Product Notes: Apple iMac

April 28, 2008

Apple announced updates today to its iMac line of 20-inch and 24-inch models that feature Intel's higher-end Penryn microprocessors. Other changes in these latest iMacs include a higher bus speed and the availability of a more powerful discrete video card on the 24-inch model.

Notable in what is not included in this update are BlueRay optical drives or increased maximum RAM beyond 4.0 GB.

This useful but not earthshaking update is the first iMac refresh since the major redesign in August 2007. These new iMacs meet or exceed the specifications in the newly-revised Performance PC Buyer's Guide.

Both versions of the iMac have received a Silver rating from EPEAT and are Energy Star 4.0-certified.

Configuration & Ordering Notes

Several notes when ordering an iMac:

1. The iMac is available with Intel's current Core 2 Duo processors. Information Systems & Computing (ISC) sees the 2.66 GHz or 2.8 GHz processors as the best choices - the 3.06 GHz Core 2 Extreme processor will not show enough speed improvement to justify the extra cost.
2. See ISC's Performance PC Buyer's Guide for more configuration hints. As of April 2008, configuring an iMac to the Performance PC specification can be done for approximately $1,400.

ISC sees the updated iMac as being a solid choice among desktop systems available in mid 2008 and the iMac will continue to serve as the Apple component in the University's Desktop Recommendations. Continuing increases in the standard specifications once again have dropped the barrier to entry for appropriately configured models.

iMac graphic courtesy of Apple

--John Mulhern III, Lead for Client Technologies, ISC Technology Support Services (April 28, 2008)