Apple iMac Desktop 15" M8672LL/B (700MHz PowerPC G4, 128MB RAM, 4GB HDD, CD-RW drive)

Product Description

For the same cost as the original iMac several years ago, the new iMac provides a host of breakthroughs, including a stunning flat-panel display, blazing-fast G4 processor, the remarkable Mac OS X operating system, and a number of preinstalled software applications.Numbers alone can't do the new iMac justice, of course. After all, how do you quantify such attributes as friendliness, ease of use, freedom to convert an unlimited number of songs from your CDs into MP3 files, and a built-in fun factor that's clear off the charts? You might even say that the new iMac's most widely quoted statistic may be how fast it lets first-time users connect to the Internet - right out of the box. In the past that number has varied, depending on how long each individual owner paused to admire the iMac after unpacking it. And chances are, given the new iMac's futuristic good looks, this time around your first look could take rather a long time indeed.

Customer Reviews:

No good for games.......2003-02-16

I bought my iMac just a few months ago with the expectation that I would get a few good years of use out of it. Instead with the very first game I installed (Warcraft Reign Of Chaos) I found I couldn't run it a the top quality settings. Oh the game will run, but I found the best I could get out of Allied Assault was vastly inferior to what my friends could get out of their PCs. It was embarrasing. It appears that the problem is not the CPU speed, but the graphics. This iMac comes with built in nVIDIA GeForce2 MX video card. This card does not support all of the latest video standard. To get that you have to get a computer with a new ATI or nVIDIA graphics cards. Apple sells systems like this, but they cost twice as much as this computer. Now the insulting part is that the new graphics cards only cost about fifty bucks more! Apple could easily put better graphics in this iMac, but then it would be as good it's more expensive offerings. Other than that I have enjoyed my system. I find it works great for ripping MP3s and surfing the web. It just burns me up that the day it arrived at my house it was unable to run at least one new game at the top settings. Was that too much to ask? Now I just have years of even worse gaming performance to look forward too.

Time to switch to mac.......2003-02-12

OK once I saw this computer I knew it was time to switch over to the mac world. this machine is a work of art it is so nice to look at, takes up little space, great flat screen display best I have seen, and is quite fast. I love this and will never go back. My pants off to Apple for making this!

Mac or IBM Compatable?.......2003-02-12

That is the question. I think the answer depends on what you want to do with a computer. I have an old Compaq Lap top with Window 98 with Celron 400 or something. It is slow. But I only use it for word processing and surfing the web. But my lap top crashes a lot. I had to re-format the entire hard drive 6 times, and I had the lap top for 3 years. I bought an iMac in Jan 2003. I don't know how fast my iMac is compared to an IBM Compatable. I love this machine. Of course, I had to get use to the new operating system. But it didn't take me that long. After all, it is very similar to Window XP (or is Windows XP very similar to Mac OS X?). Any way, it does everything I ask it to do, including surfing the web, converting CD to MP3s, and downloading and printing digital photos. I bought the Window Office for Mac OS X. I can tranfer my documents (word, excel, powerpoint, etc) to and from others who own Windows operating systems without a single problem. I don't really play games on my computer (I have a Playstation 2 for that), and I don't do CAD or other engineering/drafting tasks. So if you are like me-MP3's, digital photography, email/web surfing, typing/creating documents, other "regular" stuff, I would definately recommend an iMac. I love the monitor and the computer does not crash. I think of an apple computer as having a BMW car. It is more pricey, not common (they don't make as many as GM does), and hard to find parts for it. But it is very reliable. So if you are going to use a computer, why not an iMac? I switched!! Because I appreciate the fact a company went beyond functionality. Wouldn't you rather drive a Mercedes Benz or an BMW? Only reason I am give it a 4 star is that NO COMPUTER IS PERFECT!!

Great Computer, Go Check it Out For Yourself.......2002-12-20

I think most people who've placed a review here do not actually own or use this computer, so I'll just run down my experience. First, the machine. I got the middle of the line iMac as soon as it was available (and waited two months, two months too long.) I upgraded the sdRAM to 512, had 40 gigs of room, and the rest just basic. Since then, I have added an 80 gig external drive (for my 6300 mp3 files imported at 192-320 kbps,) the harmon kardon(SP?) iSticks speakers (awesome!!) the iPod, an m515 palm, and external floppy drive, office X, and a .Mac account. This computer can do quite alot without adding too much. I play Return to Castle Wolfenstein constantly on this machine while running the iTunes software in the background and it handles the graphics beautifully. (For those who experience slow/poor gaming, try increasing the sdRAM within the wolfenstein program code-- it runs much faster and better.) Basically if you take the time to figure out how to use this machine properly it will do everything you want without creating any problems. I have yet to experience a crash or serious problem besides a slow floppy drive. If you have a digital camera and a .Mac account, you can publish a webpage in less than ten minutes (even with dial-up)-- it is that easy. iTunes is the perfect MP3 software, with so many options and capabilities that I am always tinkering with it. I have a dial-up connection so I don't often do much with internet movies and never believed in downloading music, so no problems there. Now that there are mac stores all over the U.S. you can get a great feeling for what these computers can do from really sharp folks. Even the guy at comp usa was impressed with my machine and was hangin out showing me even more things I could do with photoshop and digital cameras. Do you have tons of negatives from normal film that you'd like to email or publish on the web or even print out at your leisure, or create a movie or slideshow or book? You can do all of this with great ease (and a scanner that scans film- probably the better alternative for digital cameras since film will always be better quality) on this machine. Every program is intuitive and easy to use, I have figured out how to do everything on this computer without ever opening any software manual (and maybe asking help maybe 3 times total.) Apple is definitely a company to partner with for your computing needs 'cause everything is intuitive, easy to use and they've taken care of it before you find a problem. Check it out, you'll be happy you did.

Last thing: If I hadn't already waited six months to find out what Apple might possibly release Jan. '02 just so I could get the overhauled iMac instead of the old box forms, and was going to buy one today, I WOULD DEFINITELY SAVE MY MONEY FOR THE 17" beauty with DVD and CD burning capabilities!! Drool...

This is my first computer, so...............2002-11-23

Let me say right off, there is no DVD Player on this Model (knew that going in, but Amazon.com includes it in its description). I bought this iMac in late August and so far I'm pretty happy with it. The thing you should know is that the Quicktime application is useless with a dial-up connection, so the very first thing I had to do was to download and install Real Audio for OSX to hear or see anything streaming on the Web.

I've never owned a Windows PC so I can't compare the two, but this is a beautiful machine to look at, that was important to me since I'm going to be using it every day for the next 4-5 years, and, it is easy to use. I had some trouble with it connecting to my ISP, but I did figure it out.

The CD-R is a very nice feature, that is where, for example, you can get some CD's at your local Library, and using your MAC you can put them onto a blank CD, which is pretty cool. That is also easy to do, even for a new user like me. Anyway, I should probably give it 4 Stars, but I've only had it for 3 months, so we'll see. Hope this Review helps you a little.

Electronics:

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Electronics