David Hurst

I can’t believe how cheap the iMac has become. £679 buys you a 17″ iMac with the following specification:

1.83GHz Intel Core Duo
17″ Widescreen LCD
512MB RAM
160Gb Hard Disk
DVD-ROM/CD-RW

Plus don’t forget it comes with Wireless and iSight Web Cam, not to mention the full suite of Apple software goodies. And it can run Windows too. Bargain!

So how have Apple shaved £220 off the price? As far as I can see the only 3 differences between this iMac and the previous model is the graphics card. This new model features an inferior Intel 950 on-board graphics card which shares 64MB of the system ram. The previous model had a dedicated ATi X1600 128MB card. The other difference is that this model does not have the Apple Remote or Bluetooth, whereas the others do.
That said, they’ve introduced a second 17″ model at just £799 - still £100 cheaper than previously - which has 2.0GHz processors with 4MB L2 cache (the entry level model has 2MB), 1Gb RAM, a DVD ReWriter and that ATi X1600 graphics card.

General office tasks, email, web browsing and digital home? Choose the £679 model. Want to do video editing, music production or play games too - choose the £799 model. Choose carefully - the iMac cannot be upgraded.

The 20″ iMac is the same, and apart from a larger screen, you get 2.16GHz processors and a 250Gb hard disk for £999.

The 24″ iMac is the new model with a much larger screen capable of 1920×1200 resolution. Driving that is the nVidia GeForce 7300GT with 128MB RAM. Price is £1,349.

Check them out at http://www.apple.com/uk