Cool, quiet, and energy efficient, SPCR's official review of the 17" Core-Duo-based iMac is here.

Great review as always... Something on the last page caught my attention;

Come on... who was it?!

Al

Definitely the best-looking PC I have ever seen. The lack of cable clutter and the sheer visual attractiveness of the iMac are the two big selling points for me, as well as the minimal footprint on a desk (hardly bigger than a normal TFT screen). However, that power-saving thing that the LCD screen does by reducing brightness, can that feature be turned off? That would be very annoying if you were reading a large chunk of text.

PS. There's a typo on page 3, currently says "since no airflow could not be felt at the bottom even with the system running full tilt."; either the "no" or the "not" shouldn't be there.

Good to see you finally giving macs some attention .

About some of your power and screen troubles, like those stated in "Much of the power savings in the low power mode seems to come from a reduction in the brightness of the LCD screen, which drops to the lowest possible brightness. This sometimes got quite irritating, since the low power mode sometimes kicked in while reading a large block of text on a web page and the mouse would have to be moved around to boost the brightness back up." : have you played around with the energy/power settings on the System Preferences panel?

Undoubtedly, the iMac is one of the most silent, power efficient and powerful computers out there, as you've discovered.

Congratulations for your article.

The only glitch I have with this system -- and I think someone else pointed it out in one of the iMac threads in here -- is the blank area underneath the screen. It looks a bit silly and out of place. I wonder if it would look better if it was thicker, but shorter. Go slim bezel!

that was the first thing that caught my eye. that HUGE WHITE blank space below the actual screen itself. they should have put somthing here to make it seem like it has an actual use for being their. like inputs or buttons or lights or somthin.

ive always had a thing for apples, but never owned one. just never had the money to keep my PC's up to date and buy a mac.

i do however always recommend macs to people who dont know anything about computers. like my parents n shit. it'll do what they want. surf the net and check email.

I don't think that was the most fortunate use of the admittedly popular phrase...

Must've been the old dude, right?

An aside about bylines at SPCR: Devon spent a lot more time with the iMac, he worked it long enough to have to deal with the right button issue, and he wrote 98% of the review. That's what's meant when the byline says "by so-and-so with who-and-who" The first person credited did the bulk of the writing, the with person helped. When it says "and" then the first person is the primary author, but got lots of help from the second.

If you wish to try Mac OS X you can do it with a PC. To learn how to do it go to www.osx86project.org.

I'm doing it with an Asus board and a Celeron D 331 and it runs smooth.

After that I think you'll be hooked on OS X and you'll see Macs with different eyes and buy one.

"The only glitch I have with this system -- and I think someone else pointed it out in one of the iMac threads in here -- is the blank area underneath the screen. It looks a bit silly and out of place. I wonder if it would look better if it was thicker, but shorter. Go slim bezel!"

I think this applies only to the 17 inch iMac.

If you look at the dimensions of the 20 inch iMac, you will see that it is more rectangular, while the 17 inch iMac has an odd, squarish profile.

Uh, not according to the picture I found on the ordering page (one of the few with pictures of the 20", surprisingly):



It's a bit better; but still looks odd to me.

I'm puzzled... Why don't they use 2.5" HDDs ?

Those power consumption figures are amazing for a whole dual core system; I guess they are close to laptop figures!

I would have liked to have seen some sound recordings posted, especially since the system is in effect a closed box and there is no easy way of tweaking anything to shave a dB here or there; in this situation the subjective noise quality is paramount. Admittedly, the system is very quiet but if I were thinking of buying one I’d like to hear what the hard drive sounds like when stressed.

It sounds a very impressive piece of kit.

Perhaps because Apple had difficulty sourcing 160 GB (17") and 250 GB (20") laptop drives for cheap?

Heck, they're even offering 0.5 TB if you're willing to cough up the cash.

It's expensive but it exists... 160GB 2.5"
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article298-page1.html

With what as been said so far I don't know how the "typical" iMac user would need 250 or 500GB.
There's always external storage... but oh well, it's quiet as it is. I was just curious to why...


