Apple unveiled the new G5-based iMac, an all-in-one computer with 17/20″ LCD screens. My Take: The product looks good visually, but I would have preferred if the bottom border of the screen wasn’t as long compared to the other three, slicker, border sides (mockup). To customers, I would recommend the middle model: 17″ LCD, 1.8 GHz G5, Superdrive, for $1499 US (just add Bluetooth). Good value.
The New iMac G5 Unveiled
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
When you’re on a budget, you ought to have better sense than be buying top of the line. Top of the line is for people who NEED it and people who have money to throw away.
To me it’s exactly the opposite. I’m a very poor guy, but when I buy things I buy quality stuff, because when you don’t have a lot of money you need to buy things that will last for a long time. And why wouldn’t poor people need top of the line stuff? That’s an amazingly stupid assumtion to make.
I prefer to buy few quality products rather than a lot of cheap crap.
STOP USEING DELL AS A COMPANY TO COMPARE WITH APPLE. DELL IS NOT A HIGH END BRAND.
dell makes low end, middle, and high end.
the dell inspriron xps laptop is awarded the top marks in all reviews for the most powerful laptop made.
highest performance and is less expensive than voodoo pc or alienware offerings.
get a clue.
You are right i dont know about laptops but i do know that if you configure a dell and an alienware desktop the same with the best of what the offer alienware is cheaper and you can add more stuff so its also a bit more powerful but that doesnt really matter because this is about not comparing a top of the line brand that offers all high end stuff at the low middle and highest end of high end. by the way i hate macs in all there glory because i find them ugly
anandtech already mentioned as awarding it as best 20″ lcd out there
here is another review for it:
http://www.maximumpc.com/reviews/monitors/review_2004-05-18b.html
kick ass award
“On the surface, the 2001FP clearly has the edge. It’s got a generous 20.1-inch viewable area with a 1600×1200 resolution, a handsome midnight-gray enclosure with silver accents, and an ultra-flexible neck that lets you not only tilt the screen forward and back, but rotate it to a portrait orientation (any videocard worth owning will let you configure the content on your display accordingly). Another benefit of the 2001FP’s physical agility is that you can easily access the bounty of inputs that reside on the monitor’s underside: DVI, VGA, S-Video, and Composite-Video—all at your disposal and ready to accept a variety of video signals. A picture-in-picture option lets you watch content from two different video sources—say, your PC and a TV—at the same time. Furthermore, the 2001FP can double as a four-port USB hub as long as it’s connected to a USB port on your PC.
DisplayMate was the 2001FP’s final hurdle. Here, Dell’s monitor fared somewhere between the VGA-only PL170 and Samsung’s 172X in the app’s highly exacting image scripts. On the grayscale ramps, the 2001FP had more trouble at the darker end of the spectrum, where subtle differences in tone were harder to discern than at the lighter end. But, overall, the 2001FP performed well and text reproduction was laudable even in a serif font. In other words, we feel confident recommending this monitor for the vast majority of desktop chores.
With all of the 2001FP’s fine features, its proven ability to withstand the rigors of gaming, and a reasonable price tag for its size, it’s an undeniable value for desktop users and an obvious winner in our book.
Screen: Functional design, nice big screen, good gaming performance.
Scream: Less-than-perfect resolution of dark grays against a black background.”
IE is an interesting piece of work to bad it so full of holes i really like ie other then no tapped browsing its beautiful
“With rebates I actually made about $5 after building my 4.6 GHz Pentium.”
Assuming this is true, which I don’t believe for a minute, did you ever wonder what the hell kind of a business plan that is? How does a company stay in business paying people to buy its products, especially when it pays more than the retail cost of the products.
I’m not saying there aren’t companies dumb enough to try to do it, but I am saying they don’t tend to stay around long.
They got all you naysayers and poo pooers.build a cheaper g5 you all whined when the g5’s came out. Remember? Well here it is! Now you cry, but it’s not as good as the powermacs!! Well duh! I had a 1.6 g5 and it played any and all games i threw at it. I sold it ( dumbest thing ever), for 400 bucks less than i payed for it( one year later!! try that with your pc boxes)in order to buy the new dual g5 2.5Ghz. Uh, i’m not going to bothersaving the extra 2 grand, because this one is just fine. Oh , btw, I’m currently running a 2ghz amd compaq presario, to which i added a 9200 se radeon, and 512mb ram( it came with 256mb and built in 64mb radeon). The mac kicked this hunk oh junk’s ass. this thing pukes on games, dvd’s, or just about anything else. had it in shop lots, freezes in win xp( yes all updates and firewall,antivirus) why? well, it’s just a piece of junk, a mish mash of cheap parts chucked together CHEAPLY. if you pay cheap, you get what you pay for. In over one year with my g5, NO probs. period. in xp this thing craps out every time i use it. in linux, it runs much more stable, never hiccupped yet!!!
