I knew it would just be a matter of time. Despite my best efforts to convince myself that I was completely happy with my G5 iMac, I knew deep down that I really wanted a new one. And over the last few days, I caved in. However, there was of course the perennial problem of how to pay for it. There was no way I could stretch to (or accomodate!) the 27-inch model, as that would just have been too much, but I thought that the entry-level 22-inch might be within my grasp. I knew that I would have to make sacrifices in order to meet my target.
Taking a leaf out of Olitee's book, I set about scouring the house for things that I could flog on eBay. I decided I'd have to part with my EeePC, and I knew I had a buyer lined up for my current iMac so already I was almost halfway there. I figured that seeing as I'd used the telephoto lens on my camera twice in the five years I'd had it that it could probably go, and then there was an assortment of quite decent computer bits that I didn't need any more. After much faffing with photos and descriptions, it was all up on eBay and to my pleasure it all sold first time.
The money that I made from all this was more than 75% of the way to the new iMac, so using tried-and-tested "LaceyMath" I thought I could justify the purchase bearing in mind the massive upgrade it would give me for what was now relatively little money. I went with the bog-standard 22-inch configuration, no messing about - 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM, 500GB hard drive, wireless keyboard and magic mouse. Pretty impressive specs for the entry-level machine really.
I ordered it on the Thursday afternoon, and it had been delivered by Friday afternoon. Getting it out of the box, I simply wasn't prepared for the comparative size difference between the existing 17-inch and the new 22-inch. It seems absolutely massive. I can only imagine what the 27-inch is like.
Anyway, the upshot is that I now have a beautiful new iMac sitting on my desk in front of me and it really is very impressive. The new LED screen is quite something, and the performance is superb. Where my old G5 used to take about 12 hours for Handbrake to encode a 2-hour DVD, this new machine can manage it in under an hour! I got nearly five years of use out of that old G5 (and it's still up and running nicely with its new owner) so I'm reckoning that this one will do me until about 2015!
