My 4-year old iMac is on it’s last legs. The DVD drive no longer works and, although everything else is fine and functional, it’s just plain slow. I have the money, so what’s the problem?
It’s this: everyone was hoping for a new iMac to be announced at Macworld, but no dice. It’s been a long time since a new iMac appeared and it seems certain we’ll have something exciting by June at the latest. But I don’t really want to wait. I’m morally certain I could CAUSE something new and exciting to be announced and rapidly rolled out, by the simple act of buying one of the old ones. I doubt very much it would take more than a week. This would, of course, be intensely annoying to me. But everyone else would be very happy. They could buy whatever the happy shiny new thing turns out to be. (At the very least, they could buy the old thing that I just bought for significantly less than I paid.) So: should I let the knowledge that I will be bringing joy to millions of other mac users, in the form of a hot new iMac, tip the scales in favor of buying the old one right now? Should I buy altruistically, in effect? Bonus question: if I knew that by throwing a fat man off a bridge in front of an oncoming trolley I could make Apple release a new iMac, would it be ok to do it? So long as I didn’t get caught?
What do you think the odds are that Apple will 1) drop their prices or 2) roll out a new iMac in the next couple months?
{ 56 comments }
Rich 01.18.09 at 11:22 am
I think it’s very likely that Apple will release an iMac with one of Intel’s Core i7 processeors fairly soon (although I doubt that the exterior design will change drastically). My guess would be that the release will coincide with that of Snow Leopard, which should be by June at the latest and probably earlier.
dave 01.18.09 at 11:23 am
i think the next update will bring the nvidia gpu to the imac though many of the cool features are disabled :-(
http://www.macrumors.com/2009/01/12/macworld-san-francisco-2009-rumor-wrapup-winners-and-losers/
Eric 01.18.09 at 11:37 am
Same problem here, buy now or buy later ?
I was waiting for the MacWorld announcement…
And now I don’t know what to do..
Chris 01.18.09 at 11:40 am
Even if they do roll out a new one, it takes a while to get it to stores. And there will most likely be some weird problem with it in the first release if there are major changes.
It sounds like you’ve already waited longer than you should, so think of all the features you gained by waiting this long. If you have the money to buy a Mac and a productive person, I’d argue that waiting for the right minor fluctuation is waste of your time.
George 01.18.09 at 11:43 am
I’m morally certain I could CAUSE something new and exciting to be announced and rapidly rolled out, by the simple act of buying one of the old ones.
There are many with this awesome power. Perhaps it could be turned for good. Just for starters, we could all bail out of the stock market simultaneously, and save the global financial system.
strasmangelo jones 01.18.09 at 11:54 am
I think I should attempt to provoke some kind of pointless flame war by loudly insisting that Macs are overpriced pieces of DRM-loaded crap and that the use and/or purchase of one indicates various failings as a consumer, an independent thinker, and a moral being.
sg 01.18.09 at 12:25 pm
happened to me aweek after I bought the one I have now. The effect was that I could have got it $300 cheaper if I had waited a week, and I didn’t know so I didn’t wait. It didn’t seem a big effect overall (though I was pissed with the shop assistant for blithely not telling me, and with Apple in general).
Jacob Christensen 01.18.09 at 12:33 pm
How much would replacing the DVD-drive or buying an external drive and keeping you going through the spring cost?
I’m not sure if philosophers have any need for special performance (but then, what do I know about philosophy?), so the next question is why a 2005 iMac would be excruciatingly slow. Which applications do you use?
Anyway:
1. Macrumor’s guess is as bad as mine: https://crookedtimber.org/2009/01/18/should-i-buy-a-new-imac-considerations-of-justice-and-equality/
2. Computers illustrate the problem of deflation in a good way: There are always incentives not to buy.
3. If any of us had direct contact with the Supreme Being, we would in all likelihood be under orders not to reveal anything about the secrets of the Appliverse.
Ben 01.18.09 at 12:33 pm
You could always get one of the new MacBook Pros, retailing at a bargain (/ludicrous) price of $2799.
Alternatively, you could just buy a desktop/laptop and customise what hardware set-up you have for a lower price, improved performance and greater freedom. It might not be so curvy.
