24 iMac purchase

[William Payne]

Thinking this morning about a new machine.  iMac 24"  Three questions.
Is there anything new on the horizon that will impact that machine?
Is there anything about the current machine that is a negative to purchasing?
Do folks but 'American' machines here or from the States?

[Col]

A US 24in iMac is the same as a Japan market one except for the keyboard, which is the JIS in the case of the Japanese one and the Apple Store or Apple online store will swap in a US one for free if you buy it from them.  I don7t know about the economics of importing from the US these days, or the warranty situation.

Several of my friends have iMac 20 or 24in models and they have nothing but good to say about them.  Fast with a beautiful display. 

I think the current iMacs came out around February 2008, so they are not due for a model update just yet.

I have heard that they are a bit tricky to replace the hard drive in, but so have most iMacs been - with the exception of the multi-colored slot loading models and the iMac G5.

As with any all-in-one machine there is the risk that a failure of the the display, the video card or the motherboard makes the whole thing not worth the cost of repairs.

Also the iMac is a consumer level machine and lacks the expandability and sheer performance of a Mac Pro - of course.

Colin

[William Payne]

Thanks, Colin.
Is there a place where we can retire older working machines?

[Tall Paul]

Thanks, Colin.
Is there a place where we can retire older working machines?

My house for one, Bill! Your old box will probably do Photoshop faster than my eMac. (Sail over to Hokko next month and you'll see why) On the other hand, Kmugger Hendrick is always on the lookout for retired Macs for people where he lives; and there are schools and groups all over the world that could find good uses for it.