[Review] 24 inch iMac 2.8ghz

By +StevoFC
in Member Reviews

 Share

Recommended Posts

Grand Master

+StevoFC MVC

Posted
  • Author
  • MVC
Posted
Nice review Stevo. It's a nice line up but I'm still doubting which setup I should take. Probably the same as yours I guess. You've been a couple days further, how do you feel about the iMac now?

I'm really happy with it. It performs great. I've been running the folding@home smp client for almost 3 full days now and even that doesn't slow it down. I can't complain about it at all.

I don't see any reason to even consider the nvidia 8800 unless you plan on playing games on it and want the highest settings possible.

Grand Master

+StevoFC MVC

Posted
  • Author
  • MVC
Posted
iMacs are simply amazing machines :) I've had mine for almost six months now and it has never put a foot wrong for me. I can see myself choosing to go for Macs over regular PCs for a long time.

It's actually annoying now for me to use my pc at work because I am so used to OSX here at home. I have absolutely no reason to purchase a new pc other than from Apple anymore.

Grand Master

+Frank B. Subscriber²

Posted
  • Subscriber²
Posted
It's actually annoying now for me to use my pc at work because I am so used to OSX here at home. I have absolutely no reason to purchase a new pc other than from Apple anymore.

I know the feeling. It took me about a week to get used to OS X. Ever since Windows feels alien to me.

Grand Master

Quillz

Posted
Posted
I know the feeling. It took me about a week to get used to OS X. Ever since Windows feels alien to me.

Unlike some, I don't have an issue with any OS. I use Windows, Mac OS X and Linux regularly and all feel "at home" to me.

Grand Master

what

Posted
Posted
I think the thin keyboard is the greatest part of the computer. :D

Maybe :p When it was first described as being lifted straight from a Macbook, I was a little weary, but it's the best keyboard I've ever used. It's got a great feel to it, and because it's so thin, you can actually use the desk as a rest for your wrists. AND because the keys cover up the gaps, the only dirt you can see is on top of the keys and on the aluminium. I have to say I'm not fond of the smaller bluetooth version, but the wired one is simply excellent.

Grand Master

Quillz

Posted
Posted
Maybe :p When it was first described as being lifted straight from a Macbook, I was a little weary, but it's the best keyboard I've ever used. It's got a great feel to it, and because it's so thin, you can actually use the desk as a rest for your wrists. AND because the keys cover up the gaps, the only dirt you can see is on top of the keys and on the aluminium. I have to say I'm not fond of the smaller bluetooth version, but the wired one is simply excellent.

I have the wireless Bluetooth version and think it's great. The function key sits in the lower left corner, making it easy to access keyboard functions.

Grand Master

Wannes

Posted
Posted
I'd say maybe it feels cheap and dirty, but not alien.

That's personal. When I started using Mac and had to switch back to Windows I also found it weird and frustrating, nothing seemed logical anymore but I guess it would be the other way around as well.

Experienced

Aperture

Posted
Posted
I duel boot between Vista and OS X . I think each one has it's pluses and minuses. For instances the UI maybe better in OS X but some reason cleartype is looks better for me then the equivalent in OS X.

I'm in agreement with the cleartype. Although the functionality and ease of use with OS X makes me choose that at boot time, over Vista.

Grand Master

giga Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted
I duel boot between Vista and OS X . I think each one has it's pluses and minuses. For instances the UI maybe better in OS X but some reason cleartype is looks better for me then the equivalent in OS X.

It's a personal preference, but I will handily disagree. Typeface preservation is a high priority for me and this is where OS X does it right instead of adhering to a pixel grid. Of course this does lead to some "blur" in smaller characters with sub-pixel rendering, but it's a sacrifice I'll take to get the correct fonts.

http://jontangerine.com/log/2007/11/comple...-cleartype-miss

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2007/06/12.html

http://sarathc.wordpress.com/2007/06/14/sa...ixel-rendering/

Experienced

MMaster23

Posted
Posted

I've always found the fonts to look weird and "wrong" in OSX. Perhaps it's the Windows brainwash, but I really like Windows font, Truetype and most of all the new Vista fonts. Really complete the UI.

