Best Buys on Computers: Desktop, Laptops, PDAs, assessories

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Redefining Apple's signature all-in-one desktop PC, the newly redesigned iMac now sports a sleek, professional aluminum enclosure that's joined precisely to a 20-inch glass cover to create a virtually seamless front surface. It also features new ultra-thin aluminum Apple Keyboard--with an extended layout and dedicated keys for Mac features such as brightness, volume, eject, play/pause, and Exposé--as well as the wired Mighty Mouse. The iMac is preloaded with Apple's latest suite of digital media applications--iLife '08--and also comes with the Apple Remote and Front Row media display software, which enables you to easily play your music, enjoy photo slideshows, and watch DVDs, iMovies, music videos and television shows from across the room.

It's powered by a 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor from the newest "Santa Rosa" chips, which offer a top-of-the-line 800 MHz front-side bus speed and a huge 4 MB L2 cache. This 20-inch iMac also features a 250 GB hard drive, 1 GB of RAM (with a 4 GB maximum capacity), 8x SuperDrive for burning movies to DVD and music mixes to CD, integrated 802.11n wireless LAN, Gigabit Ethernet wired networking, Bluetooth connectivity, ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT video card with 128 MB dedicated memory, and the Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard operating system.

The iMac, Transformed

Redesigned with a recyclable anodized aluminum frame and glass cover, the iMac is friendlier to the environment.

The new keyboard's ultrathin anodized aluminum enclosure features low-profile keys that provide a crisp, responsive feel.

With its anodized aluminum frame and glass cover, the new iMac instantly transforms your workspace from cluttered desktop to brilliant display podium. Because it's made from a single sheet of aluminum, you won't see any seams or screws except for a single compartment on the bottom that provides easy access to the memory slots. The glossy widescreen 20-inch display makes photos and movies come alive with rich color. And the built-in iSight camera and microphone are integrated so neatly you barely notice they're there. Aside from the design details, the iMac is also friendlier to the environment with highly recyclable and durable materials including scratch-resistant glass and professional grade aluminum. The power-efficient iMac also meets the stringent new Energy Star 4.0 requirements.

With its elegant anodized aluminum enclosure, the new Apple Keyboard looks equally at home in your living room or on your desk. Just connect it to the USB port on your iMac and start enjoying the crisp, responsive feel of its low-profile keys. The extended layout has a full complement of keys, including document navigation controls, a numeric keypad, and special function keys for Mac features such as brightness, volume, eject, play/pause, Exposé, and more. Two USB 2.0 ports provide high-speed connectivity for your iPod, Mighty Mouse, digital camera, and other USB-based electronic devices.

Preinstalled with iLife '08
Every iMac includes iLife '08, the latest version of Apple's award-winning suite of digital media applications, with major upgrades to iPhoto, iDVD, iWeb, and GarageBand and a completely reinvented iMovie. iPhoto '08 now automatically organizes photo libraries into Events that let you more easily manage your growing photo collections, and iMovie '08 can import video from the latest AVCHD, HDV and DV camcorders, as well as from digital cameras, and displays your entire video library whether it's stored on internal or external drives. Both iPhoto and iMovie integrate seamlessly with the new .Mac Web Gallery, Apple's new service for .Mac members to instantly create and host websites for their photos and videos.

The pre-installed iLife '08 software suite includes a completely redesigned iMovie, which makes it even easier to share your videos on the Internet.

iLife '08 also features iWeb '08, with live web widgets such as Google Maps that let you create even more dynamic websites, and GarageBand '08, with its new Magic GarageBand feature that makes it fun and easy for both musicians and non-musicians to create great sounding songs.

Intel Core 2 Duo Processor
It's powered by the 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 processor from the newest "Santa Rosa" chips, which offer a top-of-the-line 800 MHz front-side bus speed and 4 MB L2 cache. (An L2, or secondary, cache temporarily stores data; and a larger L2 cache can help speed up your system's performance. The FSB carries data between the CPU and RAM, and a faster front-side bus will deliver better overall performance.) With such a substantial L2 cache, data instructions can be kept close to the two processor cores, greatly increasing performance and allowing the entire system to work more efficiently.

The Intel Core 2 Duo's 128-bit SSE3 vector engine handles 128-bit computations in a single clock cycle, accelerating data manipulation by simultaneously applying a single instruction to multiple data. And its two execution cores are designed to share resources and conserve power, helping it to achieve higher levels of performance since it uses fewer watts.

Graphics and Video
The 20-inch widescreen TFT active-matrix LCD offers a resolution of 1680 by 1050 pixels--36 percent more than the previous 17-inch iMac. It has a brightness rating of 290 nits, a contrast ratio of 800:1, and a viewing angle of 160 degrees (both horizontal and vertical). An ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT graphics processor powers the iMac with 128 MB of dedicated GDDR3 memory. It features some of the most advanced graphics technology available and delivers new levels of visual realism and a huge texture fill rate for smooth surfaces and complex character details. GDDR3 (Graphics Double Data Rate, version 3) is a graphics card-specific memory technology that's better able to deliver fluid frame rates for even the most advanced games and applications.

This iMac also enables you to connect a second display in either extended desktop mode or video mirroring mode. The mini-DVI port connects to DVI displays, VGA monitors and projectors, and S-video and composite devices using the appropriate adapter (sold separately).

Wired and Wireless Connectivity

You get a full complement of ports on the back of the iMac, including three USB 2.0 and two flavors of FireWire--400 and 800.