So if you want my personal experience and opinion, the mac won’t tromp the high end pc’s, but the lack of crashing,viri, and general headache’s more than makes up for it. with vpc7 you can have xp there on your machine, with fink you have linux there. want bsd? no probs. want it all? only mac scratches my itch…. and i’ve tried alot of machines ( number 5 this year! 6 will be the imac!!)
Not pretty enough for you? haven’t seen anything even close from future shop or tiger direct lately!! Dell? barf!! I think macs are like a book. it’s pretty hard to tell the story if you haven’t read the book (or listened to the tape, for the xp user’s!!! joke!) whatever, i like mac’s , and it’s my money. i can afford it , I’m getting one.
To all the people who made fun of steve job’s cancer: What kind of lowlife makes fun of a cancer patient? If it was Bill Gates, I still couldn’t do it. I have lost too many loved ones to even joke about it. Like he/she was one of my own, I’d wish the best for him/her. Low man, realy low.
Sorry mate, but you can keep your Dell Inspiron XPS. It may be the most powerful laptop ever made, but it’s bloody enormous, damn heavy and the battery life is crap. If I want to play games, I’ll do it on a desktop – until then I’d rather have something I don’t mind carrying around.
Re: Apple has done it again!!
Your 1.6 G5 may have played any game you threw at it, but not well. The graphics cards in low end Macs are pathetic, you aren’t going to get good performance out of a FX5200.
If your machine froze in Win XP, you’ve rooted something up. Sorry, but I’ve seen many a XP install, and it’s pretty stable. When it crashes 98.67% of the time it’s a pebkac issue.
pebkac? Anyways, I know on my machine Windows 2000 and XP crash constantly when I enable sound, and not on Windows 98 or Linux. Most likely it’s the driver’s fault, but then, Windows 2000/XP don’t offer drivers from themselves. Of this PC, about every six months something (PSU, memory, 2x monitor, speakers, CD-ROM, hard drive, keyboard) broke. And it wasn’t even really an el-cheapo PC, it costed more than Fl. 2400 ($1000), even though back then you already had ones of Fl. 1000 ($450).
Our 7 years old Apple, on the other hand, has never had strange problems, neither with 7.5.3, nor with 7.5.5, nor with 8.5, nor with 8.6. And besides an empty battery, there have never been any hardware problems with it.
The Apple costed quite a bit more, but it was more high-end when it was bought, and it has turned out to be much more reliable. So I guess that you get what you pay for.
This is very late, but I just thought I’d but in with a comment. I bought a PC with 3.2GHz P4 processory, 800MHz FSB, 1024MB PC3200 RAM, and a SATA Harddisk from Dell. However I cheaped out on the graphics card and got a FX5200.
I bought Doom 3 recently. The only way I can keep the framerate out of the teens is to turn off shadows, anti-aliasing, and play at 640×480. It’s a 128MB card so I can play at Medium Quality, but without shadows the game loses a lot of atmosphere.
Doom 3 is coming out for the Mac, and it’ll only have a 64MB FX5200. That’s going to be one crap gaming experience. Apple really should have looked into the FX5900 or the FX5700U range for this PC, at least as a high-end option. As it stands the iMac3 will struggle to play future Mac games.
[Incidentally, I’m buying myself an MSI Geforce 6800 in the next couple of weeks]
There have been way too many comparisons between “regular” desktops and “all-in-one’s”. I mean, not in the sense that they cannot be compared but, if you look at the major “all-in-one’s” you see they are all priced pretty high with the exception of the eMac, which is sort of different because it’s education oriented, has a CRT and is heavier than an anvil.
It appears that, basically, AIO’s are considered to be in a class of their own as far as price is concerned. I suppose a lot of it has to do with the engineering involved and the great desire of many users to have this type of computer. There always has been a great intensity among a certain type of computer user and maker to always go further and further toward the goal of the smallest footprint and the coolest look to boot.
