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Any experience with the iMac?
I like to change to a Mac and find this could be a good start.
Otherwise it has the ATI Radeon card. Is this really a handicap with the sketchup performance?Burkhard
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@burkhard said:
Any experience with the iMac?
I like to change to a Mac and find this could be a good start.
Otherwise it has the ATI Radeon card. Is this really a handicap with the sketchup performance?Burkhard
Hi Burkard,
Glad to see another regular about to move to the easy life with a MAC
I've only viewed the new iMACs at my local Apple Store. Wow, they are a piece of modern sculpture. I have read through the specs and think you should go for the model with 2.4GHz processor and 24-inch model ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO graphics processor 256MB of GDDR3 memory.
My reason for saying this is I think you will find the 1920x1200 resolution better for SketchUp and graphics in general. Initially I got a MacBookPro with 1600x1050, okay, but the new MacBookPro with 1920x1200 is much easier on the eye.
From what I hear the ATI works fine with SketchUp but it would be nice hearing from someone that is using one. I had no difficulties with the ATI on the old MacBookPro
Which ever Mac you opt for I think you will be vary glad that you made the switch.
Mike
PS: I also suggest that you buy from a local Mac retailer. I have two reasons for this. Firstly, they will be be than happy to let you test SketchUp on the machine of your cloice and secondly, there is a very good possibility that you will be able to 'trade-in' the machine when you want to upgrade in a couple of years time. This has been my experience.
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About the resolution you're right. I work on a Dell Precision with that resolution and it works very fine for me. But I don't no if the
all in onegeneration is a good choice.
It seems very small, not to much upgrading, noise and head are unknown....
But let`s see. Thanks for the response.Burkhard
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Burkhard,
At least the previous generation of Imacs is almost noiseless. I envy my daughter.
Anssi
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I recommend the 24" beast to all my friends. Just buy the basic one at an Applestore and order 4GB RAM somewhere online. Somehow the scrollnipple on the included mouse doesn't initiate the orbit command under Leopard. That's all the irritation I could find.
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Burkhardt --
i bought one for my mam (mother), albeit a 17" with intel graphics, and I was really surprised at how well it performs...
And as to ATi graphics with SU on a Mac...the issues so often reported on this forum don't really apply to the Mac ATi cards (Apple write the drivers, not ATi).
One very nice thing about ATi on OS X (I use an X1900XT on a Mac Pro) is that you can use the ATi Displays control panel to control increased antialiasing and anisotropic filtering -- you can't do this with Mac nVidia cards. The difference this makes to your display in SU is very marked...it's difficult to do without it once you've used it for a while.
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I recently got a 2.4GHz 24" iMac and it seems to run SUPro very nicely. It's quiet, attractive, involves fewer wires straggling all over the place, drives my spare 20" HP lcd as well (so I have 3500*1200 display in effect) and generally makes me feel all warm and happy.
All-in-one is a perfectly ok idea if you accept that you will not be opening the case to install 4 drives, swapping the dvd-r for a bluray, adding some obscure PCI card etc. If you actually need that capability you need to buy a MacPro.The scrollball nippley-thing works fine for orbit/pan for me, even when the left 'button' is down.
Oh and do have an external disk for your TimeMachine. Right now I have a 250Gb FW800 but I'll probably get a TimeCapsule since it will make it easier for the other half dozen Macs in the house to back up. -
burckhard,
i have had an intel 20" imac for almost a year. my only regret is not having chosen the best possible graphics card for it (it is possible to choose between 128 or 256Mb) but even with its 128 card it has performed quite well. it is fast and reliable.
i suggest you order it with as much RAM as you possibly can.
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@edson said:
i suggest you order it with as much RAM as you possibly can.
i suggest you fill it up as well but i strongly suggest you don't order said ram from apple.. they are horribly expensive... owc has been good to me over the years ->
http://www.macsales.com/and there are a few other reputable mac ram dealers out there..
[edit] -- out of curiosity, i compared prices and found apple upgrades an imac to 4gb for $850 while owc sells the same thing for $100...
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