Perhaps it's wrong and OSX officially has it right from a typography point of view, but I likes it .. very much :)

Enthusiast

sk3

Posted
Posted

argh

I'm so jealous about your new iMac :D

My current Pc's are my beautifull macbook pro 3,1 C2D 2.4Ghz with 4GB ram and an aging 478 CPU 3.2 Prescott with 2GB ram and a X1650pro (got some usefull upgrades since i work in a computer shop :p and it has been running for 5 years 24/7 :D)

I'll definitely gotta buy an iMac on christmas. I might go for the high end with 750GB option (aditional ram i can get it much cheaper than apple). But i've yet to find an benchmark for the 8800GS (or 8800M GTS like some call it). I want to see what that baby can really do before buying.

does anyone got some benchmarks so we can see what it truly worths for gaming? (i actually have a PS3 but i also play games on PC but not that much anymore lol)

Collaborator

LaXu

Posted
Posted
I've always found the fonts to look weird and "wrong" in OSX. Perhaps it's the Windows brainwash, but I really like Windows font, Truetype and most of all the new Vista fonts. Really complete the UI.

Perhaps it's wrong and OSX officially has it right from a typography point of view, but I likes it .. very much :)

I have to agree that Vista seems to do smaller font sizes better but it also totally fails on REALLY large fonts. There seem to be artifacts and non-smoothed sections on very large fonts. Of course, you don't encounter these very often in normal use but Cleartype does still have some issues.

OSX on the other hand does badly on bold letters. They easily become somewhat blurry. To me it seems like OSX's font smoothing aims for what letters would look like if they were printed in a book, whereas Windows' ClearType is adapted to screen viewing.

And yes, the Mighty Mouse is a terrible POS for a mouse.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

  • Posts

    • The Trump administration doesn't want you to use OpenAI's GPT-5.6 without its approval

      By excalpius · Posted

      Ignoring the fact that this "colony" kicked the empire of King George's arse during those early years... You are confusing the First Industrial Revolution (which was pulled out of some butt-hurt Brit historian's arse) with the Second Industrial Revolution (aka the Technological Revolution), which transitioned the world from the UK sailing Empire to the USA as a superpower. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution
    • OpenAI announces GPT‑5.6 Sol, its next-generation flagship model beating Claude Mythos 5

      By pradeepviswav · Posted

      OpenAI announces GPT‑5.6 Sol, its next-generation flagship model beating Claude Mythos 5 by Pradeep Viswanathan Credit: OpenAI OpenAI today announced a limited preview of its new GPT-5.6 model series, which includes the Sol, Terra, and Luna models targeting different price points. GPT-5.6 Sol is the flagship model targeted at demanding reasoning and agentic workloads. GPT-5.6 Terra is positioned as a balanced model for everyday work, featuring performance competitive with GPT-5.5 while being half the cost. GPT-5.6 Luna is the fastest and most affordable model, delivering strong capability at a lower price point. Unlike previous model releases from OpenAI, GPT-5.6 is starting with a limited preview for a small group of trusted partners due to U.S. government restrictions. As expected, OpenAI previewed its plans and the models' capabilities to the U.S. government ahead of launch, and the government asked OpenAI to limit the first wave of access to select partners. OpenAI also mentioned in the official announcement blog post that it does not believe this type of government access process should become the long-term default. OpenAI highlighted that GPT-5.6 Sol comes with a robust safety stack featuring improved protections for higher-risk activity, sensitive cyber requests, and repeated misuse. The company also spent several weeks pressure-testing the system and hardening it against real-world attacks. On the capability side, as expected, GPT-5.6 Sol is OpenAI’s strongest model yet. It delivers better results in agentic performance across coding, biology, and cybersecurity. On the Terminal-Bench 2.1 benchmark, which tests command-line workflows requiring planning, iteration, and tool coordination, GPT-5.6 Sol sets a new record with a score of 91.9%, beating Anthropic's Claude Mythos 5. Additionally, GPT-5.6 introduces a new "max" reasoning effort for even deeper reasoning. The new "ultra" mode uses subagents to accelerate complex work beyond what a single agent can handle. Pricing starts at $5 per million input tokens and $30 per million output tokens for Sol. Terra costs $2.50 for input and $15 for output, while Luna costs $1 for input and $6 for output. GPT-5.6 comes with more predictable prompt caching, including support for explicit cache breakpoints and a 30-minute minimum cache life. Sol will also launch on Cerebras in July at speeds up to 750 tokens per second for select customers. OpenAI plans to make GPT-5.6 Sol, Terra, and Luna broadly available in ChatGPT, Codex, and the API in the coming weeks.
    • The Trump administration doesn't want you to use OpenAI's GPT-5.6 without its approval

