The $899 Educational iMac 483
Valthan writes "Macsimum news has just released news about a new version of the iMac that is being touted as an educational machine. It seems to be a nice setup, and has the cheapness that us university students strive on, I think they just may have a winner here to get people on the Mac. Now if only JCreator worked on it ..."
From the article "Featuring a 17-inch widescreen LCD display, the iMac for education includes a Combo drive for burning CDs and reading DVDs, 512MB of 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM memory expandable up to 2GB and hard drive storage capacity up to 160GB. Every iMac also includes a built-in iSight video camera, built-in 10/100/1000 BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet for high-speed networking, built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11g WiFi for up to 54Mbps wireless networking, a total of five USB ports (three USB 2.0) and two FireWire 400 ports."
Direct info from apple (Score:5, Informative)
Technical specifications & available configurations [apple.com]
5 USB ports? (Score:3, Informative)
granted, i have an imac g5 that has the same USB setup, but i just don't like misleading advertising. (although its not really advertising, but i digress.)
Re:Cheap, but not cheap enough. (Score:2, Informative)
From the Apple Store for Education (Score:5, Informative)
1440x900 resolution
1.83GHz Intel Core Duo processor (1)
512MB memory (2x256MB SO-DIMMs)
80GB Serial ATA hard drive
24x Combo drive (DVD-ROM, CD-RW)
Intel GMA 950 graphics with 64MB of shared memory
($899)
The regular entry level iMac comes with
17-inch widescreen LCD
1440x900 resolution
1.83GHz Intel Core Duo processor (1)
512MB memory (single SO-DIMM)
160GB Serial ATA hard drive
8x double-layer SuperDrive (DVD±RW, CD-RW)
ATI Radeon X1600 graphics with 128MB GDDR3 memory
Bluetooth 2.0
Apple Remote
($1199)
You save $300, but give up Apple Remote, bluetooth, ATI Radeon, 80GB of drive space, and the SuperDrive.
Re:Cheap, but not cheap enough. (Score:5, Informative)
And the dual core out performs the AMD 2.2.
Not Available in Canada (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Just in time for Leopard (Score:4, Informative)
Except that, as even a modest gaming rig, it's entirely uninspiring, largely thanks to the graphics chip. As the GMA 950 lacks support for things like T&L and vertex shaders, it's not going to cut it for most modern games. And since it draws from main system memory, the fact that the system is shipping with only 512MB (even granted the fact that it's expanadable to 2GB) is going to be a problem, as well. It seems extremely unlikely to me that this is going to set anyone's world on fire. It certainly won't bomb, but I don't really think it's going to expand much beyond the original eMac niche.
Dude... JCreator? (Score:2, Informative)
Yes $899 is cheap. (Score:3, Informative)
It seems like a rather good deal to me, that offer is actually cheaper than the computer I bought when I went to university. I spent almost every cent I had on that thing including the money meant for buying books. The school books I checked out of the library or borrowed off my friends then I photocopied them for a fraction of what they would have cost to buy and had the resultant stack of A4 paper bound in a spiral binding. The Software was uhummm... well borrowed.... I could never have afforded to buy it back then, even with student discounts, and yet it was more or less a requirement to have expensive word processing software and even massively expensive software like Autocad since the teachers didn't just place importance on content and academic achievement but also the way the reports and assignments were finished and laid-out and they lowered the grade automatically for what they judged to be clumsy and unprofiessionally laid-out reports or assignments. The school claimed that they had enough computers in their labs to cover all the student's needs but that was of course complete crap. At the end of the term the labs were packed and having your own computer could make the difference between finishing your big end-of-term assignments/reports or flunking out. What sort of machine you have to buy depends very much on what you are studying. I suppose you could get away with buying some older-than-your-granny Pentium II laptop at scrap value if you are a philosophy major and only need to run Office 95 or Windows ME but If you are an engineering student something of the caliber of this machine is pretty much an entry level requirement these days.
Lenovo N100 models hit this price point (Score:3, Informative)
This isn't just for students (Score:2, Informative)
Re:899 is cheap? (Score:3, Informative)
Harvard costs about $38k including tuition, fees, room and board. Most people aren't going to ivy league schools.
Cost is going to depend heavily on area, but the local univeristy here (University at Buffalo) you looking at more like $6K for tuition and fees and housing starts at about $4K. And there are colleges you can go to with tuition and fees well under $4K for the year.
And this all ignores the fact that most people don't for college while they're going. It's typically going to be some combination of grants, loans, scholarships, and money from parents or trustfunds.
Really an institutional machine... (Score:3, Informative)
- this will drop the HD capacity (schools don't generally load up boxes with the photos and songs that end users do)
- drop the remote (you can drive FrontRow from the keyboard)
- 20" (for students in a lab up close, 17" is plenty big)
- bluetooth (not a big deal in a classroom)
- graphics for gamers
- DVD burner (as long as you have one or two of these per lab, you'll do fine)
Re:Cash (Score:5, Informative)
You can get what is essentially a Mastercard with no annual fee and an APR somewhere between 13.5% and 22.5% depending on your credit rating, with no interest for 90 days after purchase. If you've got good credit, this pretty much amounts to the same thing you got. If not, good luck finding financing anyway.
Re:Cheap, but not cheap enough. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:A bit spoiled? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Cheap, but not cheap enough. (Score:3, Informative)
And of course, since we're talking the educational market, you can also snag a full academic version of office for $120 (or less, since a lot of campuses negotiated larger discounts).
oops (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Yes $899 is cheap. (Score:3, Informative)
And what part of engineering student needing a CAD program didn't you understand?
The poster was speaking of his own experiences and you accuse him of lying? His experience sounded pretty believable to me.
Comment removed (Score:2, Informative)
Re:5 USB ports? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Cash (Score:4, Informative)
While you're at it, run the numbers through an online credit card calculator.
Assuming the 22.49% APR and a 3-year payoff, the total interest on a financed $899 iMac is $338, or 37% above the store price.
Now your $899 iMac costs you $1,237.
Ain't credit grand?