Today’s big three are the iMac, the Sony W series and the Gateway Profile 5 series. Right now the Sony W starts at $1999. It is loaded though, so that accounts for some of that price. The Gateway Profile 5 is pretty comparable to the iMac in most ways. They do have a 15″ celeron offering, but the 17″ and 19-20″ models are pretty similar to price to the iMac. I configured a Gateway Profile 5 17″ last night and, with no serious add ons, it ended up just over $1800. At least it had 512 MB RAM.
The point of it all though is that, no matter what anyone says, there is a segment for the AIO and, although they don’t have the expansion that towers do and can become “obsolete” faster than towers, they are extremely popular among that certain segment of users who view them as something special and, as a result, worthy of a fairly high price tag
Been looking at all the articles, here’s what I would do if I were part of the iMac3 team[1]
1) Create a thin (1 inch) base, which contains the power supply and all the different ports. Have these wired up to the unit through the stand. This makes it easier for it to look like Eugenia’s mockup, and also simplifies cooling and the wiring maintenance [2]
2) As you can see from my comment above, the FX5200 is on it’s way out, and will not play upcoming games at an acceptable level. At the very least Apple should have offered a FX5900 or a FX5700U in the midrange and above.
3) The midrange model should come with 384MB of RAM by default and the 20″ should come with 512MB of RAM by default. Cheap users can opt for 256MB in the purchasing page if they wish.
4) If I were Apple I would have built in Bluetooth by default (they need to do this to achieve the digital hub idea) and make FireWire the optional extra. USB is pretty fast these days, and is the standard in the PC market – there’s no point being different for difference’ sake.
Lastly, something needs to be done with the eMac line – Dell sells the technically similar Dimsionsion 2400[3] with 256MB memory and a CD and DVD burner for $589. The equivalent eMac (with just a SuperDrive) is $799. Apple obviously can’t compete with this due to Dell’s economies of scale, so they need a real selling point for the eMac (OSX has lost it’s shine slightly, they need something more).
[1] Given this massive display of ego, I think I should probably avoid the internet for the next couple of days 😉
[2] Although it’s already posssible to simplify the wiring by passing them through the hole in the stand. Apply design is still great with the little touches
[3] http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/compare.aspx/desktops?c=us…
“Dell sells the technically similar Dimsionsion 2400[3] with 256MB memory and a CD and DVD burner for $589. The equivalent eMac (with just a SuperDrive) is $799.”
SuperDrive = DVD Burner
ComboDrive = CD Burner
Also, I agree more RAM by default (even though it’s cheap to add afterwards non-“techies” will just see “oh its only got 256MB”), but whack it up-to 512MB minimum on all models.
Matt
the emac that is $799 has a combo drive
it is $999 with a superdrive.
with apple you pay $200 more for a dvd burner over a combo drive and to go from 40gb to 80gb in storage.
and they both still ship with ancient and very weak g4 cpus.
what a deal.
Mac’s cost less.
http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/36120.html
and they both still ship with ancient and very weak g4 cpus
And that matters a whole hell of a lot on an eMac, whose CPU is most probably going to sit there idle 96% of the time. Get over it, really. You really think you’re doing the world a service don’t you.
Frankly I feel the new iMac looks ugly. The old model would have worked fine if they had only upgraded it to G5. Apple should realise that one of the reasons of the decline in sales of the iMac, was because of its outdated G4 processor….not its design.
I wanted to buy an iMac, but did not want to spend good money on outdated, albeit beautifully designed hardware. But now finally when the new iMac is out, I find that it has great hardware in an ugly package!
If only they had only upgraded the old iMac!!!!!
isnt there a rule about no stupid comments or repeat comments? ok so the new imac looks ugly to a lot of people and it looks really nice to a bunch of other people ok fine good enough, how many of you actully care about use because how it looks may affect how it works from heat and other internal problems but other then that looks dont really matter. as for the 256mb ram it comes standard with correct me if im wrong because i havnt been on there site to check but you can put more in when you order and its a great way for them to make extra money. the video card is because its not a gaming computer. the average gaming computer has a big tower can we stop the stupid comments that are the same just adding to the number of comments
..isn’t that what we’re all supposedly in favour of? These repetitious ‘pissing’ contests are becoming excruciating.
Personally, I’m not ‘wowed’ by the new iMac like I was with the previous model, but it will no doubt be built beautifully and will perform adequately enough for its’ target market. Those that want it will buy it. Those that don’t won’t. Simple. Pick a camp and get on with your life.
