, wonder about the small keyboard and what have you. A system that would be ergonomically-correct, fast, versatile and pretty. What does that leave me with : Of course : An Imac !
Now I have thought long and hard about the Imac, I thought it was an overpriced desktop with a small screen (17" widescreen !!!) but with great looks. My argument always was : Why buy an Imac, Its just a mac mini with a different hard drive and a small screen (referring to the 17 inch version) If you want to go for the 20 or 24 inch versions its WAY to expensive. One is better of buying a Mac Mini and hooking up a 24 inch TFT display. Then you would still be way UNDER the price of the 24 inch Imac.
But is that really so ? Mac products are ALL overpriced (I never waver from this statement) But is the Imac an overpriced Mac mini with a 17 inch display ? Or is the Mac Mini an under-equipped overpriced version of the Imac ? If you look at it that way the 17 inch Imac does have some nice extras to offer. The built in Isight, the 17 inch display (resolution 1440*900 equals that of the 19" tft i have hooked up to my Linux box) the Built in Isight, the 160 gigabyte SATAdrive (7200 rpm as opposed to the 80 gig 5400 rpm version on the mini) It comes with a keyboard, a mouse … and of course : Damn good looks. If I where to nag about the fact the screen is too darn small , the Imac has the option to connect a second screen ( An ability the Mac mini lacks!) so "Dual screen joy" is also something one can achieve. It looks to me that, in spite of the slight price difference the Mac mini is loosing ground.
Conclusions ? I think I am going to go for the 17 inch Imac. The 20 inch is a tad too expensive for me and the 24 inch is .. well… something one has dreams of that make you need to change the sheets in the morning. I'm pretty pleased with the 1.83 gigahertz core 2 duo version, the extra money you pay for the 2 gigahertz processor is better spent on Ram (there you feel the difference) The 512 megabytes of DDR Ram offered by Apple is an insult to its own operating system so I replace them with one 1 gigabyte stick of ram, leaving me the option to add another stick of 1 gig as a final upgrade.
Grand total brings me around 1100 euro's which is a very nice price for a complete computer. I am already looking into dual and triple booting this little machine that has the power (and the drivespace) to run the three main operating systems (Osx, Ubuntu and Xp) side by side. An it has the RAM to run them simultaneously. Remember : Fast processor, enough ram, enough drivespace and two displays makes for a fantastic virtualisation box where you run 2 operating systems side by side.
So I will let you know how it goes when all the goods get here and have my "ultimate sliders machine".
PS : Take the new POLL on the left side of the page and help me decide what machine to buy
For those of you who want a FREE G3 IMAC : Click HERE .
