The time is ripe for a 23" iMac

You people who keeping wanting to put these high end machines into the back of big monitors have some kind of sick fascination.

bring back the iMac flat panel configuration!

Could we get the option for the X1800 instead? The X1650 is only a tiny bit faster than the X1600.

Make it happen.



--DotComCTO

Don't think Apple are going to offer you what you want.
I mean - you can buy a MBP and hook a 23" onto that. Or a MB for that matter.
Save yourself a few bucks and hook a Dell 24" (YES a DELL - many of us have them, way better I/O options and cheaper. They're not as pretty, granted but for the money they're hard to walk past).
At round about the price point you're wanting.

As a long time 23"iMac apologist, I'll buy one.

Despite all the naysayers, and notgonnahappeners, it's the obvious route for Apple;
The 17"/20" line up will get cheaper in time and they'll need a new top model.
If you have a 20"iMac rev.A, you want a better computer when you have to upgrade.
That means faster processor and larger screen.
Keep it simple.

The nice thing though, is that it will cost about the same as a fully equipped 20"iMacG5 rev.A back in 2004.

my 2 eurocent.

Yes, they will.
They have to.

Because, like you said, all those smart ass bastards buy a MacBook and Dell screen, instead of a 23"iMac (with larger margins than a MacBook) or a MacBook and a 23"iMac.

Don't think Apple allows such a blasphemy.

I still don't get how they have a 20" one even! And...after ALL these years...they don't have video IN on computers with big screens, like the 17" Power/MacBook Pros, and 20 and even 17" iMacs. Because the computer will be outdated long, long before the display. Is this intentional planned obsolescence, to make us buy new Apple displays? It's pissed me off since the days of the Mac Plus. I write them on this every now and then. But now with these HUGE ASS built in screens this is something that really should be addressed. I can't believe people don't harp on this more.

Yes, to make you buy a new Mac.

Or a television?

Originally I thought this would never happen either, that was until the 17" iMac became the EDU iMac. That leaves the line ripe for a 20" base (perhaps only model ala the MacPro). With a 20" base then a 23" high-end model would be in order -- as long as Apple wants to keep the same two product iMac line like they have had for a number of years. I don't know anything about graphics cards but those specs you presented seem realisitc enough to me. I wouldn't worry about heat/noise either as the larger screen would give more room for passive cooling. I guess we'll wait and see what happens in two weeks.

I like you.

As much as I love my 20" iMac, there's nothing more I'd like than to have a revised 20" where they do away with the "chin". I'd take that before worrying about a 23".

The 2.4 Conroe sells for $316 which, IIRC, is pretty much in line with the 2.0 Yonah when it came to market -- which went in the iMac. As Commodus stated, that same price point in the Merom would only get you a 2.0 to 2.13 chip. Not much of an increase from the current offering with no reduction in price. Doesn't seem logical to go that route.

Here is my take:

- 2.0/2.44/2.66 GHz Core 2 Duo - 4mb L2 Cache (1066MHz fsb)
- 1GB DDR2 RAM (667MHz)
- 16X Superdrive / 2X Bluray Disk Drive
- 250Gb/320Gb Sata2 Hard Drive (7200rpm)
- 512MB GDDR3 NVIDIA GeForce 7300GT/7600GT (256mb turbocache)

Now that setup is possible.

I would expect it to perhaps come with a better card, but for a default setup, it seems reasonable.

The CPU up to 2.66Ghz simply because 23" is alot of space behind that screen, and really, if it could handle a G5 @ 20" then a Core 2 Duo @ 23" shouldn't pose much of a problem. The Core 2 Duo I think uses 3 Watts more in Performace per Watt, Apple arn't happy about it on the "Menroms" but I am not sure about the "Conroe" but I would imagine mabye a little higher, mabye 6 or 7 watts.

The ram would be punched to a 1Gb, simply because anything below would mean it wouldn't be able to take full advantage of the CPU and GPU, in cases for Video Editing or Games where atleast 1Gb is usually required, making this a good gaming system out of the box, aswell as a fairly descent video editing, perhaps with a little more ram could compete with the lowest end MacPro. So if you don't need the power of the MacPro's Quad Processing, and don't want to pay for a 20" or 23" display seperate, this would be a perfect option!

Would work good as a media center for the bedroom aswell as a (very) fast computer for doing more "serious" computing in photoshop or Final Cut HD.

Full 1080p HD video would also be a great thing, especially if they got Bluray drives. Their current drives are Sony, and Bluray is made by Sony, so I would see it to be more than likly.

As for Noise Level, wouldn't have thought it should be much higher, if any at all, the extra space will allow a higher flow of air across the motherboard, plus they could put bigger fans running at the same rpm as current ones but at the same time pushing more air, and still being even more quiet. CPU cooling though is something I don't know about in the Mac, especially for the Core 2 Duo's. The HSF they are giving for the PC are a nice size, so not exactly sure how they would do it, but I am sure Apple will come up with something.

--Other Thoughts--

Apple may release a "new" iMac design in January at MacWorld, so not sure if they would really invest money in this, but it could happen if they don't plan on changing the design in the next 5-10 months.

i'm buying an imac as soon as there are updates.

if they do a 23" then i'll definitely be spending the extra pennies on that.
it makes so much sense to have a 23" imac.

it'd be such a desirable computer and sell by the truck-load.

