A few questions on the iMac

Brodo Faggins

I'm running a PowerBook from 2004, and I'm long overdue for an upgrade. I consider myself Mac-savvy, but I haven't been keeping up with any of the new models, as I've strictly been a laptop kind of guy.

So a few questions:
1. I know the iMacs use laptop hard drives, and due to the slanted nature of their construction, does this increase the wear-and-tear?

2. Is the hard drive and RAM user-serviceable?

3. Any first-hand accounts of gaming on it? I play mostly Source games, TF2, L4D, etc, on my other computer, a Pentium 4 with an HD3850. How does the GT 120 compare to that?

Thanks for any responses

Jake!

1. I don't know that this is true. I'm pretty sure it's actually a 3.5" drive. Can't imagine this would affect wear and tear either way.

2. The ram is, the hard disk isn't regarded as 'user serviceable'.

3. I have a macbook pro currently, but before that I had a white iMac (the one from just before they went with Aluminium). Source games ran fine on that, so I'd imagine that you'd have zero trouble.

warmep

Jake! wrote: »

1. I don't know that this is true. I'm pretty sure it's actually a 3.5" drive. Can't imagine this would affect wear and tear either way.

2. The ram is, the hard disk isn't regarded as 'user serviceable'.

3. I have a macbook pro currently, but before that I had a white iMac (the one from just before they went with Aluminium). Source games ran fine on that, so I'd imagine that you'd have zero trouble.

1. Yes, it's 3.5"

2. This is true as well. Only thing you can change easily is the RAM. See here for details.

3. From what I've seen the GT 120 is a rebranded 9500 GT. The 9500 GT is better than the HD3850.

Ziggymon

Be careful when upgrading anything in the new imac models, that glass is really thin and easily breaks

ZackSchilling

Yeah, you'll need lint-free white gloves and a special suction cup tool to disassemble one of the new iMacs. The screen is thin, fragile, and held in place with neodymium magnets. You'll need to remove it to upgrade much more than the RAM.

PMAvers

Don't have one of the new models, but I've got one from a couple years ago. Seems to handle gaming fine, although with some of the latest high-end stuff it shows that it's long in the tooth. But, everything's still playable.

(I paid the bit extra to get the Radeon X1600 with 256 MB of RAM on it when I got it. That might've helped.)

Brodo Faggins

Awesome, thanks for the responses guys. I don't plan on upgrading the hard drive, as I use externals for storage and video editing. I guess I'll have to spring for the 24 inch with the GT 120 (even if that 4850 is tempting)