Just when I thought it was safe to put away my checkbook….

My wife has decided she wants one of the new iMacs. Since I’m the official “computer administrator” in the family, I’m in charge of buying one (and paying for it). The Apple Store here says they’ll have them in stock on Sept 14th, so you can expect us to go down not too long after that and take a look. I hadn’t planned on buying any new computers this year…except one for my sister...so this is throwing a kink in my financial planning. What’s even worse, I’m looking at buying one for me, too, but I do plan sell my dual 1Ghz G4 PowerMac and its 20 inch Apple Cinema display to help pay for it. (I’m want $1900 for them together. Anyone in the family who wants this set-up, talk to me! We can work out terms…just don’t expect much of a break in the price.)

I may stagger the buys so I don’t have to deal with this all at once. I’ll get my wife’s first so I can give her G4 flat panel iMac to my sister. And then get a G5 for me. But all that really depends upon whether we like them as much as we think we’re going to. The new iMac’s inability to position the screen vertically may be a major drawback. We won’t know until we get some hands on at the Apple Store.

As for which ones we’re getting, we’ll both be getting 1.8 Ghz G5 models. I plan on buying her the 17 inch version (She’s been using a 15 inch flat panel iMac.) and me the 20 inch version (I’ve been using a 20 inch screen.). Hopefully, I will be able to get the money out of the dual 1Ghz PowerMac and the 20 inch Apple Cinema LCD I want. It’ll make the whole thing more palatable financially. As it is, I’ll be paying for these things through all of next year!

BTW, once I get my hands on one of these, I’ll add the benchmarks to the AMD/G4/G5 Shootout article on my website, as well as full benchmarks for a dual 2.5 Ghz G5 PowerMac when I can get ahold of one of those.