Wrong time to get a mac?
 

Hello. I am keen to get a new iMac to replace my old iMac G3 which gave up the ghost earlier this year. I am a student and would be able to get a rebate on an Ipod if I bought it before the 7th of October. However, with 2007 just around the corner I am concerned that if I buy a mac the packaged software (Front Row + ilife) will be upgraded and I will be left with old versions. Is it the wrong time to get a mac?

http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/

I am hanging on till Leopard, Adobe CS3 and MS Office are all released :D

iLife only costs $79 and the currently shipping version of iLife will still be quite functional in 2007. So the most that you are "losing" by buying now would be $79 and it would probably be better estimated as $40 or less since you will still have as perfectly functional version - you just won't have whatever enhancements will be added in the next version.
Isn't it worth $40 to have a functioning computer for the next 4 months?

That's a very good point. I think I will buy it tonight and get a rebate on an iPod. I am looking forward to using a mac again after putting up with the joys of Windows for a number of months!

Thanks for the comments.

oroberts

To add.. it's not like iLife '06 is crippled. And since you're a student, iLife '07 will likely only cost you $39.

Lastly, what's $40 dollars versus the $180 you get on the iPod rebate?

This is an age old question when it comes to upgrading computers. Of course you can always wait to upgrade but when will you ever actually get a new machine? Computer equipement is outdated by the time its even released so find something you like and when it's financially feasible for you, go for it.

However there are times, such as now when buying a new Intel Mac may not be such a good choice. If you're a heavy user of apps that don't run natively with these new processors (such as Adobe apps) then you may very well see a significant slowdown in performance when using these apps. I'm sure there are much more in-depth discussions of this elsewhere on the forums.

If you get a new Mac now, yes you'll feel left out when OS 10.5 is released in a few months but as was said earlier in this thread, you can weigh the cost to benefit ratio of a few more months computing time along with your iPod rebate and then determine if it's worthwhile to get a new machine now and have to fork over a hundred or two for 10.5 (if you even choose to do this at that time at all).

I'm sure that compared to a G3 iMac....:D

.... the new Intel Macs will be alot faster, even with the PPC emulation. :D

Avoiding "The Personal Arms Race"
 

Let us know what you bought – I’m very curious.

Perhaps a good upgrade philosophy is simple: Replace it if it’s busted, or upgrade if you’re feeling seriously restricted by your present tools – for the purposes you are actually using them.

Laurie Anderson has a brilliant song/performance about "The Personal Arms Race", which to some degree is what the computer upgrade circus has become.
.

Bought me Mac!
 

I decided to go for a new iMac:

17-inch widescreen LCD
1440x900 resolution
2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor
4MB shared L2 cache
1GB memory (2x512MB SO-DIMM)
160GB Serial ATA hard drive2
8x double-layer SuperDrive (DVD+R DL, DVD±RW, CD-RW)
ATI Radeon X1600 graphics with 128MB GDDR3 memory
Built-in AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0
Apple Remote

+ 30 gb White iPod

I'm really looking forward to using my new items.

oroberts

Well good for you Oroberts, I'm glad to see you went and purchased a new iMac. It's not like you had to wait, there isn't going to be that hugh of a difference between Leopard and Tiger, I mean not like the difference between Windows XP and Vista. That's one thing that makes the Mac so much better, they keep updating evey year so you always get the latest greatest thing and if you can't wait it's not such a big difference that you'll be forced to change in a few months. I'm waiting but then that's only because of a few new items in Leopard that I'm going to either need or want to use, but if it wasn't for a select few items I'd deffinitly buy now. Anyways, I hope your enjoying your iMac, it's so much more sophisticated than Windows

So how do you like your new machine? No regrets I hope...

Congrats! :)

yeah the student pricing is sweet (if you qualify) plus i got an ipod 30gb for only AU$100 (US$60) with the rebate and promo code

well done on your new puchase

Definitely not! I am really pleased with my new iMac and use it a lot, along with my iPod. I have the odd problem with the Apple Mouse now and again but I've heard that this is a common problem.

The performance of the Mac is great - played the Call of Duty 2 Demo last night :D

oroberts

Isn't that game fun!? My only beef is not being able to save my positions when I want. But the visuals are fantastic!

It is - visuals are great! I have now completed the demo - is it worth buying the whole game?

oroberts

Well, depends if you like it or not.

Definitely. Pretty much the same kind of game play in different locals (which are accurate and gorgeous), but you switch to the various allied sides depending on the level. On one level you are flying in a bomber which is FANTASTIC! I played that one over and over. Another time you are in a desert tank battle. The Normandy landing is great, but it ended too quickly for me. I think Medal of Honor Allied Assault did it better there.

Note that on eBay COD2 for Mac is about 1/2 the price.

Sounds good! Might have to look into getting it.

Are there any other good games for Mac that people would recommend?

Why just go with what is available for the Mac? You have an Inteller there. Use BootCamp and play any PC game you want! :) Battlefield 2 is excellent game play.

http://www.ea.com/official/battlefie...d2/us/home.jsp

This one is due out in March...

http://battlefield.ea.com/battlefield/bf/

That's a good idea! I'll need to buy an XP disc though so I can install Windows. Might buy one if I get Leopard. :D

oroberts

Look around for someone who has an old PC that is not working. Usually they have an install disk. I had a gaming laptop that went south, and I used the installer on BootCamp, and was able to use my laptop's hard drive (and all installed games) via a little firewire housing. I was then able to play all my installed games. It was amazing!

Cool! I will see if I can find a disk from someone who is no longer using their computer. I had a quick look on Amazon. There seem to be so many different types of XP disk - I really dont wanna buy the wrong one!! Also looked at PC world - £199 / $390!!! I can't afford that! Is that a standard sort of price?

oroberts

Silly, isn't it? You might be looking at the Pro edition and not the home edition.

As long as you get the registration number, any home edition of XP should work fine in BootCamp. Create a post under Applications and ask everyone to help you get started on BootCamp. You will get some good info that way.

Yeah OK. It would be good to have it available for the rare times I need Windows!

oroberts

Only 1 Gig of RAM?

My Intel Macs run dogpoo slow on just the single Gig. See how you go but I got fed up with the beachball - oh and don,t even think of running Parallels with only one in there.
:-)
Gavin