The iMac gives you plenty of room to grow, accommodating as many as five peripherals at a time thanks to its three USB 2.0 ports and the two USB 2.0 ports on the Apple Keyboard. It also includes two powered FireWire ports--one FireWire 400 and one FireWire 800 (one of the fastest peripheral standards available)--enabling you to quickly transfer content from digital video cameras, hard drives, and other high-speed devices.

Share files around your house with built-in 10/100/1000BASE-T Ethernet as well as the next-generation high-speed wireless 802.11n technology, which is integrated into the latest Apple Airport Extreme Base Station. The iMac is also Wi-Fi Certified to work with base stations and routers that use industry-standard 802.11a, 802.11b, or 802.11g wireless technologies.

The integrated Bluetooth wireless connectivity--version 2.0 + Enhanced Data Rate (EDR)--allows you to use a wireless keyboard or mouse, and synchronize peripherals such as cell phones and PDAs. Enjoy high-quality sound on almost any speaker system with double-duty analog/digital audio. Record digital and analog sources through audio line in, perfect for your latest podcast in GarageBand.

SuperDrive
Integrated neatly into the iMac is a slot-loading SuperDrive that lets you play and burn your own CDs and DVDs--including double-layer DVDs. And there's no disc tray--just slide the disc right in. It offers the following speeds:

Writes DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL discs at up to 4x speed
Writes DVD-R and DVD+R discs at up to 8x speed
Writes DVD-RW at up to 6x speed and DVD+RW discs at up to 8x speed
Reads DVDs at up to 8x speed
Writes CD-R discs at up to 24x speed
Writes CD-RW discs at up to 16x speed
Reads CDs at up to 24x speed

Other Features

Two SO-DIMM slots support up to 4 GB of RAM
Built-in stereo speakers with internal 24-watt digital amplifier
Support for external display in extended desktop mode: 1920 by 1200 pixels for digital and 2048 by 1536 pixels for analog
Meets ENERGY STAR requirements with maximum continuous power rating of 200 watts
Dimensions: 19.1 x 18.5 x 7.4 inches (WxHxD)

Included Software
Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard operating system (includes Spotlight, Dashboard, Mail, iChat AV, Safari, Address Book, QuickTime, iCal, DVD Player, Xcode Developer Tools); iLife '08 (includes iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, iWeb, GarageBand); Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac Test Drive; iWork (30-day trial); and Front Row

What's in the Box
iMac, Apple Keyboard, Mighty Mouse, Apple Remote, cleaning cloth, power cord, install/restore DVDs, printed and electronic documentation

Customer Reviews

The Ultimate Desktop Computer
Apple iMac Desktop with 20" Display MA877LL/A (2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1 GB RAM, 320 GB Hard Drive, SuperDrive)
This is an outstanding computer, any way you look at it. Beautiful, elegant, blazingly fast, very stable OS, large screen with excellent resolution and colors, and minimal desktop footprint. Easy memory upgrades. And most wonderful, with VMWare Fusion it can seamlessly operate Windows, Linux, Unix, or other operating systems on the same desktop with Mac Leopard. Wow!

This latest Mac Intel is a very elegant and powerful design. The entire computer is behind the desktop screen -- no bulky deskside box. The CD port is on the side, and a range of USB and FireWire plugs in the back. Very compact! Memory chips insert easily from under the screen -- I've installed 3GB vs the standard 1GB, and everything works very smoothly and VERY FAST. No overheating problems or application delays. The Dual Core structure gives the Intel Mac the computing power and flexibility to run multiple applications at full speed - I often have five or six, several with wide-bandwidth interactive data feeds and video streaming, running at once with no problems.

I opted for the 20" 2.4GHz version, since I wanted speed, but reasonable size. The larger 24-inch version is fabulous, but too huge for my desk area, and really not necessary unless you are doing professional graphics design, CAD/CAM, or truly huge spreadsheets. The 20-inch can show two fullsize Word pages side by side, or multiple screens of different programs. I often have four or five open at the same time on the same screen without difficulty.

Some of my most important software only runs on Windows, so I installed VMWare Fusion and Windows XP. This took about 20 minutes, and I then had one computer running both Windows and Mac at blazing speed. I installed my Windows applications, and have been running them 12 hr a day for a month with no problems at all. It works perfectly! Fast, smooth, and no hiccups/crashes/freezes/Blue Screen of Death such as I had often encountered on my Windows laptop. I have to say that my Windows applications work better on Mac Leopard with Fusion than they do on my actual Windows laptop (a Sony VAIO -- an otherwise very good computer).

The IMac Intel with Leopard/Fusion/Windows is the ultimate computer. Both operating systems run side by side, with instant transfer of data between OS's without rebooting or other hassles. It's outstanding! For most people the 20" is plenty big, but if you need a really huge screen, go for the 24" model.

A Perfect Computer
We have had this computer for a few months, now. It has been nearly perfect. It is so easy to use that I cannot comment on how it works - I have no idea how it works, and I don't need to. The software is well integrated, World of Warcraft plays on maximum settings, the screen is better than our television so we use the mac instead. The aluminum keyboard is a pleasure, the mighty mouse seems to work through magic, and everything works all the time. It does what you think it should do, only better and with less hassle than you expect.

I am a very happy Mac customer.

IMac convert and happy about it
I finally had enough with Vista problems and slowness. made the big switch to Mac and definately have no regrets. it is a great machine that will work with any of my windows applications. I especially am very very happy about not having to worry about viruses, etc. anymore. they are a bit more expensive upfront but in the long run, I think the cost washes out and I know the joy of using this type of computer is much enhanced. I would definately endorse the IMac.

Best Buys on Computers: Desktop, Laptops, PDAs, assessories

Apple iMac Desktop with 20" Display MA876LL...

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