Oh and they could also have a version without the X1600, say a X1300 or something IGP for even lower power consumption! I reckon it would work for most people who would just use it to browse the 'Net / do office work.

So...the "typical" iMac user just browses the Net and do some office work.

That's a bit presumptuous, sorry to say.

If you search for several of the reviews made around the iMac Core Duo, you'll see its as powerful or even more than the best Pentium D 900 series and challenges the much more costly AMD FX series.

No need to make this thread a PC vs Mac battle...
Maybe you didn't understand what rpsgc wrote?

From the review:



Now take it as you will. I still can't see how I implied, in any way, that iMacs were inferior to PCs. And how is that accomplished by HDD size alone?

I'll even reiterate: Unless the user has a PVR / buttloads of pr0n / huge media library OR does movie editing ... they don't need 500GB. That's what I said.

Great review! Made me want one of those ...

Someone suggested that they should use 2.5" hard drives, but I really can't see the point of using a slower, more expensive drive with significant less storage capacity with only a barely noticeable (for most people that is) noise difference. Maybe a silent seeker can change the HDD to a 2.5" himself?

Frankly, Mac users are probably using P2P-software to download music, movies, games, apps (pr0n!) as much as non-Mac users. So a big hard drive is probably good marketing for Apple and makes them sell more Imacs.

Fine... no point in beating a dead horse

Greetings,

The 17" iMac is the quietest computer I have heard since...a 286, I think. The PS and hard drive in my 486 made a lot more noise -- and went a lot slower, too. I actually had no problems with either the scroll ball, or the right button...though I would have to get more used to how the Mac OS works -- it has changed a lot since the days of my Mac IIcx. (Which was also very quiet, come to think of it!)

Typo Patrol: on the front page lead in:

What about Intel based Mac mini? Is it at least as silent as this iMac?

With regards to the higher power usage even in idle mode in Windows: Maybe Apple underclocks the graphics card in OS X? That's what they're doing on the new Powerbooks ("MacBook Pros").

Exactly what I thought...

My only issue with this is that this is not a desktop. Its a laptop on a stand. In other words, you can't upgrade this mother.

So in a couple years you just toss it and get a new one if you want to run a newish computer game.

As opposed to replacing "just" the motherboard, CPU, graphics card and RAM in a desktop?

edit: okay, being forced to upgrade the LCD -- now there's a drawback. Didn't think of it at first.

Also the stuff you mentioned is about $600 for descent stuff. Thats still less than $1500. Plus I hate having to tell people, nope, you can't upgrade that. Just toss it or use it the way it is.

As a Mac user, I agree with you on that one. When I switched to Macs 1.5 years ago, I was afraid it would bother me, but it actually doesn't. In PC world, I was used to upgrade things because something newer was available, but with a Mac, I just don't feel the need for upgrade. It's like not feeling the need to upgrade your fridge. And actually, that is much nicer than constantly having the feeling that your computer is outdated because something newer appears every 2 weeks.
It's also sort of an ironic luck that games for Mac are way behind those for windows.
So from a PC point of view, the non-upgradability of an iMac is an issue, but Mac owners are rarely bothered by it. And if you are, buy a Powermac. Not as silent as an iMac admittedly, but the way it's built makes you drool.

how easy is it to actually open up? .. do they go out of the way to make it hard, or easy?.
as u say its not upgradeable.. yes its not very easy but should upgrade as easily (i use that term losely) as a laptop.. u should be able to change the RAM and hard drive
apparently u will (may) be able to drop a merom into a mac mini.. so maybe this too?

Greetings,

The iMac's do support an external monitor. Also, you can upgrade the RAM and the hard drive, so what's the big deal? Like a laptop, it is not possible to upgrade the CPU, video, or the motherboard -- but since these are integral to the design, why would you want/need to?

Do you want to have a separate box on the desktop? Then get the Mac Mini. If you want expandability or upgradability, then wait for the CoreDuo Mac midtower. And if you don't like a super quiet, elegant and sleek machine, with a secure OS, all w/o any work on your part -- then build a PC; by all means!

By the way, on the cost comparisons, some things that may not have been taken into account: the iMac's built-in web cam, and it's built-in wireless networking. Also, the dual core CPU?