iMac 800MHz G4 SuperDrive 15-inch (Flat Panel)

15-inch Flat Panel | 800MHz

“The all-new iMac is here. And it’s unlike anything you’ve ever seen or experienced.” That quote from Apple aptly described the “wow” factor and excitement greeting the introduction of this radical new design.

The hemispherical base was novel but not gimmicky. Clad in pure white, the new iMac caused the world of beige suitcase-sized PCs to suddenly appear dirty and antiquated. In short, it was a work of art and a milestone in personal computing.

The 15-inch flat panel display of this sunflower-inspired design appeared to float in the air before the user. The LCD was attached to an elegant stainless steel stem allowing for effortless positioning at almost any angle. This was “Think Different” at its best.

Thankfully, the all-new iMac was no empty-headed beauty. Within its innovative dome beat the new PowerPC G4 processor with AltiVec “Velocity Engine.” The previous ATI Rage 128 Ultra with 16MB SDRAM had also been replaced with a NVIDIA GeForce2 MX with 32MB of DDR SDRAM.

This was the high-end model and came equipped with a SuperDrive and Apple Pro Speakers. There was also a low-end model with a tray-loading CD-RW drive, without the speakers. The mid-range model came with the Apple Pro Speakers and a Combo drive and more memory. A SuperDrive 17-inch model iMac would join the lineup six months later.

All three 15-inch models in this series came with the same NVIDIA graphics controller, two 400Mbps FireWire ports, three USB 1.1 ports, a mini-VGA output port, built-in modem and Ethernet, and were AirPort ready.

system software

Installed OS: Mac OS X v10.1.2 “Puma” and v9.2.2

etymology

[1] iMac: From Internet + Mac

[2] The “i” in iMac originally stood for Internet but eventually developed into a marketing symbol for a wide range of Apple products.

design

Photo credit: Apple