Awesome Computer
Written: Feb 09 '05 (Updated Feb 10 '05)
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Pros: Small footprint, big bright wide-screen display, fast processor, well designed, easy to use, no viruses
Cons: none
The Bottom Line: Be happy, buy a Mac!
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| nickel4thought's Full Review: Apple iMac G5 17 in. (Z094) Mac Desktop |
I purchased my first Mac 3 years ago when Mac OS X was introduced. Since then I have purchased many Apple products. The company does an outstanding job making great products.
Price:
The price for the 20" iMac G5 is a great value buy considering you get a 20" wide-screen display and excellent software.
Display and speakers:
The display is big, bright and has a wide viewing angle making it well suited for watching movies. The wide display allows you to have multiple documents or spreadsheets side-by-side. I find the size great for working with photos.
The speakers are hidden at the bottom of the computer but still sound great. I switch between the built-in speakers, headphones, and the home stereo.
Processor Speed and Memory:
The processor handles photo and video editing, music importing, and other heavy tasks well. However, if you plan to do more processor intensive tasks splurge and get either 512MB or 1GB of memory. Note: Having two identical memory modules will increase the systems performance! (See apple support for an explanation. http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300082)
Hard Drive:
The Mac is a great digital hub. If you plan to keep digital photos, movies, or import your CD's into iTunes your drive will fill up much quicker than you think. I originally thought 30GB was a lot. Now, videos, pictures, and music are gradually filling up the 250GB drive in this iMac!!! Music accounts for about 120GB of that space. Hitachi makes a 400GB drive!
Wireless Network:
This is a great choice if you have broadband Internet and your computer is not close to the DSL or cable modem. I suggest getting an Airport Express (see: http://www.apple.com/airportexpress/) and connect it to your stereo and broadband modem and then place your iMac somewhere convenient. iTunes sends music digitally to your stereo. When I switch from a patch cord to an Airport Express I noticed much better sound quality; cymbals were crisper.
Bluetooth:
The bluetooth keyboard and mouse is handy when not working near the computer. I them more for ascetic reasons and to avoid annoying tangles of the cords. Bluetooth is more useful if you wish to sync to a bluetooth phone or PDA. Note: See if your phone is supported by iSync at http://www.apple.com/isync/devices.html. I like to sync to-do and calendar items to my phone to keep track of appointments, birthdays, etc. People are impressed I remember their birthday, anniversary, etc!!
Mac OS X Panther:
Mac OS X Panther is a pleasure to use. I am eager to use Tiger when it ships. This OS is rock solid. It will let you work in many applications, even processor intensive ones while listening to music or playing a movie. There are no viruses, malware, spyware, or spamware to worry about. That will save you money and time in buying and running anti-whatever products.
Mac OS X has a lot to offer both the novice computer user and power users. Novice users can easily move around the best designed user interface I have used and power users can take advantage of the underlying Unix architecture. I think of OS X as Unix with a great user interface.
Applications:
The iLife suite included is an excellent set of applications. They do a great job organizing and enhancing your photos, creating movies from your photos and movie clips, and turning them all into DVD productions.
If there is an application you need check out Version Tracker at http://www.versiontracker.com/macosx/. Here you will find that the Mac community writes excellent freeware and shareware making the Mac a very economic machine.
If you are a power user you will also find many Linux applications have been ported to the Mac. Some use the Aqua interface while others use X11.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 2200
Operating System: Macintosh
Processor speed: over 1000
RAM: More than 256
Internal Storage: SuperDisk
Hard Drive (GB): Over 50
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Epinions.com ID:
nickel4thought
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Reviews written: 2
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