Hi guys.
Did something crazy today. Very much so. Even considering my current work status, I couldn't resist what I saw as a good deal. Before you read anything into it with the sale of AO, I have a relatively large income tax refund coming, and I've been wanting an UBER cheap laptop for tinkering. I saw this week's Best Buy advert today for an Athlon X2/64 2.1 loaded for $429.
Of course, being Best Buy, they were out of them within 2 hours of the advert's release, but I digress. It's not the laptop but what I saw stacked in the corner that got me in trouble...
Sitting in a dark and dreary corner were about a dozen 27" iMac machines with the 3.06ghz processor, 1TB drive, 4GB Ram, etc. Out of curiosity (and it's this point that I should have been shot) I asked for a price check.
The answer -- probably mis-marked -- was "$1499" which is $200 less than the Apple store, and $100 less than even MacMall after rebate. Trouble is -- and here's where I thought I was safe -- they didn't have one on display (The 27's might have been on hold for a Black Friday special???), and when I asked about the lack of display, the kid says quote... "why bother, it's the same, just bigger". Shhha... yeah, ok...
Anyway, having to go by work for something, I almost literally drove by the Apple store, so I stopped. Bad Wayne...! After playing with the display for a good 30 minutes and being impressed, I asked if they could match prices with anyone. They said "only locals", so I told them about the quote from Best Buy.
The Apple store verified by calling Best Buy and got the same quote, which was the same as the 21.5" 3.06/1TB/4GB at regular price so needless to say, I'm now the proud owner of a new iMac, and officially a complete moron for doing so.
This display on this thing is just PHENOMENAL. Just got through with a Call of Duty 4 session and cannot say "wow" loud enough. I have this browser open at 1200 pixels wide and I still have half the screen empty. I need to clean my desktop, as I have about 100 icons which filled the former 20" screen. Now it's less than half, meaning I can put off the desktop cleanup indefinitely.
It's also actually forcing me to move my head to see left-to-right...
Just opened an 8.1megapixel image and I can work on it without resizing or scrolling! Yay!
The CPU is also amazingly snappy, though I'm sure the 4GB of RAM helps.
Transfer of my stuff from old to new machine seemed to have gone without a hitch, but I'll reserve judgment until I encounter a problem, but so far, I'm in love.
Not sure about the new tiny laptop type wireless keyboard, or the wireless mouse but I do like not having to take up USB ports to use either. I just need an ergo keyboard, so will probably stick with that.
Serious question though...
Would any of you like to purchase an iMac? There's NOTHING wrong with it. It's a great machine and still supremely better and more usable than any Windows box, and it's quite a bargain really.
I just got the chance/opportunity to use my state income tax refund to buy the bigger toy and don't need two iMacs.
What I have is;
20" iMac (1920 x 1440 res) (white box)
2.16 Core2Duo processor
250 Gb drive
2 Gb RAM
Snow Leopard OS X (10.6)
iWork/iLife 09
Microsoft Office 2008, student edition
Anything else I can find, including an extra external 250 gb drive w/ps.
I've got the original kb and mouse, still in the packaging (I believe), and the average price on eBay seems to be about $700, but for you guys I could easily be persuaded to make a deal. I hate the idea of going to fleabay with it.
Sincerely,
Wayne
