Fancy new iMac

I must say it has been quite some time since I last used a decent computer. There was a short amount of time back in New Zealand when I put together a really nice PC with a decent graphics cards and processor, which let me play the latest games. But alas, I had to dis-assemble and resell the parts to save up for my trip to Canada, and revert back to my 2003 Dick Smith Electronics piece of junk. If only I knew how much worse things were going to go from there... For the time after in Canada, I mostly was using an old 400Mhz Dell laptop, which had trouble even keeping up with browsing the internet because of the tiny amount of RAM it had. Anyway enough complaining.

For a few days now I have been the proud owner of an iMac computer. The specs are as follows:

20" widescreen
2.66Ghz Core 2 Duo with 6MB cache
2GB 800Mhz RAM
256MB ATI Radeon 2600 Pro Graphics
300GB HDD

The graphics card isn't that awesome, lagging a little behind the Nvidia 8600GT I had on my old computer but with Apple you don't get a lot of choice with things like that. All the other specs I'm fairly happy with, however.

I've always wanted to get an Apple but have never really being able to afford it, with PC hardware always being better priced. With most items of Apple, you can expect to pay quite a bit more and have less choice when it comes to the hardware, but what most people don't take into account is the cohesiveness of Apple's lines and the experience that goes along with it. I've used Apple computers extensively through Polytech, with them being the prime computer of choice when it came to any kind of Graphical Design or Video Editing. Although having an Apple computer as your own is an even nicer experience, seeing as how you can customize it to fit exactly what you want to do with it.

I enjoy how polished the interface is, and how everything seems to be a lot more efficient. Want to install some software? Just double click on the downloaded file, then drag the program into your applications. Want to pop in a movie or watch some tv shows on your harddrive? Just sit back and use the included remote control to choose your files, and even turn the volume up and down. The whole process is simplified and feels very slick in execution. I believe all of this polish and ease of use makes it worth spending the extra money if you have it available.

And for those who absolutely require Windows, if for nothing else but to play the latest games, you can install Windows XP or Vista (if you really wanted to) onto a partition on the HDD through Bootcamp, which can be really handy. Apple even includes all the drivers you need. The only problem I encountered trying Bootcamp was that Windows XP didn't recognize the wireless Bluetooth mouse and keyboard, but apparently that is a common Windows problem. This way you can have non-emulated access to your hardware for games or any applications that wouldn't work on Mac OSX.

So for anyone on the fence about the whole Apple vs PC thing, I'd recommend getting an Apple for most people if you can afford one. Unless of course you're a hardcore gamer, or someone on a budget. But even in saying that, the inclusion of Bootcamp is a wise choice for allowing owners of Apple hardware to run Windows if they need to, and also a lot of the iMac line is actually quite comparable to similar PC models. I know that I'm surely not regretting getting an Apple.