Ben 01.18.09 at 12:37 pm
I’ve not used the HTML tags in these comment boxes before, and my first attempt resulted in nothing appearing at all. Do you need to close the tag (e.g. )? In the meantime, here’s another attempt, and a non-HTML version of the link:
BoingBoing Gadgets
http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/01/06/macworld-17-macbook.html
Chris Bertram 01.18.09 at 12:55 pm
I wouldn’t be sure about prices dropping, since that’s likely to depend on comparative exchange rates between where you live and where Apple manufacture (China, usually). I just put off buying a Nikon D90 on the assumption that the price would fall, but the weak pound just led to a 10pc hike in Nikon (and Canon) prices in the UK. Looks like I’ll be waiting a bit longer ….
Charlie Stross 01.18.09 at 1:14 pm
Leaving aside the jam tomorrow/jam today question, if you buy an iMac today, you should avoid the 20″ model. Apple cheaped on the display panels — the video chipset is good for 32 bit colour, but the panel itself is only good for six bits each of RGB. In short, it’ll look bad if you do any serious photo work (even importing your holiday snaps into iPhoto). The 24″ model, in contrast, has a decent screen.
A second option, if you’ve got the money: consider buying an aluminium Macbook, and the new 24″ display. The display is designed to work with the laptop in clamshell mode (lid closed, tucked away beneath it with an external keyboard and mouse). It’ll cost a little more than a 24″ iMac, but give you equivalent or better performance, and a laptop to carry away when you’re not using it on your desk. Costs less than a Macbook Pro, too.
Total 01.18.09 at 1:30 pm
Apple tends not to drop prices, but hold the same price points while increasing the content of the machine. As to when something will be introduced, best guess is pretty soon: new iMacs and minis in February/March, clearing the way for new Mac Pros at the WWDC in June/July (the WWDC is a professional conference, after all, and thus not targeted at the consumer).
There will probably be an iPhone refresh in there somewhere, too.
Old-Timer 01.18.09 at 3:06 pm
Or, you could take my viewpoint, which is not to worry about the whole thing. My attitude is that anything I for which I can’t get at least a firm ship date on now is so much vapor, and I stick with real things. There is always something new coming along from somebody. If there’s something affordable that meets your needs, buy it now and worry about more important things than how much extra utility you might have bought for the same money by waiting vs the disutility of having to endure the problems you have for some length of time, not to mention the disutility of spending time gathering information about junk that is irrelevant to your real interests.
If you are a computer geek who enjoys drooling over hardware and software, present and potential, for its own sake, disregard the above. But in that case, why are you asking the audience of an academic blog for information, and not one of the many better-informed venues on the net?
Bill Gardner 01.18.09 at 3:16 pm
I’m morally certain I could CAUSE something new and exciting to be announced and rapidly rolled out, by the simple act of buying one of the old ones. I doubt very much it would take more than a week.
I woke up my wife at 1:30AM on October 25th, 1986, to see history being made. This CAUSED Bill Buckner to mishandle a routine ground ball…
In the same era, I was lecturing students about the cognitive psychology of errors in causal attributions. But that’s just school book stuff. This is the real world.
Joel Turnipseed 01.18.09 at 3:36 pm
I’d wait for the Nvidia GPU/Snow Leopard to ship (that’s at least a $100 savings right there, in OS upgrade–and we all know how much you love Photoshop). You can get a replacement CD/DVD drive for $50. Now, if only we could get either a) built-in blu-ray in next 12-18 months, or b) a cheaper third-party one than $1000 (for laptops).
Plus, quite apart from Old-Timer’s sage advice (except part about geek sites: you do have to wade through a lot of ZOMG! at /. & similar), I’ll second Charlie Stross’s recommendation to go with a MacBook(Pro) and an external monitor. I’ve been running that way since my old PC died a year and a half ago & couldn’t be more pleased.
Meantime, thank you for reminding me, obliquely, of “Why Don’t You–Yes, But.”
justcorbly 01.18.09 at 3:59 pm
Well, I bought a new iMac in late November. The drive in the old G5 began making loud metallic clangy-clangy noises. In my experience, disk drives that make such sounds are terminal.
Contrary to previous history, my purchase of a new piece of Apple hardware did not prompt the company to release Big, Better and Shinier replacments before the month was out.
The new iMac is shiner, quieter and faster.