And to all the comparison shoppers here, Apple aren’t trying to compete on price…they never have. If you want a cohesive, quality hardware/software combination that just works, buy Apple. If you want a generic jack-of-all-trades workhorse, buy or build a PC….then format the hard drive and install Linux
@Daan
Pebkac = Problem Exists Between Keyboard and Chair
“Apple aren’t trying to compete on price”
that simply isn’t true.
they do try to compete on price, they just dont do a very good job at it.
they promote .99 songs based on price.
they promoted itools/.mac as free when it was.
they promoted ilife when it was free.
the ipods just dropped in price as competition in large hd based players has heated up. their 40gb model is still about 2x the cost of a similar creative model.
they have a “cheap” mac in the emac…though it remains double the price of a similar configured pc.
they promote the xserve and xserve raid based on price in all of their ads.
price is a major issue in the way apple markets their gear and they work very hard at finding the sweet spot for their bottom line without turning off too many clients.
they do afterall have to turn a profit.
and the bottom line reason of why the new imacs have such a weak video card and such low ram amounts is that they cannot afford to put better in those machines as they are priced and their studies have probably told them that they cannot afford to price them any higher as base models.
“Apple aren’t trying to compete on price”
that simply isn’t true.
This has to be one of the stupidest post ever. Of course everyone competes on price. But it is who they compete with that matters.
No corporation other than Dell can compete with DIY kits. That is what you and most of the other are trying to compare most of apples products with.
Even Dell at times can’t compete with DIY kits. Also the PC industry is a huge price war and most manufacturers, atleast the major ones are loosing money on due to severe price preasures. That is not to say a few aren’t making money but most are loosing. Apple simply isn’t competing with the entire pc industry on price.
Most of the example you gave are apple competing in certain markets. But Bigots such as your self are trying to pit Apple against every manufacturer out there. Apples simply isn’t.
I think it is high time you gave it a rest and stopped posting here on Apple threads. You almost never contribute anyting useful.
usefull?
as in writing about the stupidest posts ever?
calling people bigots?
i think it is high time you leave it to others to evaluate posts for themselves. you are not some authority that gets to decide like the almighty what is or isnt “useful”.
if you dont like a post than just move along. no need to hear your whining.
If so, might PowerTune come into play? They put the hot power supply below the LCD, but the processor sits across the LCD (at least in part). Could PowerTune be coming into play here to keep the processor from getting overly hot? Otherwise, I don’t see how you go from the monster heatsink that is in the PowerMacs to a faster fan. I certainly don’t know much about Heat Transfer, but I think they’ve made a step backwards in heat dissipation with this new scheme.
Comparing the cost of a system with a sleek 20″ LCD display vs. one with a 19’CRT (18″ viewable) is simply asinine.
(Not that the rest of your camparisons are any better or more relevant.)
By Anonymous (IP: —.chvlva.adelphia.net)
Because you’re so desperate to jump at every opportunity to run down Apple, you show your ignorance by not bothering reading my post. I was correcting the quote because the original poster said the Dell had a DVD burner whereas the eMac had only a SuperDrive. A SuperDrive is a DVD burner, so I was pointing out his error. I also agreed with his comment about increasing the RAM.
I’ve no intention of getting into a pointless Mac vs PC debate, but as you insist on it please start to come up with something new. I swear 50% of the comments on OSNews are your inane ramblings.
“if you dont like a post than just move along. no need to hear your whining.”
No, but we have to listen to yours. It never stops. Ever. It’s like Chinese water torture. Everything posted by someone who owns a Mac, used to own a Mac, perhaps saw a Mac in passing is picked up by you and poorly “picked apart”.
Next time read my post before you “correct” it with your vast “knowledge”.
Matt
for people who haven’t read the whole thread, “if you dont like a post than just move along. no need to hear your whining” wasn’t directed at me but annoyed me anyway.
Matt
i missed the quotes.
my mistake.
but my posting about the pricing for the superdrive is still an accurate correction at bottom. just directed to the wrong poster.
please excuse my error.
im sorry you are annoyed. but does that mean we now have to read about your feelings and deal with you whining about them too?
Ahh, I see that the trollish behaviour of yours lies shallow beneath your well practised “I’m just reporting the facts” demeanor .
