Mac peeps, what am I missing?

[Ghoulish Delight]

There's no doubt that anything other than the lowest end Power Mac, with the 1Ghz+ front side bus and dual processor is no comparison to the iMac. But those just aren't in the budget, so not even on my radar. The low end Power Mac that I MIGHT be able to afford has a slower processor AND a slower front side bus, so on the surface, the iMac should be a faster machine. I just want to make sure there's no other major compelling reason to go with the low end Power PC over the significantly cheaper high end iMac.

I suppose I'm also wondering how the high end iMac compares to a high end PC. But that's a harder comparison to make since it's comparing Apples and, um, PCs.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Hmm, perhaps I can get away without Applecare. I'm a bit gun-shy as my previous Mac required 2 monitor replacements under Applecare. Of course, that was 6 or 7 years ago.

[surfinmuse]

GD, you know how the Applecare deals works right? You are covered for all parts & labor w/in the first year; I've gathered from other posts that you probably live in OC, so if anything unbecoming happens to it, you can take it to the nearest Apple Store (2 in OC that I know of, South Coast Plaza, and Fashion Island), and they'll fix whatever needs to be fixed. A couple of months before the end of year 1, you will get a letter in the mail (provided you register the iMac upon startup) and they will try to sell you Applecare then. You can decide if you do need it then, after a whole year with it.

Since you're computer-savvy and probably will not have any need for tech spt calls, I would forego the AppleCare for now, but know that you have the option to pick it up w/in the year. You might get a feel for how service-prone your iMac (coupled with your usage) is by then. My friend had to take his roughly 8-month-old iMac in to replace some mechanism in the slot-load drive.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Oh yeah, I'd forgotten that they allow you to add on, that's a good point.

[FEJ]

A creative ad agency on my route are adding a couple iMacs instead of PowerMacs. They seem real happy with them.

[blueerica]

I have found that my gaming hasn't been as affected by the mac. In fact, the quality of game that's available on a mac is pretty good, however, if it's a multiplayer game, there just aren't many options in terms of voice comms for mac that everyone can use. The more I think of it, certain games are PC only, like The Matrix games, but I don't really care. There are enough options out there for me to play on a mac, that it only stung for a second, and then I though "Their loss."

DF25863 & surfinmuse are right, however -- add it on later, get the feel for it. You're far more tech-savvy than your average user, even your average mac user...

[mousepod]

As a dyed-in-the-wool mac geek (we have three working desktop macs and a laptop in the house, plus and an old PowerMac and Powerbook in the "throw away" pile in the basement), I'll toss in my .02:

If you're looking at an iMac vs a single-processor PM, then iMac is the way to go. If you wind up wanting to add more drives (optical or otherwise) and don't mind a bunch of firewire or usb cables, then no big deal.

If, on the other hand, you want to do any serious processor-intensive work like editing video or working with massive graphics files, then a dual-processor PM is the way to go. Another obvious plus to the PM is the ability swap drives and upgrade your RAM. You can also have multiple monitors work seamlessly with a PM.

As far as my recommendation on applecare, I say buy it. You can wait until 365 days after you purchase your computer to take the plunge, but it is absolutely worth it. Speaking as a long-time mac owner who almost never calls any tech support, the extended warranty on parts and labor just can't be beat. My iBook G3 developed a problem with the firewire port a couple of months after the first year. Due to some boneheaded design, the firewire port was soldered directly to the logic board and the only available repair was a complete replacement of the logic board. The replacement cost with AppleCare - $0. The out-of-warranty charge to fix it - $900. The cost of a new iBook (at the time) - $1200. Buy AppleCare.

[surfinmuse]

I'm an AppleCare advocate myself, esp. for the portables. I'm not "gentle" with our laptops, so I've always purchased AppleCare for our Powerbooks and iBooks.

MousePod, a friend of mine had the IDENTICAL problem to yours on his iBook G3. I think it happened within the first few months, and after that incident, he went ahead and purchased the AppleCare extension.

[Ghoulish Delight]

If I get Applecapple care, it will be for the replacement aspect. I'm sure my old trouble shooting skills will return to me with use, and if not I have many many people I can count on for help. But, as mousepod points out, all it takes is one minor hardware problem to make it worth it (like I said, my monitor needed to be replaced twice under my old Applecare, it was a damned good thing I had it).

We have no plans on doing anything particulary intensive with this. Gaming and simple photoshop work (for Mouseadventure shirts, of course) are the most demanding things I'll be asking of it, and it appears to have the specs to handle those. And considering how much desk space will be saved, a few extra cables and external peripherals hardly seems like they'd be a big deal. Thanks for the heads up on the noise issue, Kevy. I wonder if the extra volume the 20" affords mitigates that at all, or if they've perhaps improved the fan since you got yours.

[Tramspotter]

I'm on my phone so bear with me...

You nailed it upgradeability is the main difference.

The memory is a different form factor and harder to come by... as always with macs buying the memory elsewhere (not from apple) will save you qite a bit just be sure with an I-mac to get the correct type. with an I-mac you have to expand externaly with hard disk space periferals and the built in monitor is your main think that it is more dificult to go dual fool (if your not planing to then is not a problem).

sounds to me like all you will need is photoshop and if you want server space for easy hosting/bacup/free usefull software a mac dot com account.

Call me if you want further details...

as for software if it was written opensource in C++ you can probably compile it with OS X's BSD like guts... if you know how to abuse the Gimp for instance don't need photoshop....

thake care man and GL.... BTW I didn't get the Apple Care and you don't need to take the upsell after the one year you can go bare and then change your mind they just require a inspection to make sure it is in working order then yer GTG wish I had with my old G4...I mean my high tech doorstop