So, yes, buy one.
gray lensman 01.18.09 at 5:21 pm
Computers are too easy to work on to replace a model every four years. My G4 AGP tower is 10 years old this year. I have replaced the processor (500 Mhz is now 1.5 Ghz), RAM up to 2Gb, added two larger drives (60 gig is now 1 terabyte) and a new DVD drive. All of the additions took about five minute each. The Mac Pro towers cost more initially but the easy upgrades cost way less than a new computer. I’m also using the Sony CRT monitor which I bought with the G4. The “consumer grade” stuff is designed to not be easily upgradeable so you will replace it more often. I’ve never had a breakdown on the G4 and it’s used every day. Macsales.com is where I bought all my pieces.
novakant 01.18.09 at 5:40 pm
You might want to check this site, they’re pretty reliable:
http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/
Randolph 01.18.09 at 5:41 pm
What are you doing that’s slow? Video? Gaming? 3-D modeling?
BTW, LCD displays that produce good color are pro equipment; the best prices are from NEC and are over $1,000. Unless they come down in price (they may–the reports of the new OLEDs are promising), no all-in-one system is ever going to incorporate one of those.
MarkUp 01.18.09 at 6:12 pm
MBP-17″ so you won’t have to worry about losing the battery – doing this will also benefit the new [temp] Steve.
dr 01.18.09 at 7:07 pm
I’d second what Chris said way up above about early revs of new products, except that if what we’re looking at is merely a speedbump, then there aren’t likely to be many problems.
Marcia 01.18.09 at 7:55 pm
Ah, the cigarette at the bus stop conundrum. If you’re certain the purchase of the current iMac model will bring about the release of the product you really want, why not just buy it and put it away in the closet?
Once your actions have left Apple no choice but to release the new model, sell the old one as brand new in the box on eBay. Throw in a bit of software or an upgrade to the new OS and you’ll probably get back as much as you paid for it.
sharon 01.18.09 at 8:56 pm
I didn’t really want to replace my macbook for at least another 6 months or even a year, but a few days ago I spilt water on it and I now seem to have permanently lost the m, n and h* keys, and it won’t sleep unless I turn off bluetooth. I strogly suspect it’s not worth repairing. So now I dunno…
*Keyboard Viewer, before you ask. Better than nowt, but slow…
Justin 01.18.09 at 9:22 pm
I think we should arrange something where folks waiting for a new iMac to be announced soon have a joint contract with you: if you buy an iMac and this causes a new one to be announced, they pay you for the service. So you’re compensated for buying a less awesome iMac while providing them the service of being able to buy a better computer.
Perhaps the best way to do this is an intrade contract. I do wonder if your causing the new iMac to be announced would violate some terms of service.
Scott F. 01.18.09 at 10:19 pm
Apple deliberately played down releasing products at MacWorld as part of it’s strategy of pulling out of the conference. I expect the iMacs will be updated shortly, perhaps on Jan. 24, 2004 when the Mac turns 20. The upgraded iMacs will likely get LED back-lit screens; mini-DVI port; and NVidia onboard graphics. Apple may upgrade the iMac to an all aluminum enclosure later to fit in with there move to make all the components recyleable. There was noticeable disappointment at MacWorld conference that Apple introduced only a $3000 laptop. Not exactly the product for these recessionary times.
MattF 01.18.09 at 10:33 pm
If you decide not to wait, you can get a current 24″ iMac with an nvidia board– it’s a special order and an additional $100, I think– so you don’t have to worry about being made instantly obsolete due to Snow Leopard/OpenCL. And -do- get the 24″ version– it’s lightyears better than the 20″-er.
And, also– if what you do is standard-issue internet/word processing/music/photographs, then any current computer from any manufacturer is roughly the equivalent of cracking a walnut with a steamroller.
G 01.18.09 at 11:30 pm
My advice: wait until the new iMacs are announced and then buy one of the previous iMac models while retailers are getting rid of the old to make way for the new. Then, if you are so inclined, order the extras from a 3rd-party vendor and install them yourself.
Rationale: When new MacBooks were announced last fall, I went out and bought the last iteration of the previous MacBook for about $100 less than its retail price had been before the announcement. I maxed out the RAM for under $50 by ordering it from http://www.Crucial.com and doing the install myself. So far, my experience has been that “last iteration of previous model” = “all the bugs have been resolved.”
For what it’s worth, the screen on my 20″ iMac (purchased for me by my U last summer) looks just fine to me, and I work with iPhoto & iMovie fairly often.
nina 01.18.09 at 11:41 pm
Pour 2009, voici mes voeux : je souhaite régler un petit problème du genre détail avec cette grosse tache de si peu président de la république, en lui envoyant un avocat. Et toi, cher blogueur ?
voila. Sinon ça, c’est une tentative de gros scandale public, ça peut toujours servir à calmer du monde. Merci pour l’espace d’expression.
