24 inch iMac 2.8ghz Review
As many of you know the iMac line was refreshed on Monday, April 28. For about 6 months I had been wanting to purchase a new computer, but I kept holding off for some reason. When I heard the rumors about the iMac update, I made up my mind that I would finally purchase one.
By the way, this is not my first Apple computer. I have had a 14” (1.33ghz) iBook for years now. I knew what to expect in terms of the initial setup of the iMac based off of my previous experience with Apple products. And I also knew my way around OSX pretty well.
I ordered the iMac the day it was updated. I don’t game on my computer anymore (I have a 360, Wii, and PS3) so I figured I would go with the lower end of the 24” models. I selected the free shipping so I wasn’t expecting to receive the iMac for about a week, but to my surprise it was delivered to my house on Wednesday, April 30…not even 2 full days after I placed my order. I was pretty happy with that to say the least.
My initial thought when I saw the box was, wow that’s going to be huge. And believe me, I was right with my initial assessment.
I figured a 24” monitor wouldn’t seem much different from the 20” monitor I was used to using with my Dell computer. I was completely wrong. The screen on the 24” iMac is totally amazing. I have never seen a display with a brighter screen. Even my 32” Samsung LCD television looks pale in comparison to the screen of this iMac. The glossy screen has a lot to do with that though. But anyways, the hardest thing to get used to, for me at least, is the resolution of the screen. 1920×1200 is amazing to work with. So much can be done on the screen at once. It is a great upgrade over the 1680×1050 resolution I am used to working with.
As for the computer itself, it came with a 2.8ghz Core 2 Duo and 2gb of 800mhz ram which I upgraded to 4gb (more on that later). This was a nice upgrade for me considering the pc I use at home is a 3.6ghz P4. My computer at work is a 1.83ghz Core 2 Duo though, so when I talk about responsiveness I will be comparing the iMac to that.
For me, this computer is extremely quick. I almost forgot how much quicker OSX in general is at launching applications. In terms of overall responsiveness there is no comparison between the iMac and my computer at work. Safari opens instantly…iTunes, even with a 10,000 song library opens in a fraction of the time that it does on my other computers. It takes a little under 2 seconds to be exact. Photoshop launches quicker than I have ever seen. I could go on and on, but I’m sure you get the general idea.
As for the ram upgrade, it really couldn’t be any easier. It took maybe 2 minutes total to replace the ram with 2 new sticks. As far as I can tell, it is definitely best to max out the ram if you have the money to do so. At one point yesterday I saw I had a little over 800mb of ram free. I would have definitely noticed a performance hit if I had only been using 2gb.
This is my first time using Leopard for an extended period of time. A couple of my friends have iMacs (I talked them into buying them) so I have used it before, but not to the same extent as I have the past few days. I like the changes they have made for the most part. But just like anything else, there are a few default settings here and there that don’t make much sense to me. For example the Mighty Mouse doesn’t have right clicking enabled by default. Photo booth doesn’t have the auto flip image setting enabled. Simple things like that can be slightly annoying to have to change, but like I said, it’s impossible to please everyone completely. And the things I mentioned are very minor.
I ran xbench to include some figures in the review.
Please note though that I did not run the program right after a reboot, only because I haven’t restarted the computer since I initially set it up and downloaded all the updates.
So here are the scores…
All tests enabled: 176.11
HDD test disabled: 228.84
Overall, I am very happy with my purchase. I hope this iMac lasts me a long time.
The only thing I dislike about the whole package is the Mighty Mouse. I just don’t like it at all.
So here are some overall ratings.
iMac screen: 9.5/10
iMac performance: 9/10 (there is always something faster)
Overall look: 9/10 (people are amazed at this thing sitting on my desk)
Initial Leopard Impression: 9/10
Mighty Mouse: 6/10
Apple Keyboard: 8/10 (it takes some time to get used to)
Please ask any/all questions you may have about it and I will go into more detail.
Steve works in the IT field, focusing mainly on Networking, Database Management, Web Development and Programming. | 
Where can I find the grate, big screensaver with Mac sign ? The screensaver who jused at the iMac 24″ ?
That’s the desktop background. I got it at interfacelift.com
Hey man I feel ya on this machine…and I was curious about the ram if it would tweak it, haven’tt done it yet though.
One down fall…march 9th was my birthday and I got the 24″mac that was on the mac site for months….very excited I was….then I found out that three days later mac came out with the 09’s….they doubled the ram and the harddrive and upgraded the video card….I’ was in dispare this last week, cause my mother was in agreement to switch it but my brother in law whom I respect was the one that went to go a pick it up… This was my thirty th birthday so I guess it’s a milestone??? but my Mom had mentioned to me months early what I would like I said nothing really…she said how about a trip? how about a mac?….I said ” did you rob a bank?” we’re not super rich people you know she said no to robbing the bank question… I mentioned a mac…cause who was I going to go on a trip with myself….anyway didn’t make sense, but I mentioned the mac of course.
The but the time is was really days away, my mom was telling one thing, my sister another, brother in law playing dumb, mom getting upset so I was messed up on march 6th.
My my mom phoned my march sixth and told me your internet is comming tomorrow so you have to be home and she said “now you know”. I was excited inside…my sister phones me the next day and says’” so did mom tell you what your getting?” I said ya internet so a mac.” My sister said nope!!!; she said ” I knew mom would make you think you were getting a computer if she said internet”???? I was like what else could it be for a gaming system???not interested in that, or a computer???? what else is internet good for??? well my sister said ” thier is other technology out their” and I was like what??? if it’s not a mac I don’t think I want it…cause like I said I was content with my life have a car place….but a mac sure ya I could use one of those.
