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Excellent!
By: Paul Guy
October 31, 2008 @ 9:52 PM
I’m a long-time Mac user and after having owned 2 machines, one an iMac G3, then a 12inch PowerBook G4 this machine just screams fantastic to me!
I’m a Graphic Designer/Photographer and feel that this 2.66GHz model in the iMac range keeps me immensely satisfied because I do a lot of work using Adobe CS3 Creative Suite and while it has a really fast multi-core processor, it has a great graphics card to boot with it having proper dedicated graphics memory – unlike the shared configurations on the Mac Mini and previous generation MacBooks where video memory is/was shared with the main system memory RAM.
Although I’m not really a Hard-core gamer, I still have to hand it to the iMac’s ATi Radeon 2600 PRO video card because I’ve found it to handle games like Unreal Tournament 2004 very well indeed, even when setting the game’s graphics features to their maximum! If you do a lot of gaming, or semi-serious video work, then go for the 24-inch 2.8GHz or 3.06GHz model fitted with the same NViDIA 8800 GS card that can be found in one of Apple’s Mac Pro Tower models. The NVIDIA card can be built to order on the 2.8GHz model from Apple’s online store only as a reminder.
(For the technical among you, a slightly under-clocked version of the NVIDIA card to prevent over-heating).
As for the built-in glossy display, I can see how some would find it a little frustrating, but I’ve gotten quite used to it now. I think it helps not to have it facing any windows. Although I would still recommend connecting it to an LCD VGA Monitor with a Matt Finish (which is the most important part!), using the mini DVI-VGA Adapter sold by Apple for Ãâã15 for any serious re-touching work. Or if you would prefer, one of Apple’s Aluminium Cinema Displays (up to 23-inch).
I’ve also learned how the iMac with the 24-inch screen can be a better bet if your budget will allow for it in terms of sharpness and depth, but while I don’t at all disagree with that, I still find the 20-inch screen to be more than adequate, as I also have a HP w2207h 22-inch monitor connected with absolutely no problems whatsoever in terms of compatibility! Its just a matter of personal preference really.
All in all, a truly great machine which is ample fast enough if you are on a budget like me because of a great balance of video performance and processor power, also up to 4GB of RAM to boot!
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