Once again, I marvel at the amount of time you spend on mac threads, when you so obviously have a severe dislike of them.
the iLife apps run perfectly fine on the Mac. iTunes is sluggish on XP because of the stuff they had to do to get it to run with out major modifications on windows, not to mention Windows itself is sluggish (unless you call not being able to do anything else on a system because you load a program quick.)
Hell that was a fast response. Were you on OSNews when I posted?
“im sorry you are annoyed. but does that mean we now have to read about your feelings and deal with you whining about them too?”
No, you don’t understand, as I said in my last post (which admittedly you read half of) I’ve no intention of getting into Mac vs PC debates. They’re pointless. But because you incorrectly “corrected me”, I corrected you back. Otherwise people might miss my post and think I was wrong. If you hadn’t have done this I wouldn’t have had to “whine”. At the same time I, along with everyone else, would still have had to read your whinings. Hows those Apples?
Please for the love of god start reading.
Matt
I guess most of guys here didn’t think about it before s/he debate on new iMac. At least round me, I found the majority bought a computer for emailing and net surfing. I have to say, for such majority, Win98 or MacOS8.6 was good enough. A new iMac G5 is just wasting money if s/he doesn’t want it as a decoration.
and that folks is why Apple’s worldwide marketshare is now down to 1.8%.
Since you are comparing an Apple AIO product to a ZTGroup desktop.
What is ZTGroup’s marketshare in the PC industry?
but they sell brand name products at fantastic prices. and the components in that pc are made by top brands of tech: amd, logitech, seagate, msi, creative, nec, antec, ati, mitsumi, us robotics, lite-on, and ms.
crn or channel reseller news found them to be a #1 system builder.
http://www.crn.com/sections/special/whitebox/whitebox03.jhtml?artic…
2003 sales of just $150 million
looks like they sell about 250,000 units per yr.
considering that worldwide pc market this yr is about 185 million, you do the math.
apple sells about 3.2 million macs per year.
nice thing about a place like zt group is there are thousands just like them worldwide. when you call, a person answers the phone and you speak to the same people over and over.
try em out.
Exactly, They have less marketshare than apple even though
they, according to you, sell a cheaper more powerful product.
Aparently all your posts claim that Apple is losing marketshare incomparison to the entire PC market. However, individual companies, whose products you bring in for price comparisons, have insignficant marketshare; barring Dell and HP.
zt group is part of oh about 182 million pcs sold this yr
apple is 3 million of 3 million macs sold this yr.
mac numbers are flat or shrinking
while pc sales numbers go up and up and up. at about a 15% clip yr over yr.
insignificant market share doesnt matter on the pc side. i can build my own pc and be just one of 182 million this yr.
but i get to ride on all that each of the component makers do and make. i get to ride on millions of technicians that are trained on my type of computer. i get to ride on the hundreds of thousands of programmers that code for my platform….
meanwhile more and more bail from the apple ship as they can make livings repairing macs.
resellers quit apple as they cant make money selling macs.
programmers abandon apple when their programs dont sell enough to cover their costs.
…….
Hey, thats a pretty funny parody of a troll on that post, Anonymous (IP: —.chvlva.adelphia.net), you’re getting funnier.
Good job.
and your point is what?
And yours is what again?????
The number of developers for MacOS X has been growing dramatically. Contrary to your drivel. Also a lot more ISVs are making software for the OS X platform than since it was introduced.
Moreover, with OS X underpinging a lot of opensource software is available for the Mac. Almost any app that runs on linux can be recompiled for the Mac. Fink is a prime example of just how much software there is for the mac.
more developers doing mac os x today than in 2001. fancy that.
id sure hope so. so many top flight choices that apple has been forced to produce all the main apps for themselves.
but if you rest your hopes on unsupported open source software than the mac is in for a rough ride.
when adobe keeps pulling its apps off the mac platform, turn to the gimp to save you.
so first it was ms that bailed apple out back in 97, and now you hope linux will save the day.
its good that you have hopes.
… and when I returned, I came accross this huge PC Vs. Mac thread/troll! Next time, my mates, send me an email before starting something like this !!!
All I can say (Yes yes, i’ve read “most” of the thread, I did Smart skipping(tm)), as i was saing… all I can say is that I have received a Brand new Powerbook G4 15” (Yes, we still spend 2000+ on G4s). It’s the “old model” A.K.A.: 1.25 but with Retroilluminated Key, Bluetooth, Airport, 512 Ram, HDD 80, all the ports we know, etc.
