iMac line gets bigger, faster—and costs less
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Sep 6, 2006 at 9:30am
Whoa. Everyone was expecting an announcement of this sort on Tuesday, Sept. 12, at the Apple “special event,” but not today. Apple has revamped the entire iMac line, adding a 24-inch model.
All the iMacs now come with Core 2 Duo chips and are up to 50 percent faster than the previous iMac, according to Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. What’s more, prices now start at US$999. All of them, of course, come with the built-in iSight video camera, the Front Row “media experience” and iLife ‘06.
So what about the super-sized iMac? The 24-incher features a 24-inch widescreen LCD display with a 1920-by-1200 pixel resolution that offers 30 percent more screen real estate than the 20-inch model and a brighter display. It includes a 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 4MB of shared L2 cache, 1GB of 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM memory, a 250GB Serial ATA hard drive, NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT graphics with 128MB of GDDR3 memory and a SuperDrive. Youcan configure the new 24-inch iMac with a 2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, up to 3GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM memory, a 500GB Serial ATA hard drive and the NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT with 256MB of GDDR3 memory.
The new iMac line is shipping today and will be available through the Apple Store, Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. Following are the configurations:
The new 24-inch 2.16 GHz iMac, for a suggested retail price of $1,999, includes:
•24-inch widescreen LCD display;
•2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor;
•1GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM expandable to 3GB;
•8x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW);
•PCI Express-based NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT with 128MB GDDR3 memory;
•built-in iSight video camera;
•built-in AirPort Extreme wireless networking & Bluetooth 2.0+EDR;
•250GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
•mini-DVI out (adapters for DVI, VGA and Composite/S-Video sold separately);
•built-in stereo speakers and microphone; and
•the infrared Apple Remote, Mighty Mouse and Apple Keyboard.
The new 20-inch 2.16 GHz iMac, for a suggested retail price of $1,499, includes:
•20-inch widescreen LCD display;
•2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor;
•1GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM expandable to 3GB;
•8x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW);
•PCI Express-based ATI Radeon X1600 with 128MB GDDR3 memory;
•built-in iSight video camera;
•built-in AirPort Extreme wireless networking & Bluetooth 2.0+EDR;
•250GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
•mini-DVI out (adapters for DVI, VGA and Composite/S-Video sold separately);
•built-in stereo speakers and microphone; and
•the infrared Apple Remote, Mighty Mouse and Apple Keyboard.
The new 17-inch 2.0 GHz iMac, for a suggested retail price of $1,199 (US), includes:
•17-inch widescreen LCD display;
•2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor;
•1GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM expandable to 3GB;
•8x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW);
•PCI Express-based ATI Radeon X1600 with 128MB GDDR3 memory;
•built-in iSight video camera;
•built-in AirPort Extreme wireless networking & Bluetooth 2.0+EDR;
•160GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
•mini-DVI out (adapters for DVI, VGA and Composite/S-Video sold separately);
•built-in stereo speakers and microphone; and
•the infrared Apple Remote, Mighty Mouse and Apple Keyboard.
The 17-inch 1.83 GHz iMac, for a suggested retail price of $999 (US), includes:
•17-inch widescreen LCD display;
•1.83 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor;
•512MB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM expandable to 2GB;
•24x Combo drive;
•Intel GMA 950 graphics;
•built-in iSight video camera;
•built-in AirPort Extreme wireless networking;
•160GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
•mini-DVI out (adapters for DVI, VGA and Composite/S-Video sold separately);
•built-in stereo speakers and microphone; and
•Mighty Mouse and Apple Keyboard.
Build-to-order options and accessories include: a 2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, up to 3GB DDR2 SDRAM, NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT with 256MB GDDR3 video memory and a 500GB Serial ATA hard drive on the 24-inch iMac; a 2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, up to 3GB DDR2 SDRAM, 256MB GGDR3 video memory and a 500GB Serial ATA hard drive on the 20-inch iMac; a 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, up to 3GB DDR2 SRDAM and a 500GB Serial ATA hard drive on the 2.0 GHz 17-inch iMac; and up to 2GB of DDR2 SDRAM, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and Apple Remote on the 1.83 GHz 17-inch iMac. Additional build-to-order options also include: pre-installed copies of iWork 06, Logic Express, Final Cut Express and Aperture; AirPort Express and AirPort Extreme Base Station; Apple Wireless Keyboard and wireless Mighty Mouse; Apple USB Modem; and the AppleCare Protection Plan.
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Contributor
Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
