The $899 Educational iMac

Valthan writes "Macsimum news has just released news about a new version of the iMac that is being touted as an educational machine. It seems to be a nice setup, and has the cheapness that us university students strive on, I think they just may have a winner here to get people on the Mac. Now if only JCreator worked on it ..." From the article "Featuring a 17-inch widescreen LCD display, the iMac for education includes a Combo drive for burning CDs and reading DVDs, 512MB of 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM memory expandable up to 2GB and hard drive storage capacity up to 160GB. Every iMac also includes a built-in iSight video camera, built-in 10/100/1000 BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet for high-speed networking, built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11g WiFi for up to 54Mbps wireless networking, a total of five USB ports (three USB 2.0) and two FireWire 400 ports."

Comments

Re:Cheap, but not cheap enough.

[Cadallin]

And the Pre-installed Spyware and Adware was FREE too!

I'd get one...

[$hecky]

But I've switched to Ubuntu.

Re:Cheap, but not cheap enough.

[geekoid]

is it silent? built in web cam? video editor? A nice UI?
And the dual core out performs the AMD 2.2.

Re:Unfortunately

[b0s0z0ku]

(for most any CS major, it is essential to be able to develop for Windows -- other operating systems are a huge plus).

I graduated with an engineering degree in 2002, but took a few CS courses. All of the work was done on the CS lab UNIX boxes (Suns at the time, upgraded to commodity BSD machines right about the time I finished). Remember that CS is about teaching *concepts* rather than putting out functional code-monkeys - that's what "IT" programs are for.

-b.

Re:Cash

[samkass]

Try checking out http://www.apple.com/financing/.

You can get what is essentially a Mastercard with no annual fee and an APR somewhere between 13.5% and 22.5% depending on your credit rating, with no interest for 90 days after purchase. If you've got good credit, this pretty much amounts to the same thing you got. If not, good luck finding financing anyway.

Re:Cheap, but not cheap enough.

[be-fan]

Are those P4's dual-core? Because if they're not, we're talking about two completely different classes of machine. Dual-Core Dells run $700+ on Dell's website. Also, the integrated form-factor is definitely a plus. As a recently-graduated undergrad, let me tell you that desk and floor space are at an absolute premium in any modern dorm.