I have been using the box for 14 days. I have a Dual Head PC beside me (where I work, mainly programming software in C#/C++ for the Windows environment) *hey, that’s what I get paid for*.
I could have brought a Powerful INTEL/AMD box for 2000+€, however I decided to “think different” once and for all. My Windows XP Professional Box works ‘fine’, I have no major problems. No virueses, no Spyware (no outlook). Doom III with med/low in 800×600 is playable, I disabled loads of unneded services, I don’t use themes, etc. All in all “I know windows” a lot. (been working with it for 15 yrs.! And I’ve used OS/2
)
Why did I do such a “stupid” thing then? Because I’ve tried a Mac for some time (make that a few hours) and, given my Unix Background (Aix, OpenBSD and some linux) I thought that a Mac would have been terrific.
To tell you the truth. It is. I was right. I think it is pointless to discuss this. Comparing apples, oranges, cars, engines, microchips, more ram, less ram, faster this, faster that…
With apple, you get what you pay for (and some ppl will insert here: ” which is less than that bbla bla” …
Let’s make it simple. An apple (most of them I think) is a computer which will work like a charm; the it just works thing is true. You will have your music, photos, documents, etc. You can do office work fantastically (i have MSOffice 2004 Educational version). I have been given a Lotus Notes 6.5 license by my employeer (and I still use iMail for personal accounts). I love the terminal with my green semi transparent background, etc…
You can do gaming in this (but I don’t have games so far, apart from Chess) But that’s not the MAIN idea (mainly because of the ” lack, not so lack, of games”) (yes, i know there are a LOT. But for PC’s you have a Lot++)
I love the hardware thing, the metal, the weight, the suspension speed and the speed when it comes back. I love the white glowing light when it is suspended. I love the stupid power cable red/green light. It’s not “perfect” tho, but what’s perfect.
If you are looking for a stable/no worries/nice/fancy/etc. PERSONAL COMPUTER. This is it. I’d do it. If I had VS.NET for Mac (nah!) I’d sell My Windows Box and get a Dual G4 or something. When you get used to OS X, you just can’t live in windows. I give a s*** about “Apple”. I like the way their boxes perform. Is it faster than a typical PC? What DO I KNOW? What Do I Care? Can I work? Fantastically.
God… don’t you love this threads?
Cheers,
A new mac user. Really, Really happy about it.
pst.: I had my Battery replaced by a replacement program, 24 hs it took the whole issue, and I live in Spain (aka: not the U.S.A.)
ps2: Want a drawback? When the bat is charging or I’m doing garage band with a guitar plugged, It gets “hot”, perhaps a little to much… (but again, my old DELL Latitude C840 did that too).
ps3: When I bought this box, I was a little afraid. Now I’m not.
cya!
… that I suddenly realized that my Warcraft II BattleNET, my Starcraft and the Starcraft BroodWar expansion CD’s, are PC and MAC.
Guess what…
😉
http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/36120.html
For a Mac will-a-be:
As of today, which would be a better value for a non-power user (create a few home dvd movies; surfing; basic abiword processing) Mac person:
A Powerbook 12″ / superdrive;
A refurbished G5 (from smalldog, etc..);
or the new Imac g5?
I would connect the PB/G5 to my current 19″ monitor (it works).
Thanks!
i would look seriously at this post:
the pc is $1500 even if you take off the monitor since you already have a 19″ crt.
