New 27″ i7 iMac


The 27inch monitor is massive.


16GB ram upgrade.

A week ago I ordered a new iMac to replace my dead PC (virus + dead motherboard). I couldn’t justify spending close to $6k for a fully loaded all in one mac so I opted for a basic configuration. After doing some research I realised that the $1k extra Solid State Drive (SSD) was an expensive option but one I really wanted. 4 times faster than a normal hard drive and dead silent too (no moving parts). I was too late to get Apple to edit my order so I had to refund the mac I initially ordered, get TNT to pick it up (Apple paid for this!) and then order my new mac with SSD.

I did even more research and it turns out that Apple overcharges for their ram upgrades. Apple charges $1400 for 16gb of ram. My research led to many people having problems with cheap aftermarket ram in the 16gb configuration (read up here) so I went for Apple factory ram (Samsung ram) but I bought it from OWC in the USA for $384.70 delivered (via FedEx in 1 week). $1k cheaper. That’s a massive saving huh?! Basically I’m getting my SSD for free. What’s more the Samsung ram I bought is made in Korea, the ram inside my mac was made in China.

A few things:

– Starting up is ridiculously fast. Never seen a computer start up so fast in my entire life. I’m thinking it might slow down once I bog it up with more applications? We’ll see.

– This new Apple mouse is retarded. You go back and forth through web pages by putting 2 fingers on top of the mouse and swiping the surface like you do with an iPhone. I can just imagine the apple guys sitting around the office in a creative meeting about trying to avoid having to put 2 more buttons on a mac mouse. Silly!

– The monitor and resolution is massive. I’m a 2 monitor fan (one for work, one for email) and I think 21inch monitors are nice in terms of being just big enough and having better legibility but I’m pretty sure I’ll get used to this set-up pretty quickly.

– USB ports on the back are a little annoying to get to and when you plug something in or out the entire monitor tilts (too heavy for the hinge on the stand).

– I’ve been told to be sure to eject discs. That means digital cameras, external drives etc. If you don’t do so macs will corrupt shit.

– MSN 8 for mac crashed within 2 minutes of operation.

– This tiny flat keyboard is missing a forward delete button (I love that button!).

– I’m starting to do mac things and sound like a mac person. I cashed in an iTunes voucher Caryn gave me years ago and I bought myself Kanye’s latest album (Track 10, Hell of a Life = awesome) through the iTunes store. iTunes even found album cover art for all the songs I’ve got, nice.

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8 Responses to New 27″ i7 iMac

  1. thebadcharacter says:

    Ditch MSN for Mac and use Adium

  2. danielb says:

    Try using an application called ‘Adium’ instead of MSN. It’s much better.

  3. saad says:

    Nice one!

    I always thought u were a Mac person though, being a designer and all

  4. Paul says:

    16GB!! holy crap! The mouse issue can be fixed via preferences. Turn left and right buttons on. You can add more screens too. You should also eject disks on a PC.

    Such a nice machine! Enjoy! 16GB…..lol!

  5. lemmiwinks says:

    About the eject thing, something happened one day and my camera didn’t eject cleanly and I had to format the card. Fortunately all the photos were already copied off. The next time it happened, I just did a chkdsk on it (it’s fat32) and it was fine.

    Mac’s can’t repair fat32 so they’ll just tell you you need to initialize the disk.

  6. Jay says:

    You baller.
    I hate the glass screen :( How’s the glare for you?

  7. Jay says:

    The lights & iMacs at work aren’t friendly. You should post up some pics of your workspace at home!

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