Well, I finally ordered my new computer (a Mac of course - need you ask?). In exchange for $1,799 (-$150 Amazon rebate) charged to my credit card, I should soon be receiving a top-of-the-line iMac with:

• 2.0 Ghz PowerPC G5
• 512MB PC3200 (400Mhz) DDR SDRAM
• ATI Radeon 9600 with 128MB DDR SDRAM; AGP 8X support
• 250GB Serial ATA; 7200 rpm
• Slot-loading 8x SuperDrive (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
• 20-inch (viewable) widescreen TFT active-matrix LCD, 1680 x 1050 pixels, millions of colors
• Two FireWire 400 ports; three USB 2.0 ports, two USB 1.1 ports (on keyboard); VGA output(2); S-video and composite video output
• Built-in 54 Mbps AirPort Extreme (802.11g specification; IEEE 802.11b Wi-Fi certified); built-in Bluetooth 2.0+EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) module.
• Tiger, the best OS on the planet, and iLife ’05 (includes iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie HD, iDVD, GarageBand)

My trusty G4 tower has provided faithful service for nearly 5 years, but it’s definitely getting a bit long in the tooth. It pokes along at a snail-like 400Mhz making even simple tasks like surfing the web pretty slow. iTunes is usable but far from snappy, and iPhoto basically runs like molasses.

I’ve been planning to upgrade for many months now, but wanted things to settle down first from our move. In addition, I couldn’t decide if I wanted an iMac or a Mac Mini. Both have really cool and unique designs. The iMac has a speedy G5 processor, a much faster graphics card, a much faster hard drive, and a built-in, high-quality 20″ screen. Compared to the iMac, the Mac Mini is slower in pretty much all respects, sometimes appreciably so.

For me, the main appeal of the Mini is that I could get as large a display as I wanted. Of course I thought about pairing it with one of those beautiful Apple 23″ displays, but the unfortunate reality is that Apple displays just aren’t a very good value. There’s no denying that they look awesome, and although I’m certainly willing to pay a premium for good industrial design, in this case the cost delta was simply too much. Compare a 23″ Apple Cinema HD display at $1,499 to the recently introduced Dell 24″ wide-screen monster at around $950 (regularly priced at $1,199, but Dell runs specials in which you can combine various online coupons) and it is evident that Apple’s pricing on displays is not very competitive.

If I got the Mini, I would likely have paired it with a Dell 24″ display. I’d call them Mini Mac and Dr. Evil. Ha ha! Although the big screen would be really nice, the butt-ugliness of the Dell and the industrial design mismatch between the computer and monitor would likely always grate on me.

Since my primary reason for upgrading is for speed, the iMac seemed the better choice. The Mac Mini might be fast enough, but I couldn’t be sure and didn’t want to be disappointed. Apple’s recent upgrade of the iMac line was really compelling as far as upgrades go. That, coupled with Amazon’s $150 rebate, tipped the scales decidedly in favor of the iMac.

So now that the decision has been made and the order placed, it’s time to play the waiting game. Hurry up UPS!

Posted by Roger at 10:13 pm.