      By monterxz · Posted

      I'm not sure if you are trolling because I saw people saying this with the straight face, but there were no United States of America when industrial revolution started, just United Colonies 🤣 p.s. I'm not British, so I'm not offended.
    • Firefox 152.0.3

      By James W. · Posted

      Glad I uninstalled this incredibly buggy browser. Looking at that changelog, they clearly don't test their updates at all.
    • UniGetUI 2026.2.2

      By Copernic · Posted

      UniGetUI 2026.2.2 by Razvan Serea UniGetUI is an application whose main goal is to create an intuitive GUI for the most common CLI package managers for Windows 10 and Windows 11, such as Winget, Scoop and Chocolatey. With UniGetUI, you'll be able to download, install, update and uninstall any software that's published on the supported package managers — and so much more. UniGetUI features Install, update and remove software from your system easily at one click: UniGetUI combines the packages from the most used package managers for windows: WinGet, Chocolatey, Scoop, Pip, Npm and .NET Tool. Discover new packages and filter them to easily find the package you want. View detailed metadata about any package before installing it. Get the direct download URL or the name of the publisher, as well as the size of the download. Easily bulk-install, update or uninstall multiple packages at once selecting multiple packages before performing an operation Automatically update packages, or be notified when updates become available. Skip versions or completely ignore updates in a per-package basis. Manage your available updates at the touch of a button from the Widgets pane or from Dev Home pane with UniGetUI Widgets. The system tray icon will also show the available updates and installed package, to efficiently update a program or remove a package from your system. Easily customize how and where packages are installed. Select different installation options and switches for each package. Install an older version or force to install a 32bit architecture. [But don't worry, those options will be saved for future updates for this package] Share packages with your friends to show them off that program you found. Here is an example: Hey @friend, Check out this program! Export custom lists of packages to then import them to another machine and install those packages with previously-specified, custom installation parameters. Setting up machines or configuring a specific software setup has never been easier. Backup your packages to a local file to easily recover your setup in a matter of seconds when migrating to a new machine Devolutions UniGetUI 2026.2.2 changelog: This release marks the completion of UniGetUI's migration from WinUI to Avalonia. With the remaining WinUI components and dependencies now removed, UniGetUI is fully powered by Avalonia. This update also brings Windows 11 Snap Layouts support, refined styling throughout the application, improved log viewing, new illustrations, and significantly smaller release packages. Highlights Further refined the Avalonia user interface to better match WinUI styling and behavior across package lists, navigation elements, dialogs, and controls. Added support for Windows 11 Snap Layouts when hovering the maximize button, matching the behavior of native Windows applications. Added illustrations for empty and loading package list states, improving visual feedback throughout the application. Improved the operation log window so automatic scrolling no longer interrupts users when reviewing previous log entries. Reduced installer and application package sizes, resulting in smaller downloads and a significantly leaner Windows distribution. User Interface Improvements Improved package list styling, column headers, backgrounds, hover states, and selection indicators for a more polished and consistent experience. Refined sidebar navigation and segmented controls to better align with modern Windows design patterns. Improved package tag badges and icon presentation throughout the application. Updated several labels, placeholders, and interface elements for improved clarity and consistency. Removed the remaining WinUI-specific styling dependencies, further consolidating the application around Avalonia. Windows Improvements Added native Windows 11 Snap Layouts integration for the maximize button. Improved maximize button hover and pressed visual states to more closely match native Windows behavior. Performance & Reliability Reduced the size of Windows release packages by removing unnecessary runtime dependencies and optimizing published builds. Reduced installer size through improved compression settings. Simplified application dependencies and reduced overall maintenance complexity. Fixes Fixed log output auto-scrolling behavior when manually reviewing previous entries. Resolved various UI inconsistencies and styling issues across the Avalonia interface. Addressed several minor issues and edge cases throughout the application. Other Changes Dependency cleanup and project maintenance. Internal code refactoring and infrastructure improvements. Additional test coverage and build pipeline optimizations. Download: UniGetUI 64-bit | Portable | ~90.0 MB (Open Source) Download: UniGetUI ARM64 | Portable Links: UniGetUI Home Page | GitHub | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware

  • Recent Achievements

    • One Year In
      bernmeister earned a badge
      One Year In
    • Week One Done
      Scoobystu earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Week One Done
      tuben earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • First Post
      OffsetAbs earned a badge
      First Post
    • Reacting Well
      OffsetAbs earned a badge
      Reacting Well

  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      441
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      196
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      154
    4. 4
      FloatingFatMan
      71
    5. 5
      Steven P.
      67
    Show More

  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!