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Two 2.66GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon or one 2.33 Merom system?


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Not sure if it helps at this point, but I spent 2-3 weeks wracking my brains out trying to figure out which configuration or mix of parts would give me the best bang for the buck next week when my Wife and I go out and get Macs.

 

Our decision came down to the 24" iMac for me, and the 17" iMac with 1GB RAM in it for her. We're just getting them at the Apple Store here in Vegas, stock in the box, and I'll worry about the upgrades to RAM and whatnot myself later on. 1GB in each is more than enough to get us rolling for the moment till I can locate a good deal on 2x1GB sticks. Would love to get 3GB in mine though, but the price jump for a 2GB stick is insane right now. Let's hope that changes in the future.

 

Anyway, we wanted notebooks at first, then realized that we already have a Dell notebook and another one on the way, and older one I got a smokin' deal on, and we don't even take these out and about with us, so why spend so much money on more laptops that we'll just end up using here at home anyway.

 

So, the iMacs won out.

 

I understand the upgradeitis for some and the desire to keep adding onto the machines, but for me, the 24" iMac is the end of the line. I actually considered the MacPro for a few hours, did research, comparisons, benchmark info was all over the place, and it's a nice machine. But it's too big, too bulky, and too damned expensive for me at this time. The iMac does most everything in a single unit and it's not *that* much less powerful across the board.

 

Besides, when we get these iMacs, I'll give a shot at using Xgrid to link them together and then I'll be doing distributed computing across the 4 cores of both machines total. Should be pretty cool if I can get it working right.

 

We'll see what happens. :compress:

 

bb

 

ps

About the video resolution question: when you switch the resolution on the 24" iMac, it doesn't expand to fill the screen, so no worries. If you choose 1024x768, from what I've seen you end up with a 1024x768 "window" smack dab in the center of the LCD that's the correct resolution. I don't know if that is a user adjustable setting, so you could turn the expansion on, but if so then you'd end up getting the crappy large images that are pixelated to hell and back.

 

It might be a 24" LCD, but I can't stand that pixelation. I'll be happy with a 1024x768 or whatever resolution "window" in the middle of the LCD. Works for me.

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