Last week I was pretty set on getting a 27″ iMac. It was just a matter of receiving my tax return, saving up for a couple more weeks, and waiting for the flickering and jaundiced screen issues to be sorted out. Last week Amazon also had a 30GB OCZ SSD for $100 after a $30 rebate, AKA $130 after you don’t send the rebate in. I jumped on the deal because I’ve been interested in SSDs mostly from reading about Paul Statimatou’s experiences.Today I’ll be receiving 4GB of RAM. And this weekend I should (depending on UPS 3-Day speed from NewEgg) be getting an HP LP2475w 24″ monitor. That iMac’s going on hold.
After installing the hard drive, I tried to install OS X. I couldn’t find the discsthat came with my laptop so I borrowed Junior’s. After making the usual disc reading noises for an unusual amount of time, I was presented with a message saying the OS couldn’t be installed on my system. Cool. Turns out the discs are locked to the specific configuration that they came with. Which makes total sense. (I re-read that sentence and it comes off as sarcastic. I really believe it makes sense.)
Originally I planned to get the lowest end 27″ iMac. Compared to my MacBook, I’d be going from a 2.2GHz dual-core CPU to a 3.06GHz dual-core CPU, 2GB of RAM to 4GB of RAM, and shared video to dedicated video. But I’d lose the SSD. (Yes, you can upgrade iMac hard drives. No, I’m not comfortable using suction cups to pull the glass panel and screen off of a machine that has display issues possibly related to factory assembly.) Losing the snappiness from the SSD would balance out everything gained by updating.
I dragged my mom to the Navy Exchange to get Snow Leopard. (Saving $3 on tax wasn’t the issue; no other store in Oak Harbor would have Apple products.) They happen to carry the 27″ iMac. So I finally saw one in person. For some reason I was expecting the size to be sort of overwhelming (like when I first saw a 30″ display in an Apple Store), but it didn’t exactly dwarf the 24″ display next to it. Still, it’s gorgeous. And I did the math on the tax savings, and $170 saved is a lot more than the $3 for OS X. I stared at it for a few minutes and imagined it on my desk just looking huge next to things like my stapler and pen holder. Then the screen flickered and I remembered why I wasn’t asking my mom the specifics of home layaway.
I got the disc, installed OS X and a bunch of applications and then tried launching them to see what all this was for. I wasn’t disappointed. Responsiveness is the term I saw a lot reading about SSDs. Boot speed and program launching are where it’s most noticeable. But I restart probably twice a month so that doesn’t matter. But I open up different programs all the time, and most things open up instantly while some take a bounce or two to open.
Originally I planned to get the lowest end 27″ iMac. Compared to my MacBook, I’d be going from a 2.2GHz dual-core CPU to a 3.06GHz dual-core CPU, 2GB of RAM to 4GB of RAM, and shared video to dedicated video. But I’d lose the SSD. (Yes, you can upgrade iMac hard drives. No, I’m not comfortable using suction cups to pull the glass panel and screen off of a machine that has display issues possibly related to factory assembly.) Losing the snappiness from the SSD would balance out everything gained by updating.
As for the snappiness I’m talking about, here’s some before and after video of my system. A fresh OS X install helps. And so does going from Leopard to Snow Leopard. But you’ll have to trust me when I say that the SSD is doing the heavy lifting. I’m sold. SSDs have come a long way from being $999 MacBook Air options. If saving 9 seconds when opening Photoshop sounds boring to you, check your address bar man—welcome to boringperson.com.
(I intended for this to be about my new SSD but then it turned into me talking myself into my decision to not get an iMac. Another bonus: I won’t need a $150 converter to connect my Xbox 360 to the display [http://www.atlona.com/Atlona-DVI-to-Mini-DisplayPort-Converter-p-17859.html].)