Apple brings iMac line up to date
Better CPUs, more Ram, ATI graphics, SDXC card support
Apple has indeed updated its iMac line, as anticipated, beefing up the line's speeds'n'feeds and adding support for the new SDXC memory card format.
The new models sport a selection of Intel Core i3, i5 and i7 processors and come with 4GB of 1333MHz DDR 3 as standard.
And Apple has dropped Nvidia graphics in favour of a range of AMD ATI Radeons: the 4670 with 256MB of GDDR 3 video memory, the 5670 with 512MB GDDR 3 or the 5750 with 1GB of dedicated Ram.
The GPUs drive a choice of 21.5in, 1920 x 1080 or 27in, 2560 x 1440 IPS LCD glossy display.
There's no USB 3.0 port, but the machines have four USB 2.0 connectors, a 7W output Firewire 800 port and an SDXC card slot. There's a Mini DisplayPort too.
The iMacs have built in 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 and Gigabit Ethernet. You can spec them up with 500GB to 2TB of 7200rpm hard drive storage, or a 256GB SSD. They have 8x multi-format DVD writers as standard.
The 21.5in model starts at £999, the 27in iMac at £1399.
The Macs come bundled with a Magic Mouse, but Apple is pitching its new Magic Trackpad as their ideal accessory. ®
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COMMENTS
eh?
I'm confused?
"iMac owners can now use processors that have only been out for a few years :D Congratulations."
The 3.2 GHz dual core i3 used in the 27" iMac was released end of May.[1], the quad 2.8GHz i5 they're using in the high end 27" iMac looks to have been released on July 18th[2].
1 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Core_i3_microprocessors#Dual-Core_Desktop_processors
2 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Core_i5_microprocessors#.22Lynnfield.22_.2845_nm.29
Something like the FingerWorks pad they killed off, then?
Wow. It looks like Apple have finally launched something resembling a replacement to one of the TouchWorks products they killed off after buying up the company back in 2005, in the form of the new Magic Trackpad. What's the betting that everyone will see this as some kind of amazing Apple innovation, rather than a shiner but more limited version of hardware invented elsewhere and Borged by them?
Yeah!
Bought that i7 CPU back in the 80s but had to wait for another wormhole in the 90s until I got the board supporting it.
USB3? who cares
What does USB3 do that Firewire 800 can't do better?
Firewire pro audio hardware is in widespread use. USB3 isn't yet.
16:9
Having recently bought a 27" monitor, the fact it's 16:9 and not 16:10 is a non-issue when the screen's almost 34cm high and you've got a vertical resolution of 1440 pixels. A 16:10 27" is less than 3cm higher.
And no, I can't see 2.35:1 aspect screens (presumably the "cinema aspect" to which you refer, although a monitor whose aspect ratio is an approximation of pi might be worthy of geek cred) becoming mainstream. The MSOffice ribbon would take up have of the screen.
Those massive CRTs of yours probably cost more than a 27" IPS LCD does today...