JWNixon 01.19.09 at 12:08 am
I’ve been using Apples for more than 10 years and I think the comments about buying the last revision before remodeling are pretty solid. As enticing and ‘shiny’ as new models are, my friends who buy them always have more problems than those who wait until the revisions. You may have slightly less speed, but the reliability makes up for it – and the marginal speed difference between the last revision and a new model, when switching from a four-year old, will be modest to imperceptible.
I also think the MacBook + 24″ screen is a good idea. That’s basically my setup, except I use a 22″ ViewSonic because Apple monitors always seem way overpriced. I just wish Apple would design to facilitate a docking station!
kid bitzer 01.19.09 at 12:22 am
but it’s not trolleys, is it?
more like newcomb, perhaps.
jholbo 01.19.09 at 1:55 am
“And, also—if what you do is standard-issue internet/word processing/music/photographs, then any current computer from any manufacturer is roughly the equivalent of cracking a walnut with a steamroller.”
Thanks for all the suggestions. My only real problem is that I do a lot using Adobe CS4 apps with quite large files. I find that I am often opening a book and reading a few pages while I wait for stuff to open, and churn through, and render, and etc. Because I’ve only got 1 gig of RAM. No doubt the high-end existing iMacs – with glorious 24″ monitors! and 4 gigs of RAM! – will be adequate to all that. So I should just will myself to not care that in a few months I will be kicking myself for paying too much. After all, time is money.
Delicious Pundit 01.19.09 at 2:10 am
if I knew that by throwing a fat man off a bridge in front of an oncoming trolley I could make Apple release a new iMac, would it be ok to do it?
1. What if the trolley contains the new iMacs?
2. Is the guy in this hypothetical fat just because you don’t like fat men, or because you just like the additional challenge of moving the weight?
3. If it’s a fat lady, and she sings on the way down, do we never find out the result of the hypothetical because it’s over?
4. It would be easier to get your iMac in America, for our bridges are so poorly maintained that they are bound to collapse when a fat man merely walks across them, so all you have to do place a freshly baked pie on the opposite side.
Cannoneo 01.19.09 at 2:10 am
“I’m morally certain I could CAUSE something new and exciting to be announced and rapidly rolled out, by the simple act of buying one of the old ones.”
Is this a strange quantum effect or Murphy’s Law? Or is there an instance of the former that now explains the latter?
jholbo 01.19.09 at 2:15 am
“Perhaps the best way to do this is an intrade contract. I do wonder if your causing the new iMac to be announced would violate some terms of service.”
I actually wondered about this myself.
Jim 01.19.09 at 3:24 am
How about punting on a short term rental?
Robert 01.19.09 at 4:09 am
Buy one now then avoid reading any Apple product release news for six months. This will have two desirable outcomes: 1) you cause something new and exciting to be rapidly rolled out; and 2) since you won’t know about it you won’t feel bad.
The Raven 01.19.09 at 7:55 am
For very large files, Adobe Photoshop CS4 is faster on Windows than on Mac OS systems. Apple made a decision that is likely to keep this so until at least CS5. Krawk!
Bernard Yomtov 01.19.09 at 5:09 pm
I belong to the same school as the Gray Lensman @18. My G4 tower (dual 800Mhz) is nearly eight years old, and sees lots of service. I replaced the hard drive once and added some memory and more disk space and an external DVD, and it’s fine, even with CS3, though a bit of patience is sometimes needed when opening large files.
It’s true you pay more now, but it will take longer for the tower to be brought to its knees by “new improved” software, and you have more flexibility. I too have a nice Sony CRT monitor.
hackintosh builder 01.19.09 at 5:31 pm
“You could always get one of the new MacBook Pros, retailing at a bargain (/ludicrous) price of $2799.
Alternatively, you could just buy a desktop/laptop and customise what hardware set-up you have for a lower price, improved performance and greater freedom. It might not be so curvy.”
You can have your cake and eat it. Build a machine with a Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3L motherboard (about $100), a quad-core Intel Q9300 cpu ($180), 4 x 2GB of PC2-6400
DRAM (about $90), and SATA DVD-burner ($20) and 640GB disk ($70). Throw in a
GeForce 9800GTX (but not “9800GTX+”, that’s a different chip) if you care about
3d graphics (about $180). Then install either an official Leopard DVD (using some
bootstrap cleverness described at http://www.osx86project.org) or a torrent download of
iPC osx86 public beta (see http://www.pcwizcomputer.com).