Wouldn't say or the truckload - but still proably quite good.

i'd buy it.

Truly. Give me the IMac with a 4" screen with corresponding lower price and I'll plug in my own 23' that has more than one use{TV console games,etc).

I would not buy one for myself, but I could argue that a 23" iMac is the ideal size. It would be about the same size as a 20" iMac, but the display area would have no large border. It would be better looking than the current iMacs, but heavier.

I don't think we can make a good argument for anything larger, however.

Having purschased a Dell 24" for my PB G4, i can tell you that a 23" iMac would be very nice indeed. Im enjoying the viewing enhancement. That said, im considering a MB and not a MBP (partner has one anyway), since the 13" allows better portability or a 23" iMac for better performance ('borrow' the MBP if the need arises). Although id have to ebay the Dell if the specs of the '23" iMac' blow me away!

The 23" iMac would also have the space for a second hard drive, which would be used for back-up /Time Machine use.

mrtotes

i like your thinking.

The difference between 20" and 23" $300, just add that to 20" iMac - $1999

23" iMac - $1999 is doable (whatever the specs may be, bit higher than 20", one step higher CPU, one step higher the GPU, 1GB RAM, is a nice Specs)

It will harden fight against the PC world.

IMHO, iMac still stands out (when compared to PC world), It time to make it better.

We could see this after 16th Sep when iPod offer expires.

I like that idea, but if Apple is going to go that route, I think they'll do it when they put C2D in the iMac and not two weeks later just to wait till the end of the iPod deal. They'll all come out together or this one wont come out at all.

Not only I agree with what you said (just not sure about the specification details), but this was the first thing that came to my mind when the Cinema Display price drops were announced. I would go a liitle further and say that Apple could offer a 23" model in two configurations, making good use of the Conroe chips. It is certain that Apple cannot use a Conroe in the 17" and 20" models without sacrificing the machine's silence. And we know well how bad press Apple got because of this in the past.

The G5 in the iMacs was around 45-50 Watts. And the heat and noise issues because of this are well known. Conroe can push that at 65 Watts (I don't remember at which clock speed, perhaps 2.4 GHz). This is more than double the power requirements for Merom and Yonah. I think that we will hardly ever see a Conroe in the 17" and 20" iMacs.

This is puzzling to me, why would Apple knowingly restrict themselves to laptop chips in their desktop computers when they are going to be competing more closely with Wintel computers than at any time in the past? And why would they constrain their product line to two chips and risk delays to multiple systems if one of these chips had a problem but another (the one they are not using) did not? This doesn't make sense to me. Maybe there is a new iMac design for the Conroe, or a lower powered Tower coming...but If the iMac is restricted to the Morem and there is not another Conroe Mac coming out then I think that it is very short sighted of Apple.

This is certainly a possibility.


I think the Conroe iMac would be a 23" model.

If thats the case, and trust me I'm all for it, what of the 17/20" models? I have been saying all along that the 17" would be EDU only and the consumer iMac would only be 20" with the potential of a 23" but if you're saying the only iMac size capable of holding a Conroe, what does the 20" get, a Merom? Does it stick with Yonah?

I would hope that Apple keeps the 17" iMac around and lowers the entry price for the iMac to $999 rather than limiting it to EDU sales only. A 17" wide screen is a great size for a lot of people, and some might acrually prefer it to a larger screen due to space restrictions.

Space restrictions?
It's less than 3 inches (or 7 cm)

There are no people on this earth who would pass the 20" in favor of the 17" because of space restrictions.


Maybe apple will ditche the 17" iMac consumer version in favor of the edu iMac at a lower price (edu plus $100).

if only it were that simple

The 20" iMac can get a Conroe but this would make a noisy machine (very noisy when the processor is taxed). I believe it will take on of the mobile processors (Yonah or Merom), but which one depends on the way Apple handles the issue.

For a 2 Billion dollar company it is not easy or tough ... as long as there is market they can do it.

it will be lame if the still put merom in any of the iMacs ....

MacMini - Yonah (even a low end merom since price points are similar from intel)
MacBook & Pro - Merom
iMac - Conroe
Mac Pro - Woodcrest

this is best when dealing with intel ... so that everyone in PC side shall compare and get one of these beautiful machines ... otherwise it will be pityful for apple and for fanboy like me

Here is hoping for a new iMac design that can handle a Conroe then, I think that it is a bad idea for Apple to use the Morem in both the iMac and the MacBook Pro. Add in the eventual adoption of the Morem in the MacBook and I think that is too many products to rely on one processor for when there is another available that is better suited for desktop use in the iMac. And one thing is sure, if the iMac goes Morem then the Mini will eventually get it as well, so that is 4 products with the same processor.

I thought the iMac would handle a Conroe because it had similar heat levels to the G5 that was in the original iMac iSight model?

your reply has next to nothing to do what i was commenting on. you can't simply look at the price difference between a 20" and 23" display, and think that will be the sum total of the extra cost incurred by making a new 23" iMac.