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For six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul



Wednesday, January 25, 2006

First iMac Core Duo Report

I've been testing out the new iMac for a few days now, and have nothing dramatic to report. In operation, the iMac is very similar to the other Macs I've owned, including my current notebook, a 1.33 GHz 12-inch PowerBook, and my previous Mac desktop, a 1 GHz 17-inch iMac G4. This iMac features a 2 GHz Core Duo processor, 1 GB of RAM, a 250 GB hard drive, a SuperDrive, and a 256 MB ATI 1600XL video card with a 20-inch widescreen display. One might think of it as a high-end notebook with a large display; the screen is smaller than the one on my desktop PC, but is brighter and arguably "nicer" looking. Overall, it's a sharp looking machine.

From a performance standpoint, I've been a bit disappointed. General performance is fine: The bundled applications, iLife '06, and Microsoft Office 2004 all appear to run pretty well, though I haven't yet completely imported all my digital media files and thoroughly tested iPhoto, iMovie, and iDVD. I've been thoroughly disappointed by the performance of games. I installed the demo versions of DOOM 3, Halo, and Unreal Tournament 2004 on both the iMac and my PowerBook, and the performance is actually better on the PowerBook in each case. This tells me that I need to wait for universal binaries on such titles, which I guess makes sense. But I have the feeling that many games (like Halo?) will never be ported. That's a shame.

I've already seen some application incompatibilities. Flip4Mac, which Microsoft recommends as an alternative for Windows Media Player, does not install at all. And Final Cut Express HD, from Apple, installs but won't run, noting that my machine does not have a required hardware component (an AGP video card). Cute. I'm sure I'll see an update by March, but I'm equally sure I'll have to pay for it, which stinks.

Looking over what's been written online about dual-booting with Windows, Linux, and other non-OS X systems, it's pretty clear that it will be a while before such a thing is simple or even possible. I'll keep waiting, since I really don't have much to offer technically in that department. In the meantime, I can at least get this thing configured and set up properly. More later...

Related: My Apple iMac Core Duo photo gallery
[ Posted at 8:40 AM | Permalink ]

 



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