Review: iMac Intel Duo
Had a party last night at my place, and I was showing everyone the Photo Booth app and we ended up playing with it for hours. Check it out if the picture above cracks you up. The webpage was made in iWeb in about 8 minutes, and most of that time was coming up with the photo titles.
I just got a new iMac with a dual core Intel processor, 2GB ram, 500GB hard drive, and the ATI video card with 256MB ram. It came standard with wireless networking, bluetooth, and an 8x dual layer Superdrive. It also has a remote and Front Row, and an iSight camera built in.
I haven't gotten Windows running yet - no one has.
The iMac is beautiful, easily the most elegant computer I've ever seen or used. How can you not see one and want it? It sits on my desk and takes up as much space as a monitor, sans tower. Also it is whisper quiet. I ran WoW all day last Saturday, thru all of BRD and DM West, and the computer didn't get hot -once-.
Not that I ever turn it off, but the computer boots quickly, in less than 45 seconds. All the boot graphics have been finally upgraded from the OS 9 days, and it looks slick.
The OS, all its support apps, and iLife 06 are all universal binaries. They run fine and they work fast. We had this model running next to the fastest iMac G5 that Apple makes, the 2.1Ghz, and the two computers seemed evenly matched when opening apps and running most operations. However, in the iLife apps, especially iMovie and iDVD, processing was slightly but noticeably faster. I don't have numbers, sorry.
I won't do a full review of all these apps, but here are a few that stand out: voice comm apps like skype, gizmo, teamspeex, and ventrillo work intermittently. Camino, the new OS X-only browser from Mozilla renders webpages instantly and has become my #1 browser. The iMac comes with Quicken 2006, which is not a UB, but it runs fast.
World of Warcraft is the only video game that has been released as a Universal Binary. So far, I've been getting performance on par with a Power Mac G5 dual 2.0Ghz and a X800 XL. 45-50 fps in most 5 man instances, 30 fps in Molten Core fighting Lucifron. There is noticeable slowdown when loading data, so flights are more choppy than on my PC. Also, when the iMac Intel chugs, WoW doesn't hide it as easily as on a PC or PowerPC Mac. I had a weird issue the other day were I was getting 8 fps on the iMac in southern Stranglethorn; I reset my network equipment and it jumped to 40 fps. Bizarre.
Things I plan on testing in the near future:
- Doom 3
- all the Apple Pro Apps, Final Cut, Motion, Apeture, etc.
- Front Row on my home theater setup
- Test Photoshop and Illustrator in Rosetta
- connect a 2nd monitor and overload the system with apps
We shall grapple with the ineffable, and see if we may not eff it after all.
Nice! Anyone with a Macbook have any reports?
XBox Live / PSN: jonnypolite | WoW: Cait (Warlock) on Blackhand | AoC: Johnepolite (Guardian) on Deathwisper
Sounds exactly like the PC I just built that Im loving!
Being fangoriously devoured by a gelatinous monster.
We have one at work in the lab, but I didn't have time to play with it yet. Very thin and very light. I noticed it seemed to run hotter than the G4 powerbook next to it, though.
We shall grapple with the ineffable, and see if we may not eff it after all.
hrm Austin Texas.
You don't happen to work for Apple Tech support down there do you?
Only curious because of the lab reference and the fact I know apple has one of it's second tier contact centers down there. Had some friends who worked there.
The voices say hello.
Yes, i do. All the people in these pictures work for apple, except the young lady who is a former apple employee.
We shall grapple with the ineffable, and see if we may not eff it after all.
I've been very happy with my iMac Core Duo (a 20") as a replacement for my first gen G5. Rosetta performs admirably enough, but with Universal Binaries the performance flies. Its whisper silent, speedy and the display is beautiful.
My Macbook pro is en route from China (via Anchorage) and I'll hopefully get it Monday before I head out of town for work this week. I'll share thoughts once I get to play with it.
no particular interest, no particular talent
I was less than impressed with the iMac 20" I just got.. hopefully things will get better once more native apps get released.. I did like the new boot times.. that was very impressive.
Bring on Vista on a Mac!
