| Quick Facts | 17-inch iMac iSight |
|---|---|
| Introduced | October 12, 2005 |
| Discontinued | January 10, 2006 |
| Part Number | MA063LL/A |
| Processor | 1.9GHz PowerPC G5 |
| L2 Cache | 512 KB |
| Frontside Bus | 633MHz |
| Memory | 512MB 533MHz DDR2 SDRAM |
| Hard drive | 160GB Serial ATA, 7200 rpm |
| Optical drive | 8x SuperDrive |
| Original Price | $1,299 USD |
Revision C | G5 1.9GHz | iSight
The iMac Ambient Light Sensor series had been introduced a scant 162 days earlier when the “iSight” series made its debut. This is the second refresh of the G5 line, known as Revision C.
The iSight series brought the first cosmetic change to the “chin” design. The computer had slimmed down even more, was lighter and had an iSight camera seamlessly incorporated into the design.
It was also lighter in price, costing $200 less than the 17-inch 2.0GHz iMac it replaced.
This model was powered by the 1.9GHz PowerPC G5 processor with “Velocity Engine” with 512K on-chip L2 cache running at full processor speed. Its more powerful littermate, used the slightly higher 20-inch 2.1GHz iMac. They both had 512MB of 533MHz DDR2 SDRAM.
This series notched quite a few “firsts” for the iMac. It was the first to add a PCI-Express bus, the first to use of DDR2 SDRAM and for the first time the memory could be expanded to 2.5GB. It was also the first to include the Apple Remote (for Front Row) and the Apple Mighty Mouse.
The SuperDrive and hard drive were the same as its predecessor, with the frontside bus inching up ever so slightly from 600MHz to 633MHz. Airport Extreme and Bluetooth were still built-in features, the same as previous models.
Apple stayed with ATI for graphics support. This model bumped up video performance by means of the PCI-Express version of the ATI Radeon X600 Pro with 128MB of DDR SDRAM.
Both models in the iSight series had two FireWire 400 ports, three USB 2.0 ports, (two more USB 1.1 ports on the keyboard), VGA output port, S-video and composite video output, headphone output, audio line in, and built-in modem and Ethernet.
A built-in stereo speaker system and built-in microphone came standard.
system software
Installed OS: Mac OS X v10.4.2 “Tiger” and Classic Mode
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.
[3] The Chin designation is derived from the area beneath the display resembling a square jaw.
[4] The iSight designation is derived from this series being the first to seamlessly integrate the iSight camera into the design.
design
Photo credit: Apple
