Apple Introduces New G5 iMac

peatbakke writes "Well, here it is. Looks like the rumors of computer+monitor combined into a sleek little case were true." It's mostly what you'd expect both design-wise and specwise. And I want it.

Comments

Apple hate RAM.

[serviscope_minor]

This thing is only shipped with 256M of RAM by default? And only upgradable to 2GB?

The old iMacs could hold 1GB. This one is about 10 times faster and maxes out at twice the memory. This is pretty poor. Why does apple insist on shipping systems with such little memory.

Also, why is the FSB at 1/3 of the clockspeed of the CPU, as opposed to 1/2?

Now you can all stop whining. . .

[sabinm]

It's as inexpensive as a IBM clone and worth more in value.

As an aside, this weekend I called apple care to get my logic board on my G3 Ibook replaced for the third time. I wasn't pleased, and I asked for a new one. Guess what? They're shipping a new Ibook G4 1gz for me. That's service. Barring the fact that the hard ware was faulty, they really came through on this one. That's why I buy apple.

I'm disappointed...

[lonesometrainer]

The graphics-card is lame, the bus-speed is lower compared to G5, but overall... the design. It's just plain boring. When was the last time that apple-addicts were bored when a new machine was introduced?

Yes, Apple, I'm bored. The G4 iMac was a lot more interesting to look at than this machine. And design is what apple-addicts are really looking after.

Here's some nice examples for great iMac designs: http://www.mackompass.de/

PLUS: no heating problems here? Picture from iside: http://forum.macnews.de/forum/show?mid=8894.1839.- 5159

Re:Like in the movies...

[SnapShot]

Speaking of monitors. Apple store is charging $1299 for the 20" monitor, but only $1899 for the iMac with the 20" monitor. Does that make sense to anyone?

Can I skip the monitor and get a G5 for $600, please?

Re:Reasons to like the previous iMac design better

[phillymjs]

1. There's a hole in the rear of the stand through which always-connected cables can be routed. And there's always the option of the Bluetooth module, keyboard, and mouse to remove *those* wires from the equation.

2. Those who can, do. Those who can't, criticize. Let's see you stuff all those electronics into a smaller space and still provide adequate cooling, Einstein.

3. The new design allows them to use larger displays than 20", the weight of which the arm on the old iMac would not physically support (this is straight from the mouth of an Apple engineer who was visiting my office a few weeks ago).

4. The Cinema Displays use the same base, and those are pretty damned stable. How much crap do you have on your desk?

5. The granddaddy of the thin, LCD-in-front, guts-in-back computer is the 20th Anniversary Mac, released in May 1997. Apple is updating their own old design, not copying current designs of competitors.

6. Yeah, yeah. If they were selling it for $2, there'd be some fool whining "I'd buy it, if it was $1.50!"

~Philly

Re:Just wondering

[danieljpost]

Sorry, I gotta interject.

It may just be possible that the apple guys intentionally built the thing for *low power consumption* which will translate to *low heat emission*, which means the thing might not run so darn hot that it burns itself out after all.

As I often failed to teach my high school hardware classes, more heat disspiation (fans) does not make a computer better (sort of like more Mhz didn't really mean more performance-- at least not linear increases). More fans just mean more noise.

Picture this if you will. I set up a computer lab in a round concrete room (echoes like crazy). I made the kids shut off all the Wintel boxen and hooked up an LTSP diskless workstation just to show them how much better it is NOT to have so much noise (the server was in the next room). Thing used like 30 watts, booted in no time, and made NO noise. The fucking kids couldn't comprehend that it was easier to get things done on this machine (KDE vs. Windows arguments ignored for this discussion-- they were using Netware-crippled windows so it's not like they could do anything but run Office/internet)

[Yes if you didn't notice, I'm comparing the guy who thinks the iMac will burn out to my high school students who thought computers have to be noisy.]

At least notice that the fans on the new iMac run at variable speeds, so after the thing's heated up for a while, they will kick in.

My idea for a killer iMac feature

[multiplexo]

Putting a DVI input on the system that would allow you to use this as a standard monitor for an external computer. Now, this might sound insane, but think about it. You have a PC that you still have to use for some tasks, or a PC laptop. You plug your PC into the iMac DVI input and can switch over to the display for it, you've just made it easier for people to transition between Macs and PCs. Sure, you can use Microsoft's Remote Desktop Connection for this sort of thing, but not if you're doing anything graphics intensive on the PC. Given the pricing Apple is putting on these systems you could sell the system with the 20 inch monitor as a 20 inch 16:9 monitor for PCs that also runs Macintosh software. OK, I'll go take my medication now.