{title}Right, here’s the thing. I bought my G5 iMac nearly two years ago now and I’ve been overall very happy with it, but lately there’s one thing which has been really beginning to bother me. The damn fan. It’s a revision A iMac (the one’s with the dodgy fans), so it’s a well documented problem which can’t be fixed. The problem is, it’s been getting much worse over this past year—it’s screaming loud right now—and to be honest, it’s getting to point when it’s even audible over music at full volume.

Well, I’ve gone and done it. Ordered my new 20" Intel iMac yesterday. After the heat of last week, coupled with the fact I needed to do quite a lot of intensive processor work on the machine, the fan noise was pretty much unbearable. Called Apple, they said it was ‘within accepted limits’. I guess if you’re only surfing the web and reading email, this might be the case. The new machine should be here on Wednesday. Can’t wait.

So, I’ve been giving the idea of upgrading to an Intel machine. Currently, there some available in the Apple Refurb Store for about ?900 (a saving of 26%). I’d of course have to chuck some extra RAM in there though. I’d probably get about ?500 for this machine on eBay, which makes a ?400 outlay for a brand new machine, with a whisper-quiet fan, very tempting.

The only thing which is currently stopping me is the Adobe Apps thing. Adobe will be releasing them in about a years time, which in itself isn’t too much of a problem I guess. I’d rather put up with a slightly slower Photoshop than a loud fan every day, all day. There are also the added benefits of a machine that could dual boot in XP for testing purposes (and also for Emma’s work). I’ve got a couple of questions though:

  • What’s the Refurb Store like? Anyone had good or bad experiences with them?
  • Should I go for an Intel machine, or just wait for the Universal apps?

The fan is just too much though. It’s like having someone sat next to you blow-drying their hair all day long.