With the sub-US$500 headless iMac rumours going around, I'm bloody excited! I should know better than not to get hopes up from stuff on the rumour sites, but this one is too juicy not to get excited over!

I'm personally hoping they come out with a G4 1.5GHz model, 256MB RAM, 80GB SATA HDD, Combo Drive, nVidia FX 5200, 3x USB 2.0, 2x FireWire 400 for a RRP of $849 and an EDU price of around $730.

Then I can chuck in 1GB of RAM for $250 and a 36GB 10,000RPM HDD (I don't need a lot of space, that's what my file server is for, I'll take the speed please) for $160, and I have a very decent desktop machine that will handle everything I'd normally throw at it. Another $350 gets me a 12ms 17" DVI LCD with a 1280x1024 resolution and I can view lots of things at once instead of the piddly 1024x768 on my iBook

And the cool thing is, Tiger will probably come with it by the time it actually ships, or, when Tiger comes out, you can redeem a copy for free/cheap when it does (like they did with the PowerMac G5 and Panther)

So for a total of $1500 (I'm a student!), I'd have:
1.5GHz G4 CPU
1024MB DDR 400 RAM
36GB 10,000 RPM HDD
Combo Drive
64MB nVidia FX5200
17" 12ms DVI LCD
Apple Keyboard & Mouse
Mac OS X Tiger

Not a bad idea if you ask me

Oh, and I hope they make it able to be vertically mounted, it'd look great with the iPod in it's dock, my external HDD and DVD burner vertically mounted, it would just look cool

Now all I have to do it wait, and twiddle my thumbs, and hope Steve answers my prayers....

that sounds great... but i wouldnt buy it unless it had a AGP slot and a PCI slot

For it to be viable to PC-types, it would have to have a few PCI slots + AGP.

It might be beige, and it might have a "Quadra" label on the front.

dana

I doubt we'll see more than 2 slots so it doesn't eat in to the PM market too much, but I guess they've already seen to that by making it a G4. Also if the rumoured size is to be believed there probably isn't room for more than one PCI or AGP slot.

Is this the link people are talking about?

If so, they're talking about G4 1.25Ghz CPUs ... a bit lowly, but if it's anything Cube-sized, I won't have to look around for one of those and have a much better Mac alongside my PC, which is a biggun.

Oh, and imagine the overclocks the 1.25Ghz CPU will get ... recalling the late model eMacs

JB

PCI & AGP slots?
What the hell would I do with those, on a low end Mac?
It's a waste of time I tells ya, and won't happen!

This product has been a long time coming for Apple, as a company. Not since the Quadra has there been the prospect of a 'pizza box' computer, with the ability to target the masses, and have a cheap price. There are a few people I know who will be happy to see this out of Apple, and if there is a <$600 price tag, we have the perfect mix. Just one question, why, if the G5 is a cheaper chip to purchase compared with the G4, aren't Apple using this in the iQuad? This, combined with the 64bit advantage, Apple could be on with a winner here in the home market.


Edit: Just realized it is almost identical to another post on Macrumors.

the 1.7ghz upgrade cpus that are being sold by a few companies are overclocked 1.25s or 1.3s

nope - they are overclocked 1.42GHz and 1.6GHz chips

Damn.... didn't macworld SF just get a kick in the pants and become a whole lot more exciting....... I thought the whole asteroid thing would be the only decent hardware annoucement.

But i think if they are releasing this low-end mac..... there'll be no room for a pbook G5 at that show. Maybe Paris will be the debut of it?

http://www.theapplecollection.com/design/m...gn/G5tower.html
http://www.theapplecollection.com/design/m...i-tower_2.shtml
http://www.theapplecollection.com/design/m...sign/eslab.html

Just 3 mock ups that I quite like. The last one being my favorite

And yes this would be right up my alley. A bit more grunt would be nice. And support for core image as well and I'd be set. It doesn't need super graphics, since my PC and gamecube are there for the fps whoring. Upgradeable RAM and harddrive and that will have me set

That way I won't have to plug my keyboard/mouse/ext HDD/monitor into my powerbook every time I get home :P

oooh and superdrive. I want that too.

Hey when is this next macworld? What are the MOST realistic machines (computers) that would be released? is there an almost certain update going by dates or something?

Eg PM speed bump? new eMac etc??

I know nothing is certain but people accurately predicted the new powerbooks and iMac.. i havent seen the rumor site for ages so i need to know what people have heard.

I found one more

http://www.theapplecollection.com/design/m...sign/uMac1.html

in reply to the "why do you need AGP and PCI slots for" statement... i would like to say that... my old Dual 800mhz G4 Quicksilver was dieing ... in terms of speed and graphics wise and i sought of a way to make it reborn.. a CPU upgrade was too expensive for me.. and a awsome new graphics card was wayyy to expensive ($600+ for a Radeon 9800 Pro) so i bought a 9800 Pro PC edition for $260 and flashed it for my mac .. and it has unbelivably increased the performace of my mac... and i just recently purchased a M-Audio Revolution 5.1 Card aswell and that is a PCI card it is great! that is why you "need" AGP + PCI slots