Updated eMac Line Released Today

TellarHK writes "Today, Apple's eMac line got a nice upgrade with all models getting a 32M Radeon 7500 video chipset, display capable of 1280x960 resolution on a 17" flat CRT, and price cuts across the board. $799 will get you a base model with 40GB of drive, 128M of RAM (continuing the rather odd stinginess on RAM configurations), and an 800Mhz G4. $999 will get you an extra 20GB of drive and a 1Ghz processor, while $1299 lands you a whopping (ahem) 256M of memory, 80G, and a SuperDrive at 4x."

Comments

Other upgrades

[PKFC]

You also get an Airport Extreme wireless slot and iTunes 4 included along with the rest iLife. I think the bus speed has been bumped up to 133, but I could be wrong about that

Re:Other upgrades

[capmilk]

You are perfectly right about the bus speed. Have a look at the eMac's tech specs page.

Education Store prices

[gadwale]

FYI, if you are a student you can get better prices at their online educational store:

(For my school - University of Maryland at College Park)

$749.00
800MHz PowerPC G4
128MB SDRAM
40GB Ultra ATA drive
CD-ROM drive
Discounted from $799 retail price

$949.00
1GHz PowerPC G4
128MB SDRAM
60GB Ultra ATA drive
Combo drive
Discounted from $999 retail price

$1,149.00
1GHz PowerPC G4
256MB SDRAM
80GB Ultra ATA drive
SuperDrive
Discounted from $1,299 retail price

$1,528.00
Image
1GHz PowerPC G4
1GB SDRAM
80GB Ultra ATA drive
SuperDrive
AirPort Extreme built-in
Discounted from $1,698 retail price

Even better deals can be had at Apple B&M stores in universities.

You have to be a valid student to get these prices.

There are also refurbished products that you can buy with Applecare over here.

Adi Gadwale.

Re:Education Store prices

[Drakonian]

You can also get a 1-time (ever) hardware discount if you sign up for the Apple Student Developer program. It's hard to track down prices but I think they are very substantial, ie better than education.

http://developer.apple.com/membership/hardware.htm l

Re:Education Store prices

[discstickers]

Ya, you have to click like 50 links to get to the actual store.

Once you get there though, the discounts are realllllly nice. And the higher end you go, the better. Don't forget that you have to pay $100 to join ADC. Still, I think the discount on some models aproachs 20-25%.

Re:Education Store prices

[Mister Black]

Per this page:

ADC Student Program members are entitled to one purchase of a discounted development system (one (1) CPU with one (1) monitor; or one (1) iMac, PowerBook, or iBook per lifetime (non-renewable and subject to change) at approximately a 10-20% discount.

They also have the new keyboards

[Erect Horsecock]

see here

Apple charges a lot for RAM

[Dixie_Flatline]

Oddly, I find the low RAM configurations something where it looks like Apple is trying to give me a break, since they sell RAM at INSANE prices, and you can buy it much more cheaply from someone like Crucial.

Re:Apple charges a lot for RAM

[Dixie_Flatline]

From what I've heard, you can buy GOOD RAM and pop it right in. If it's from Crucial, they even have a section for buying RAM for Macs. I've never seen it fail, though I hear stories now and then about after market RAM not working at all.

Re:Nice

[rastachops]

Hmm but oddly they also are Airport Extreme compatible... so far its just been the Power Macs & PowerBooks that are AE compatible!

Re:Nice

[MalleusEBHC]

The video card is also at the bare minimum for OS X with the ATI 7500

I run OS X with either an AGP Rage 128 with 16 MB VRAM or a Rage 128 Mobility with 8 MB VRAM. It runs just fine on those without Quartz Extreme, so I'm sure that a Radeon 7500 running QE will be quite nice. It's not like a 17" CRT is that monstrous.

I do agree that you need more RAM, but as another poster has already pointed out, it is nice to be forced to buy as little RAM as possible because of Apple's prices on memory. I would always spec out from the Apple store with the least memory and then go buy what RAM you need from somewhere else. It will save you a bundle.

Re:USB 1.1!

[Gropo]

Because a mouse/keyboard/joystick only needs so much bandwitdh... And for every conceivable USB 2.0 peripheral that requires the bandwidth of USB 2.0 there's a non-CPU-dependant FirewWire alternative?

Oddly enough, apparently Apple's actually using USB 2.0 controllers on the newer MoBo's, just hobbling it to 1.0 in the firmware. I guess it's hard to find supplies of new 1.0 parts nowadays :P

Re:cool stuff

[TiMike]

The eMac (Education Mac) has it built in because according to Apple:

" Schools have told us they really like an all-in-one design because it saves space in classrooms and computer labs." emac

Time to get out the Big Foam Cluebat

[Llywelyn]

"They need firewire,"

Got it. 2 Firewire ports.

"USB2"

Why? They have Firewire.

"256MB starting RAM"

http://macseek.com

Or you can just add it in their online store.

"and a good useable mouse, not a hockey puck."

Um, the Apple Mouse that comes with it ain't a hockey puck.

" DVD authoring would also be preferrable, but maybe not on the base model."

It is. Just not on the base model.

Of course, if we are upgrading for the base model, the one that is automatically equipped with a Superdrive has 256MB of RAM.

Re:Quality of the monitor?

[Anonymous Coward]

I have an eMac. The monitor is great in my opinion. I am not a graphics guy so I am not expert. It is nice and bright. Quite clear. I have absolutely no complaints.

It is a good machine. I am loving it.

Re:Refurb

[Mister Black]

Go to the main store site ( http://store.apple.com ). Then scroll down and on the bottom left hand is a section labeled "Special deals" with a red tag labeled "SAVE". That's the refurb section.