Good to hear. I've already been looking at monitor elsewhere. Is the Dell one really the exact same monitor? Sweet, because I really like the quality of the Mac ones and was considering shelling the extra $400.
Yes, I'm aware of the faster FSB (as I mentioned above). I'm having another set of dilemnas, though. Where to begin...
1) Graphics card. I'd really like to upgrade to one of the two higher end graphics cards (the GeForce Ultra 3800 or the ATI 800x). I have several questions though that I can't seem to track down answers to.
- Is there a difference between the versions of these cards sold through Apple/Apple resellers vs. the "PC" version generally available? I believe I found that the "only" difference is that the Mac ones are firmware keyed, but that reflashing is a bit of risky business. Is that correct?
- What's the difference between the GeForce Ultra 3800 and the GeForce 3800 GT?
2) I've looked at Mac catalog sites, including macconnection.com. I found something odd. Take a look at
this system vs.
this one. What gives. Here's what I see:
- System A has a crapier vid card (not a problem since I plan on replacing either of them.
- There's some odd difference between the CD/DVD drives. What's a super drive, is that just a marketing term for a CD-R/DVD-R drive? Is the drive on one of these two systems significantly better than the other?
- The important thing that caught my eye, for some reason system A has the PCI-X and PCI-100 slots that aren't supposed to be with the 2.0 Ghz system, only the faster ones. Whereas system B has only standard PCI slots. (why the heck hasn't Apple graduated to PCIe yet? Anyway) That's nifty, it'd be nice to get that.
- System A seems like the better system (due to the PCI ugrade) for $100 less. Score, or do I lose something I'm not seeing?
I think that's it for now. Mucho thank yous in advance if any of you can decipher my babbling and give me the answers I crave!