This gets you a machine about 1.5x faster than the fastest iMac (they’re dual-core only),
with 2x more DRAM, and about 1.25x faster 3D graphics, all for about $700-800,
plus whatever screen you want. And running Leopard with all the latest 10.5.6 goodness.
Or for the less tech-savvy, you could try http://www.psystar.com who are doing roughly the same,
for as long as they can keep Apple’s lawyers at bay.
JulesLt 01.19.09 at 8:49 pm
There are only two points in the Apple release schedule when you won’t feel bad about buying one and that’s (a) immediately after launch (b) immediately after an O/S upgrade. Personally, if you’ve waited this long I’d hold out for Snow Leopard.
And to bite on Strasmangelo’s call for a flame war – overpriced? Definitely highly priced, but for machines of comparable spec the difference is around 10-15%, and personally I’m willing to pay that margin for the attention to small details – i.e. the MagSafe connector, power-brick with built in cable tidy, large touchpad and gesture support, non-wobbly USB ports, and fantastic power management (close lid, open lid – as it should be, but rarely is) – I realise there are laptop, not iMac features.
Equally, I’m happy to pay for aesthetic niceties in something I’ll be looking at for the next 3 years.
As for the rest – DRM-laden? Not particularly, and seeing as GNU/BSD/etc avoid DRM by also avoiding any content from the studios who insist on DRM on their content, it’s a bit of a moot point – you can achieve the same net effect on OS X by either NOT dealing with DRM files, or playing cracked content in standard formats.
I’d also disagree that the use or non-use of OS X says anything about anyone’s status as an independent thinker or moral being – I’m sure everyone here saw straight through Apple’s ‘Think Different’ campaign that tried to convince us otherwise? I’m also sure there are tens of thousands of people doing great political work using Windows.
The embarrassing nature of Apple’s marketing should not detract from the product though.
David 01.20.09 at 12:07 am
If you bought your Imac in 2004 or 2005 it’s probably a g4 or g5 chip and there — along with inadequate ram, easily remedied — is your problem if you’re using CS4. The best advice you’ve received is to wait for the new ones to be announced and buy a close-out model. Then wipe the drive on the old one and (even though I have serious intelmac envy/lust) send it to me. The macbook/pro with external monitor is also a good option. It has been a fact of life for years that Adobe apps want obscene amounts of ram and drive space.
David 01.20.09 at 12:15 am
@38. By all means read the blog post and then take five pounds worth of salt grains. Very reasonable tone and totally self-serving. Adobe has hardly been a paragon of responsible or responsive software development. The very first response nails it: they’ve been dragging their feet since at least 10.0 on ppc. Little short of assholes as far as the transition from CS3 to 4.
Ted 01.20.09 at 12:54 am
I have experienced this awesome power but found it unpredictable. I waited months and months before buying a Mac Mini for my home office. I finally broke down and got one and the very next day the new Intel Mac Mini’s were announced. My simple expenditure of a few hundred dollars forced the mighty roulette wheel of Infinite Loop to finally settle on black when I bet red.
Obviously, I had somewhat mixed feelings about this ability I seemed to have manifested.
Besides Apple, I also have an uncanny influence over the world financial system. Back in 1995, I signed a contract to work in Japan at what seemed a great salary which would allow me to rapidly pay off my USD denominated student debt when the yen was around 85 to the dollar. By the time I started work and was collecting paychecks, it was around ¥115 to the greenback. Economists have long overlooked my effect on the world financial stage, particularly my later move to Silicon Valley planned in late 2000 and executed in mid 2001.
Counter-evidence is mounting though. I waited until last week to get an iPhone. Hoping for a 32GB version at MacWorld or even at CES, I waited. Unless new iPhone models come out soon, financial and tech market watchers may have to look beyond my career and shopping decisions to other indicators.
Alex F 01.20.09 at 12:18 pm
From MacRumors a few hours ago — new Intel chip announcement suggests that iMacs could be coming soon….
rtm 01.20.09 at 1:37 pm
i bought my macbook G4 about a month before they made the switch to intel.
of course, now i have 4 macs. . .
just buy the latest iMac. it’s great, it will last for years.
Ginger Yellow 01.20.09 at 5:59 pm
“I use a 22†ViewSonic because Apple monitors always seem way overpriced.”
Apple products overpriced? Who’d have thought?
Vincent Odhiambo 01.20.09 at 10:19 pm
I understand you are in need of a new imac? Well its not like I have any information that could help, but that aside I wanted to ask if you could part with your current machine? See, am a 3rd Year student at the Nairobi University School of Dentistry, thats in Kenya, just incase. I’d really do with a machine for my course projects, and its just that computers here are damn expensive. lookin forward to hearing from you, thank you.