Aint nothing new about the world order..it's been playing since the day they put George Washington on a quarter
Down in the Park with a friend called Five.
http://wumusicgroup.com/
awesome. I'm planning on upgrading to one of these guys in about a month or two. I'm currently playing wow on my below spec laptop (800mhz G4 iBook) which can barely handle anything where there's more than 3 people around with all the graphics turned way down low. It's definitely time to upgrade my 4.5 year old desktop (very early eMac)
It is disappointing that no one has been able to crack the dual boot with Windows challenge yet. Thats the key reason I bought both systems, as a replacement for my existing PC setup and G5. In the end I'm really looking forward to virtualization, as opposed to dual booting, so that we can run Windows apps within OS X. Cedega is supposedly coming to OS X, for example. The version of WINE that works on the Intel Macs works but doesn't support much. Q runs passably well, but without the accelerator module that hasn't been ported yet its certainly not suitable for anything outside of basic productivity applications.
no particular interest, no particular talent
As for Windows on the iMac, its the EFI that prevents it. Windows supports BIOS, not EFI. Vista does support EFI, and I'm surprised that someone hasn't gotten the Vista Beta up and running. Previous attempts haven't been able to load even the installer.
Update: I connected my Dell 20" widescreen LCD to the mini DVI port and had extended desktop up and running with Camino and iTunes visualizer on the 2nd LCD. WoW didn't slow down in the slightest.
Installed Doom 3 while playing WoW, again, didn't slow down in the slightest. Doom 3 is not a UB and I found it to run extremely slowly at times. Depending on the shader effects on the screen, it would drop down to 5 fps, but in the normal hallways I got 10-25 fps. Pretty unplayable because of the extreme fluxuations. Here's a screenshot of them both running at the same time (WoW, 20.1 fps; D3, 15 fps):
We shall grapple with the ineffable, and see if we may not eff it after all.
Whoa, you ran Doom 3 and WoW simultaneously? You installed one game while playing another? I feel like I just stepped into the future; or, perhaps more likely, that the past finally got sick of me and went its own way.
The market has much to answer for as to why gaming is NOT an art. -- illum
Not bizarre. WoW is the only game that I've seen so heavily depend on network card drivers. If your driver isn't mature, you may encounter slow framerates, lag, "unknown entities", being shot through solid objects, dying seemingly instantly, and other anomalies.
The first thing you should do is update the network driver to the latest version. The second thing you should do is disable all references to "Checksum Offloading" in network driver properties, if such options exist.
Steven Seagal continues releasing films at breakneck speed.
Say what? This is a mac
I guess my point is that I've played on a PowerPC mac and a windows XP PC, and this particular Intel iMac acts different when faced with network lag. The other 2 computers are much smoother, people jump around but the framerate is steady. This iMac has wierd framerate issue when lagging; when you look forward the frames jump up, but when you turn the camera, it stutters badly. Could that be checksum offloading?
We shall grapple with the ineffable, and see if we may not eff it after all.
Must... resist... the obvious link... oh no, here it comes!
Guerilla marketing: paid forum infiltrators.
heh. I am a unpaid forum infiltrator, ie, an Apple fanboy. And you can count on me to pump up apple sh*t that i like. But not the Mighty Mouse, that thing sucks.
We shall grapple with the ineffable, and see if we may not eff it after all.
Hehe, yeah, I know what you mean. It's hard for all of us who work on popular consumer hardware/software.
There have been many times when my employer's various products have been discussed here as well.
And it's so difficult to restrain myself from joining the discussion.
Care to explain more? I considering budgeting money for this to update my G4 imac, but would like to know all the cons before hand.
Xbox Live: Stilgar Black
Well...coming from the previous G5 20" IMAC it simply didnt seem all that much faster.. granted its early on.. and over time more native apps will be released.. but the problem with that is that over time better hardware will also be released.
So.. IMO its probably very safe to skip this first gen Intel Mac's and wait for the second.. when more native apps will become available.
Coming from a G4 IMAC this though is a great upgrade.. as you'll postively be floored at the boot speed.
Aint nothing new about the world order..it's been playing since the day they put George Washington on a quarter
Down in the Park with a friend called Five.
http://wumusicgroup.com/
Thanks for the info. I bought the first revision of the G4 imac (800mhz with 15 inch screen) so I don't think apple sells a mac that isn't a great upgrade for me at this point. However, I am interested if the change in the chipset frees up their industrial design team to come up with something fantastic. I'd might willing to wait a couple of revisions to see if they pull off something new. Who am I kidding? I'm waiting a couple of revisions to save up the cash! For what it's worth, I think the current imac design is solid but I think the g4 imac design was much more forward thinking and elegant.
Xbox Live: Stilgar Black
I'm in the same boat as Booty. My current desktop is a 800mhz G4 eMac, and I'm DYING for an upgrade. I currently play WoW on my iBook (which is only marginally better equipped, I'm still playing under spec).
I'm looking to upgrade in a month or two hopefully... unless anyone knows of any good reasons to hold out a little longer... maybe?