“compare high end (price not performance) imac to typical mid range (priced) pc for features and price:
http://store.apple.com/
20″ lcd with 1680 x 1050 res
1.8ghz g5 cpu
600mhz bus
slim all in one case and stand
256mb pc3200 ddr400 sdram
geforce fx 5200 ultra 64mb vid card via 8x agp
160gb serial ata (sata) hard drive
slot load 4x (- only, + standard is not supported) dvd burner with 16x cd burning
Two FireWire 400 ports
three USB 2.0 ports
two USB 1.1 ports (on keyboard)
VGA outputs 2: S-video and composite video output
10/100BASE-T Ethernet
56K V.92 modem
Headphone/optical digital audio output; audio line in
Built-in stereo speakers, Apple Keyboard, Apple Mouse
Mac OS X and the iLife suite of software including Appleworks
90 days phone support
1 yr limited warranty
$1899 plus shipping
http://www.ztgroup.com/config.asp?model=a5307
NEC 19-inch CRT FE991SB PureFlat Black Superbright Monitor 1792 x 1344 res
AMD Athlon™ 64 Processor 3200+ 1600FSB w/ HyperTransport
1600mhz bus
Antec SX635BII case w/350W power supply
1.0GB PC3200 Dual Channel DDR400 (2 Pieces of 512MB)
128MB ATI RADEON™ 9600 XT w/ TV-Out & DVI (Support Dual Monitor)via agp 8x
MSI K8T NEO FISR2 VIA K8T800 Chipset Mainboard w/SPDIF Out
Seagate® 160GB Serial ATA/150 7200rpm (8MB Cache) Hard Drive
Lite-On SOHW-812S 8X DVD±RW (burns cds at 40x)
Mitsumi FA402A 7 in 1 Flash Memory Reader USB 2.0 & 1.44MB Floppy Combo Drive (supports Compact Flash, MicroDrive, Secure Digital Card, MultiMedia Card, MemoryStick, SmartMedia)
U.S Robotics® 56K V.92 Fax Modem
10/100/1000 ethernet
2 sata raid controllers
3 IDE ata133 controllers
8 usb 2.0 ports
3 firewire 400 ports
5 pci slots (3 open) and 1 agp slot (0 open)
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 6.1 Audio w/ Firewire 1394
ATI TV Wonder VE Tuner Card
Logitech® Z-640 5.1 6-piece Speakers w/ Subwoofer
Logitech® Cordless MX Duo Keyboard & Rechargeable Optical Wheel Mouse
Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional Edition
MS Works 7.0, PowerDVD, Sonic MyDVD, Nero Burning ROM, Computer Associates EZ Trust Anti-Virus for 1 Year, Windows Movie Maker
3-year Limited Warranty + Lifetime Technical Support
$1759 plus shipping
so what do you get?
the mac is thinner, it is lighter, it makes less noise, it costs more, its less expandable, it has a larger monitor viewing area, it either looks better or worse based on your taste.
the pc is heavier, it is bigger, it has more fans and will be louder, it will run cooler and put less stress on components, it costs less, it has a higher resolution monitor, it switches resolutions better than an lcd, it is way more expandable, it looks better or worse based on your tastes, it has many more features, and it is substantially more powerful for all consumer, game, business, and professional applications.
the pc also has
a much faster cpu that is also 64 bit capable
it has four times the RAM memory
it has a dvd burner that is two times faster
it has a dvd burner that allows you to pick either + or – media
it has a cd burner that burns at 40x instead of the macs 16x
it has a tv tuner card
it has a substantially more powerful video card that has many more features and double the memory
it has a 7 in 1 memory card reader
it has a floppy drive if you still need one
it has 5.1 speakers included
it has wireless Logitech keyboard and mouse set included
it has a warranty that is three times as long
it has gigabit ethernet (apple is now going backwards on the imac to 100mbit?)
it has four sata busses
it has three ide busses
it has more usb 2.0 and firewire ports
it has several hard drive (3) and optical drive bays (2) open
it has more sound in and out ports
it has 1 year of anti virus and security software included http://www.my-etrust.com/microsoft/
it has all well known, trusted, brand name, retail components that specs are readily available for
prebuilt and shipped to your doorstep. ready to lock and load….and if you missing something with that $150 you saved you can go get a scanner or a cheap camera or a cheap palm or an inkjet or whatever.
and that folks is why Apple’s worldwide marketshare is now down to 1.8%.”
First I must say I’ve seen the iMac in Paris it looks muh better than on the pictures, it must be the materials they used.
Concerning the lack of upgradability of let’s say the GPU everybody seem to say “If you a power user you need a Power Mac”, “iMac is pefect to play with iLife”. I am sorry I am a power usern i manage several Power Macs at my work and I don’t want one of them in my house but one of those quiet, discreet, beautiful iMac.And I want to work with it (editing) and if it was a little bit more upgradble I would appreciate very much. It is much unfair to the iMac to reserve it for iLife, it is a 64 bits with a UNIX!!!
Anyway it seems the logic board is upgradeable, and it was so beautiful at the Expo that I bought one !
i don’t even consider the PC option, and won’t argue (more features, more powerful…) I’ve got both and know what to use to get the job done with a friendly OS (and which brings me money back home).
The machine you choose always depend of what you wanna do with it,but let say that if Apple can sometimes be considered as expensive this is surely not at all the case with those iMacs (17 and 20)
Which is now a lady of the night:
http://raq249.uk2net.com/puta/index.htm
Puta is Spanish for whore!