New iMac: Apple boosts speed, slashes prices

The slick aluminium design and widescreen panel with edge-to-edge glass may be what makes you look twice at the new iMacs, but look under the Mac Book Pro-inspired casing for the biggest change.

Apple has added Intel’s latest quad-core silicon Core i5 and Core i7 powerplants into its mainstream desktop line, while even the entry-level Core 2 Duo systems now start at 3GHz – previously the top speed for the most expensive iMac.


And while speed and other specs goes up, prices head in the other direction.

Yesterday the cheapest iMac was a 20 inch 2.66GHz system with 2GB of RAM and a 320GB hard drive, for $1,999.

Today you can walk away with an iMac for $1,599 – and it’s got a 3GHz Core 2 Duo, 21.5 inch HD (1920 x 1080) LED-backlit display, 4GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive. Oh, and a long-overdue SD Card reader slot plus Apple’s new multi-touch ‘Magic Mouse’.

$1,999 bumps the hard drive to 1TB and swaps the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics for ATI’s Radeon HD 4670 with 256MB.

The 27-inch HD iMacs replace the 24-inch series and begin at $2,199 for the same spec as the $1,999 system, apart from the larger and lusher 2560 x 1440 panel.

$2,599 sees the 3GHz Core 2 Duo make way for a 2.66GHz Core i5-750, which can rather up to 3.2GHz in ‘turbo mode’.

Find another $265 in your budget and you can upgrade to the 2.8GHz Core i7-860, which can redline at  3.46GHz in ‘turbo mode’.

The introduction of the Core i5 and i7 processors marks not only the first time Apple has dropped a quad-core powerplant into its consumer iMac line, but also the first time Apple has opted for a desktop-class processor in the slim iMac series.

To date the company has deployed CPUs from Intel’s mobile family, primarily for their power-efficient traits. The desktop-class Core i5 and Core i7 chips have higher thermal ceilings, but the larger enclosure of the 27 inch iMac allows for greater ventilation.

Both the Core i5 and Core i7 systems will ship in November.