There is actually a Doom 3 UB out: http://www.macgamefiles.com/detail.php?item=18746
It is the habit of every aggressor nation to claim that it is acting on the defensive. - Jawaharlal Nehru
Souldaddy, next time could you please resize before posting?
I got an iMac intel duo recently myself. I was looking forward to using it as a living room computer where we could play some games on it on occasion and use the FrontRow features to watch movies and feed the stereo from iTunes. I upgraded from a G4 powerbook so the speed jump was very satisfying. The display is massive and makes the 19" lcd on my PC seem quaint now.
I have one minor complaint with the display and that is that there is quite a bit of back-light bleed from the bottom of the screen which prevents it from achieving absolute black - this is only really a problem when you want to watch movies and you don't have a lot of ambient lighting. I would be interested to know how common this is amongst the iMac models (inviting G5 iMac owners to send me their feedback). It looks like it would have been really easy for Apple to have prevented this, as the light-bleed is stopped just by the Apple logo on the front. So to the left and right of it is where most of the bleed occurs.
Interesting fact: that logo on the front isn't just decoration. It is a light meter which the display uses to determine the optimum lcd brightness for the ambient brightness.
You built a PC with the computer housed entirely in the LCD Display with a remote? a light meter? built in video camera & mic, etc?
It is the habit of every aggressor nation to claim that it is acting on the defensive. - Jawaharlal Nehru
welcome to current LCD technology.. not much that can be done about it since thats how LCD's get light.. from the backlight installed.. unless its extremely well designed your going to see some bleeding of light.. usually in corners.
The latest Samsung 40" LCD TV cheats this a bit by using consecutive rows of smaller backlights all around the screen to lessen the "hot spots"
Aint nothing new about the world order..it's been playing since the day they put George Washington on a quarter
Down in the Park with a friend called Five.
http://wumusicgroup.com/
Well I have a viewsonic vp191b and I see nowhere near this amount of light bleed. I don't mind maybe 1 inch of light-bleed, especially if it is at least uniform but my iMac's light bleed problem runs 2-3" up from the bottom of the screen and is interupted by the apple logo in the middle. Possibly I have a model with a problem, or possibly it is an Apple design flaw (not like they don't have their share of those).
It is the habit of every aggressor nation to claim that it is acting on the defensive. - Jawaharlal Nehru
Cool! I'll run more tests!
If I did, you couldn't tell what the fps in WoW is. I normally do, though, sorry about that.
Somazx, call Applecare, and be very specific about this issue. It is normal if the LCD is "cold", but after 30-60 minutes, this should go away.
We shall grapple with the ineffable, and see if we may not eff it after all.
So, out of curiosity, to the people that HAVE the intel iMac already... If someone were going to buy one (obviously I'm refering to myself), are there any real problems with the Rev As? Should I hold off till Rev B? It doesn't sound like anyone out there are having any problems with it... I'm DYING every day I look at that shopping cart, and have no real reason not to click "checkout" except for money concerns, but payday is tomorrow, and that would put me over the top with having more than enough credit to afford it and to be able to pay it off in a few months.
Also, is Applecare necessary? I've never had it, and I've only ever had 1 issue that would have used it between my eMac and iBook, but fortunately that happened early while I was still in my 90 days. I just think because its a rev A and so early in the intel-mac cycle that it might be a good idea.
Opinions greatly appreciated... I had originally set my "buy" date somewhere between 1 and 2 months from now, but now I'm thinking somewhere between tomorrow and 1 month, I'm just goin' crazy! That is, unless anyone has serious concerns about the current model, or suspects we'll see something better for as good/better pricing soon.
I've had my Core Duo iMac for about a month now and have had zero glitches, issues or oddities. It has been stable, speedy with Universal Binaries (although apps in Rosetta can be a little sluggish at times) and whisper silent (in particular compared to my G5).
I've never purchased Applecare. I may live to regret it at some point in time, but thus far I've never purchased any extended warranties and not regretted it *knock on wood*.
It isn't any different in terms of form factor from the previous generation, only the innards are different. Given that, hopefully some of the usual "first generation" problems won't be as significant.
I received my Macbook while I was out of town. I just got back tonight and haven't had a chance to even open the Fedex box. I'll be doing that tomorrow and share some thoughts.
no particular interest, no particular talent
The box for the macbook is only like 2 inches thick.
We shall grapple with the ineffable, and see if we may not eff it after all.
awesome. I'm definitely gonna pick one of these guys up REAL soon... in fact, I'm gonna head down to the mall in a little bit, if they've got one configured the way I want it, I'll probably walk out with one... Otherwise, I'll be ordering this weekend probably.