It's a day earlier than expected, but considering everybody in the entire world knew Apple planned to release an updated iMac this week, was there really any reason to make us all wait an extra 24 hours? No, there was not.
The new secret formula is, as expected, faster Core 2 Duo Penryn processors, but they didn't change the starting prices on these machines. Nice touch, Cupertino. The base 20" iMac opens at $1200, and that nets you a 2.4GHz processor, 1GB of 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM (expandable to 4GB) and 250GB available on the hard drive for whatever shenanigans you care to plot.
But if you really want a little something-something, the top-of-the-line 24" iMac fronts a really, really fast 3.06GHz chip with an NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS graphics card and 512MB video RAM, so you'll never want for buttery smooth video again. It comes with 2GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive, plus a 8x double-layer SuperDrive. That'll run you a cool $2200 out of the gate (a 2.8GHz/320GB version drops it to $1800), but you can boost those specs to 4GB of RAM for a extra $200, and a full terabyte on the HD for $250 more. And why the hell wouldn't you?
We'd also suggest a SquareTrade warranty for your new toy, so you can make sure it's still around long enough to justify all the cheddar you shelled out for it. Use the quote widget in the sidebar to see how much money we'll save you, too... AppleCare protection is a flat $169 across the board. Our prices pretty much beat everything except warranties on the highest-priced iMacs, and the difference there won't be more than a few bucks. But we've got great reviews and a 5-Day Service Guarantee that ensures you're back up and running in no time. They don't. That's probably worth a couple of bucks to you.
Nice as all this is, let's be honest... it's just a tease before the Apple Worldwide Developer's Conference in June, where we'll see a 32GB iPhone with high-speed 3G connections and haptic feedback and true GPS and all of our other dreams come true.
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