Badtux 01.21.09 at 5:09 pm
So buy a refurbished last-generation iMac from the Apple Store and move on. You’ll pay under $1K for a computer much better than your current one, and when the new iMacs come out you won’t feel like such an idiot because you got a great deal irregardless.
Actually, why buy an iMac at all? I bought a Macbook and an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse, and installed a 320GB hard drive inside it as well as 4GB of memory. I bought an additional keyboard, mouse, and power supply for work as well as an adaptor to hook it up to the monitor already there, and I just cart my whole life everywhere and use the Macbook in lozenge mode when not on the road (if you press a key on the external keyboard while the Macbook is asleep, it’ll wake up and move its desktop to the external monitor and happily let you use it as an odd-looking desktop computer). Only thing it doesn’t do is play games well, but I could have done the Macbook Pro for that. Oh, Apple’s own keyboard works best, but for the mouse, don’t get Apple’s Mouse. Get one of Logitech’s 5-button wobble meeses. They’re more reliable at telling the difference between a left click and a right click, and their wobble wheel doesn’t get gummed up like Apple’s teensy track ball, and they’re 100% supported in the latest Leopard (I have one button set to Expose and one button set to Spaces, whereas with Apple’s mouse you can only set the side buttons to one thing, usually Expose).
Really, desktop computers are so… yesterday.
Watson Aname 01.21.09 at 5:41 pm
Really, desktop computers are so… yesterday. … much cheaper for roughly the same capabilities.
hackintosh builder 01.21.09 at 6:18 pm
“Really, desktop computers are so… yesterday”
Depends what you’re doing. The MacBook Pro is a nice machine as laptops go, but
it’s damn expensive, runs pretty hot, and can’t really handle heavy graphics and video
very well. You can just put a lot more hardware in a big box, together with the
necessary power and cooling, and do it all a lot cheaper as well. I mostly use my
laptop, running Ubuntu 8.10 linux, for web browsing and running a KRDC (vnc client)
to access a desktop 10 miles away at work, and a load of noisy big-memory (128GB)
compute servers in a machine room.
I’m still waiting for someone to build the right laptop for me: I want the low power,
low heat, and long battery life of a netbook, *but* with a 1680×1050 15.4″ screen.
And a smallish SSD would suffice.
imcaitlin 01.21.09 at 7:18 pm
I’m not positive if this will work for your imac, but the macbooks seem to come across the problem wherein the disk drive no longer reads CDs/DVDs fairly frequently. There is some good news in that there may be a CHEAP FIX FOR THE BROKEN DISK DRIVE: Get one of those CDs that clean the CD drive. It looks like it has little brushes on it and costs uner $20. My husband’s disk drive wouldn’t read burned disks until we cleaned the drive with one of these CDs last week. It doesn’t do anything for the problem of slowness, but at least the drive may work, and then you can decide if you want to add HD space to help with the slowness
Good luck.
:-)
sharon 01.22.09 at 6:24 pm
I ordered my new macbook yesterday. Today I got an email from Apple:
!!!!
Jake 01.22.09 at 8:28 pm
But I don’t really want to wait.
Problem solved: then buy one. The current iMacs are incredibly impressive and whatever bump comes next is likely to be incremental. This question is asked in various guises frequently on the Ars Technica Mac Achaia board, where the general answer is that if you a) need one now, b) have the cash and c) aren’t within a few weeks of a major conference like MacWorld or WWDC, get one. I wrote about the issue tangentially in Desktop or Laptop, which some of the fighters above ought to read, and I’m glad to see that others like the iMac too.
There’s a chance that Apple won’t upgrade the iMacs until sometime as late as June or July. Get the new one, buy 4GB of third-party RAM from somewhere like Crucial, and be happy with it.
Fiona 01.23.09 at 5:15 pm
You know the one about dance like no-one is watching? How about shop like there will never be a new iMac?
David 01.24.09 at 2:17 am
Jake @54 makes a lot of sense. You still haven’t addressed your slowness issue. Btw, a friend who is a long time, accomplished graphics professional bought a 24″ iMac last year, loaded it with extra ram (from Apple, no less!) and has been very happy with it. Glossy screen and all. She was stuck with CS3 for awhile, but still productive. So just buy one and send the old one to that Nigerian medical student (who is not me, I swear).
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