Let me first start off saying I am biased. As a long time Mac fanatic and Microsoft hater, I beleive Mac OS X is far superior to any Windows OS. I do beleive in competition and I always try to approach new products with a neutral attitude. Now that I got that out of the way, let us continue.
After moving back in with my parents after a 2 year hiatus and and a 4 month tour around the U.S., it was only a matter of time before I would convert them. They were using a Dell 3Ghz, 512 RAM and XP. Needless to say, it needed more RAM, but I knew it wasn't worth the investment. The graphics card was worthless as well. It was filled to the brim with crapware and took forever to boot up or shut down. In a word, worthless.
I, myself own a 12" Powerbook G4 and a heavily modified PowerMac G4. So, when the new iMacs were revealed, I knew it was time to pounce. After talking it up, we took a field trip to my old Apple Store, where we had a meet and greet with the newcomer. The family was impressed to say the least, and of course they were won over with photo booth.
Now the iMac is at home and running. We have three admin accounts for the parents and I, while my two little bros have standard accounts. Out of the box, I have been amazed with its speed and power. With only a gig of RAM, it multi-tasks like a super computer. For example, importing a cd, playing music, chatting on ichat with a video conference running through rendezvous to my PowerMac G4, running a couple widgets and switching back and forth between admin accounts to scan images in. It did was amazing. And this was done in the first hour out of the box. Ripping a DVD usually is an overnight process on a PowerPC mac. With the new iMac, it was averaging 30fps!!!
We also purchased the new Command and Conquer 3 game. Our iMac was the step up for the 20inch model. So, it is a 2.4. Ghz Core2Duo with 256Vram. I figured C&C3 would be a good test. Not so much. I cranked the graphics up full blast and the iMac laughed back at me. If it could have talked, it would asked me if that's all I got. The game looks amazing in full detail on that glossy glass screen.
I have also noticed the camera is much sharper and mic by default is a lot more sensitive. This is nice because it is fixed and cannot move much. The speakers are not too shabby either. I opted for the old Altec speakers simply because they match the paint job and look nice next to the iMac.
The only problems I've had making the switch is on the windows side of things, go figure. Apple has made it a snap to upgrade from an old mac to a newer one and transfer your old data. In fact, it makes a clone of your old computer if you want it to. Moving music off of the windows computer has been a challenge so far. I think I'll have to suck it up and just send it over aim or to my iPod connect via Airport Base station that the windows sees as a remote server. I can't get XP to recognize any Mac partitions and Disc Utility will not make a windows partition. They agree to disagree.
The family has been blown away by the performance alone। Not to mention the ease of use, I constantly have to remind them there are simpler steps for their actions now, they are now freed from windows slavery. I will have a follow up with a more in-depth review that will involve our AppleTV in about a month.
