iMacs Speed and Ports Bumped -- Apple refreshed its iMac line today, bumping the processor speed up to 1.25 GHz and improving components on both the 17-inch and 15-inch models. The $1,800 17-inch iMac receives the top-speed PowerPC G4 processor and a fast 167 MHz system bus, and includes 256 MB of SDRAM, an 80 GB hard drive, a 4x SuperDrive, and an Nvidia GeForce FX 5200 Ultra graphics card with 64 MB of RAM. The $1,300 15-inch model has been upgraded to a 1 GHz PowerPC G4 processor with 167 MHz system bus, and includes 256 MB of SDRAM, an 80 GB hard drive, a 32x Combo drive, and the Nvidia GeForce4 MX graphics card with 32 MB of RAM. Both models include the same port configurations as previous models, with a slight twist: the three USB ports on the computer are faster USB 2.0 ports (the two ports on the keyboard remain USB 1.1). FireWire 800 ports, which debuted on the Power Mac G4, have yet to appear on the iMac line. Also, both iMacs now support AirPort Extreme (with the purchase of a $100 card), and can include an internal Bluetooth model (available as a $50 build-to-order option). Both configurations are available now. [JLC]

<http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2003/sep/ 08imac.html>
<http://www.apple.com/imac/>