So I call my mom that night she says well don’t you want eamail? and I’m thinking I can get email at the libary, anywhere!!! cyberspace hotmail.com….ect My mom says what’s cyberspace and begins to break down cause my sister had told her one thing and then another I guess to keep everyone confused was the plan cause then it would be a surprise. My mom said wait till you see the gift, wait till you see what your sister’s gift is goes with it, you ‘ll like it give it a chance while she’s sobbing. So I’m thinking my mom’ tears were real and she wasn’t going to fake crying. So I told cake and family was all I wanted and left it at that.
I’m an accordian player for many years now and knew that I would be using this mac for video editing, ect…. I play different places around the ciiy, and I have a regular gig on saturday morings and afternoons. I ended in the morning that day. My Brother-inlaw always shops their and happened to show up right at that time. He said” what are you doing for the rest of the afternoon?” I said ” probably a movie…” I said” what are you doing” he said “going with you to you house to set up your new desk and computer”…..
I was stunned that’s it…. it was like a blur got home put the desk together pulled out the huge mac box…nice printer/copyer….speakers the works…well I was jus the happiest guy in the world that day. And my family had achieved they’re surprise.
Internet came the next day the guy was in and out…..set the main main on the mac page start up…. I had been looking a the mac page on my freinds computer for weeks….saw that 2.8g 2g.rm 320 hardrive… everthing was sweet and felt spoiled I was.
Two days later I turn my mac on, turns on to the mac website and I see my 24″ instantly feeling good…but then I see different specs… a 2.93g 4gram 640g harddrive and Nvideage force graphics card. My heart stopped a bit…it had only been three days. I told my mom she said she got a good deal on it. I phone the store to see what I could do, and my mom eventually agreeed to swap just make up your mind! she said…I have a scottish backroud so(short temp, quick cooldown)
So was going to do it…I went to my sister’s for dinner a couple of days later for dinner and mentioned this to them…well my brother-inaw was quite choked, told me how my mom had been planning this for months and after everything with my heart to be surprised and the work that went into it……… he thought I was ungreatful….I wasn’t. Later on well minutes later in my family….I explained that this my second computer but first mac….Mac outlive pc 10 to 1…I was like you sir…08 you got and08. If two months had passed I wouldn’t have even thought about it. Two week maybe so. But three days and if it were a pc and it was three days…wouldn’t mattered either. So I simply wanted to get the newest mac “STOCK” for the time being and tweak or update it as needed….cause I will have this computer for a long time I know. We talked he seemed to think that I was set, and I am in a way, but once I get good at garage band next up the list is logic then studio something and it was the space i needed I could get and external or a terabite installed later. It was the ram for what I would be upgrading.
Now I am sure you found that to max your ram to 4g’s was costly certainly more that $200 dollars…..that’s right man the store will swap me computer’s for and exact price of $200 bills. Well it’s a year later for you and it’s still more than 500bills to upgrade to four gigs…..well I made emends this week I had to it was consuming me, but after talking to a few people the average answer was I’m not going wrong either way I have a good machine and should be happy, on the other hand a couple hundred for something that would even think of upgrading until the day many day year it would be out of date….like you want ed to start at the begging full throttle. Most program are more than $200 dollars.
Know to tell you the truth after reading your story, about the delivery, and tweaking your ram i’m thinking maybe maybe with out a receat this saleman is pretty cool he could probably swing it I keep mine till the day they deliver I pay the two bills and know buddy gets rubbed the wrong way.!!! sale dude even said I could keep the keyboard I have for this 08 i like it. But I hope all the, well their not allot on my hard drive it’s only been two weeks i should be able to get that retained somehow??? but that’s my story man and I am so sorry that if you made it this far I happy I just needed to get it out???? I don’t know.
Thanks for sharring your story and reading my book…. I hope maybe you’ll resond to this, but I just happen to be on the phone with futureshop right now where it was purchased….so I’m going to see if my DUDE ITS ABOUT 45 MINUTES LATER and I feel worse for some reason??? I talked to the store and I am three days over my fourteen day limit, but they are willing to do it if I change my mind up until sunday…..now I am off school for two weeks and if their was a good time to do this it would be during week when everyone bodies working no surprise pop ins like good happen on saturday, and I go to church in the morning and if the evening so I feel like I just stole a little kids lunch money or something your story made it sound simple and stressless is why I considered it….just s day ago I shed the stress of thinking about it before and felt great these last days….and all of a sudden I feel like crap now….I was going to catch a movie in like a half hour was looking forword to that and now I feel dirty well not dirty but deiceiving sneaky doesn’t feel good anyhow…..
I don’t know you and have never written anything thing this long to anyone I even know really. So thanks hope you don’t take the wrong way.
One more thing I know it’s not your problem but as a guys with a short time to make a decsion and has talked with many other’s up until now….could you tell me what you would do???? maybe waiting for the price of ram to go down and just upgrade to four in the future……a conciance can be hindering but I guess that’s cause I’m an honest person….anyways my first name is Chad and last Hines….this last paragraph was to shake of some of that crap that I was feeling earlier in the week.
Anyways man thanks for letting vent……later….????
Ram is very cheap if purchased separately. I would never pay the price Apple charges for ram. I didn’t even pay $200 for the upgrade when I did it almost a year ago.
Apple would let you swap your entire computer with a new one within the first 14 days, so if I were you and they are willing to extend that some just swap out the entire computer for the newer model.
In addition to going to a 27-inch LCD, Apple has also boosted the resolution of the display to 2,560×1,440–up from 1,920×1,080 in the old model