Tech News on G4 Apple iMac Breaks the 3GHz Barrier May 06, 2008 By Greg Gazin - Apple Gazin’ - G4 Canada

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Take note, the iMac has entered its 6th generation. While it’s descendant, the original bloated 300Mhz Bondi-Blue, was responsible in putting Apple back on the map a decade ago, it’s latest incarnation is an incredible speed-demon.  The heart of the latest top-of the line 24” iMac is a 3.06 GHz Intel Core Duo 2 processor with a whopping 6MB L2 cache and a 1066 MHZ front-side bus. L2 cache, also called secondary cache is a nifty invention which speeds up the processor and helps the memory, by storing some of the commonly used instructions and moving it substantially quicker to he processor than conventional RAM. On this iMac Model only, Apple has changed the picture on the video card, replacing the ATi with the 512MB GDDR3 NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS. At only $2299, this iMac ships stock with a 500GB serial ATA 7200 RPM hard drive, 2GB of memory, an 8X Dual-Layer SuperDrive, built-in iSight camera, mouse, keyboard, iWork08, Mac OS Leopard 10.5, Airport Extreme 80211n wireless networking & BlueTooth 2.1, built-in speakers, microphone and yes, it comes with a remote and all the other goodies all Macs come with. Please note that the 3.06GHz model is a built-to-order model. Barnburner Fully decked out you can double your hard drive storage space to a terabyte, that’s 1000GB of storage, and additional 2GB of Ram bringing it up to 4GB. AT $2749, this configuration is not only reasonable; it’s also a barnburner. I’m quite impressed with the specs on this unit. What I would have really liked to see, since the demise of HD DVD, would have been an optional BluRay drive available. If speed is not your bag, but a new iMac is in the cards, the entry-level iMac, remains at $1299, now comes stock with a 2.4GHZ processor, 1GB Memory/250GB HD/8x DL-SuperDrive and an ATI Radeon HD 2400XT/128MB ram. For a mere $300 more you can get the same unit but with 2.66GHZ/2GB Memory/320GB HD/8x DL-SuperDrive and an ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO/256MB ram. Unless you are a casual user, this unit, the latter unit is a better way to go. And there is one more 24” model, at $1899 with a 2.88GHz processor, 2GB Memory/320GB HD/8x DL-SuperDrive and an ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO/256MB ram. Apple Care on the iMac unit is only $199, extending your warranty to 3 years. The iMac has certainly come a long way, it’s no longer the baby Mac you’d use just for homework. It’s become a powerful, respectable and good looking desktop computer for any home or office. “The iMac’s gorgeous aluminum and glass all-in-one design has been an incredible hit with our customers and is just one of the reasons Mac sales are growing three and a half times faster than PC sales,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “With the latest Intel processors, a faster new graphics option and more memory, customers now have even more reasons to love the iMac.” For more information on this or other Mac models, visit www.apple.ca.     Greg Gazin can be reached at gadgetguy “at” telus “dot” net.

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