And new ones are prohibitively expensive. So this machine may end up replacing it:
(Update: Frig it I did it. Waited a day and got an IMPROVED system. Memory upgrade to 1600, went to a higher wattage and quality power supply, went with a P67 motherboard over the H67. P67 gives me the option to overclock while the H67 would give me the on chip graphics. Ill go with the option to bad ass it a bit. Yeah the memory can go faster than I need it to, but that means itll be useful if I decide to keep upgrading the system over the years. Also the hard disk got another 140 gigs I dont need, but its got 64 megs of cache, and has twice the gbs per second. All for 20 bones more than the top option.)
Why did I do this?
Well for the second time since owning my Intel based iMac, the hard drive died on me. And its the THIRD time I have now lost all my data on the machine. (Though this time I had backups should I choose to fix the big Mac and thus recover everything.) I dearly, dearly love the all in one design and the sheer JOY of OSX but the lack of games access and the massive price of Macs finally took its toll on me. I will probably get it fixed in the spring as my work computer replacing the little G5 machine I am posting this on, but I can't deal with it any more. A new iMac with similar specs to the machines below is like 2500-3000 dollars and its designed so us end users can't fix the smegging things easily.
You want to see how I would have to replace the hard disk in the Mac?
SUCTION CUPS? REALLY?
Yes. Suction cups, torx screws, a little energon, a lot of luck, and a whole lot of fear. My Applecare warranty ended in the summer so I would probably have to pay 200-300 dollars to have this done only to probably have the dang machine do it again to me in a couple years.
With a desktop PC I can pretty much drag and drop components to my heart's content.
Want to go to 8 gigs of RAM? Awesome. 5 minutes of work.
Want to get a faster video card, or go dual card? I can do that too same timeframe.
Multiple hard drives or even dual drive RAID formation? No problem.
Even a faster CPU is pretty cake. Its possibly the ONLY major upgrade I might have a shop do though. Just wait 18 months and put in the latest Core i7 hexcore or even octocore for 200 or so and my machine will be even longer lived.
I was hoping my big iMac would be my main computer till at least 2012 or so. I guess not. Instead it will be the special little noisy guy below. With regular upgrades and some canny pricechecking from newegg I could be running this comfortably till 2014, (the big FOUR OH GOD SO OOOLD) maybe even 2015.
| 1 x Case | Xion Echo Gaming Case - Blue | |||
| 1 x Processor | Intel® Core™ i5-2500K Processor (4x 3.30GHz/6MB L3 Cache) | |||
| 1 x Processor Cooling | Liquid CPU Cooling System [SOCKET-1155 & 1156] - Enermax Silent High Performance Fan Upgrade | |||
| 1 x Memory | 4 GB [2 GB X2] DDR3-1333 Memory Module - Corsair XMS3 Dominator | |||
| 1 x Video Card | ATI Radeon HD 5770 - 1GB - Single Card | |||
| 1 x Video Card Brand | Major Brand Powered by ATI or NVIDIA | |||
| 1 x Free Stuff | [Free Game Voucher] - Star Trek Online - Free with Purchase of Selected Intel Core i5/i7 Processor or SSD | |||
| 1 x Motherboard | Gigabyte GA-H67MA-UD2H | |||
| 1 x Power Supply | 600 Watt -- Standard | |||
| 1 x Primary Hard Drive | 500 GB HARD DRIVE -- 16M Cache, 7200 RPM, 3.0Gb/s - Single Drive | |||
| 1 x Optical Drive | 24X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive - Blue | |||
| 1 x Sound Card | 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard | |||
| 1 x Network Card | Onboard LAN Network (Gb or 10/100) | |||
| 1 x Operating System | Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium + Office Starter 2010 (Includes basic versions of Word and Excel) - 64-Bit | |||
| 1 x Keyboard | Thermaltake eSPORTS CHALLENGER PRO Gaming Keyboard - Black | |||
| 1 x Monitor | 22" LCD 1920x1080 -- Sceptre X226W-1920 (21.5" Viewable) | |||
| 1 x Monitor Cable | 15 ft. DVI to DVI Cable (DVI-D Dual Link, resolution up to 2048x1536 ) | |||
| 1 x Speaker System | 2.1 Channel Stereo Super Bass Subwoofer Speaker System | |||
| 1 x Wireless Network Adapter | Zonet ZEW2545 802.11n 130Mbps Wireless USB Adapter | |||
| 1 x Advanced Build Options | Specialized Advanced Packaging System - Protect your investment during transportation! | |||
| 1 x Advanced Build Options | Tuniq TX-2 High Performance Thermal Compound - The best interface between your CPU and the heatsinks | |||
| 1 x Warranty | Standard Warranty Service - Standard 3-Year Limited Warranty + Lifetime Technical Support | |||
| 1 x Rush Service | Rush Service Fee (not shipping fee) - Deferred Delivery (Ship Out in 15 Business Days) - 5% OFF on systems over $999 (Coupon Code: defer) | |||
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