Apple iMac G5 Desktop with 17" M9248LL/A (1.60 GHz PowerPC G5, 256 MB RAM, 80 GB Hard Drive, Combo Drive)

by Apple

Product Details

Product Manual [1.87mb PDF]

• Item Weight: 18.5 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 29 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0002OG6PM
• Item model number: M9248LL/A
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: August 30, 2004

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Welcome to the future.
The iMac G5 offers all-in-one elegance that’s delightfully affordable. Take in the view on a widescreen flat-panel display. Proudly display the iMac G5 in any room of your house — it’s lightweight enough to move from your kitchen to the den or bedroom. The 17-inch provides the same screen area as a 19-inch CRT — with twice the brightness, sharpness and contrast. Hidden behind the display, you’ll find the entire computer: central processing unit (CPU), logic board, hard drive, optical drive, speakers, microphone and power supply. But you’ll actually find that the computer just fades away as you organize music and photos, or compose tunes and edit movies with the iLife suite of integrated applications for your digital lifestyle. What’s more, since the iMac is wireless-ready, you don’t even have to place it near a phone jack. Simply pop in an AirPort Extreme Card, hook up an AirPort Express to your DSL connection or cable modem, and you can surf the Internet wirelessly, listen to tunes in another room and print wirelessly.

The new iMac G5 includes power supply, stereo speakers, and a slot-loading Combodrive enclosed within the widescreen flat-panel display.

The Display is the Computer Apple designers removed the extraneous, miniaturized the necessary, souped up the performance and concealed the result in immaculate perfection. The iMac G5 hangs suspended from a graceful anodized aluminum stand and its widescreen display lets you chat with several friends while you retouch photos, surf the web or scan email — and see everything at the same time. In fact, the 1680 x 1050 pixel resolution 20-inch display can show more than two full pages side by side. That’s 36% more screen area than the 17-inch, at 1440 x 900 pixels. Technology Democratized The iMac G5 brings the same innovative system architecture in Apple professional desktops to the home. The G5 processor makes everything zippier — connecting to email or the web, creating movies, songs and DVDs, arranging photos or playing music. The 1.6 GHz G5 processor is ready to run modern 64-bit applications under the secure and stable Mac OS X operating system. What’s more, the G5 speeds up Mac OS X and all the other included software, such as iLife ’04, Quicken 2004 and World Book.

All-in-One Ease
iMac G5 tucks away all the modern amenities in its two-inch thin body, such as a slot-loading Combo drive. Send friends a DVD with a special movie for the holidays. Back up your iTunes collection or make a mix CD for that special someone. Naturally, you can pop in your DVD movies and watch them in 16:10 widescreen letterbox format on the gorgeous LCD display. Your ears will hear pristine audio from built-in stereo speakers. Pointed down, the speakers bounce sound waves off your desk, counter or table into your ears.

A Place for Everything Remove the back cover on the iMac G5, and you’ll discover that perfect order is not just a requirement, but also candy to the eye. Thoughtful touches abound its dense layout, since Apple engineers considered the placement of every bit of technology — several times. Inside, you’ll find enough modern technology to make even nerds drool. That’s a 1.6 GHz G5 processor, 533 MHz frontside bus, 256 MB DDR SDRAM running at 400 MHz and NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra with 64 MB graphics memory. So you’ll be able to play Worlds of Warcraft, Doom III and other fantastic entertainment. Power to Spare What’s more, the thin enclosure even holds the power supply, so you won’t need to accommodate a huge power brick. Obsessed by the drive to offer you the best personal computer, Apple engineers strove to add fit and finish in every detail, down to the power switch located on the back panel. When you remove the panel, the button goes with it. But with the case closed, the button makes contact with the power supply.

Quieter than a whisper, the iMac G5 measures less than 25dB when idle and a slit in the back of the case allows heat to rise out the top

 

Ports include: Two FireWire 400 ports, three USB 2.0 ports, two USB 1.1 ports, VGA output, S-video and composite video output.

Stay Connected Of course the iMac G5 offers all the right ports to connect to your universe with ease. Starting with the new headphone jack that’s also a mini-optical plug. So you can watch DVDs and listen to them in 5.1 surround sound. You’ll also find a passel of USB 2.0 and FireWire 400 connectors for your camera, camcorder or gamepad. Or if you want to connect your iMac to your TV or a digital projector, the mini-VGA port gives you the option. The line in jack lets you record an electric guitar into GarageBand. iMac offers Ethernet for wired networking as well as a modem for dial-up Internet. Your modem can also double as a fax machine. Extreme Graphics The sizzling graphics processor and next-generation high-bandwidth architecture kicks 3D games and graphics into high gear, with three times the frame rate as the previous iMac in Unreal Tournament 2004. NVIDIA graphics provides hardware transform and lighting (T&L), per-pixel shading and drop-dead gorgeous effects at high resolutions. All models deliver over a billion textured pixels per second and an advanced Live FX engine engineered to generate the most lifelike characters. With Quartz Extreme, the graphics processors take over transform and lighting calculation functions from the CPU, freeing the G5 processor to perform essential system tasks faster than ever before.

Product Description

Includes: Apple keyboard, Apple mouse, modem cable, Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther", iLife (including iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD & GarageBand), Quicken 2004 for Mac, World Book 2004, & more. Apple M9248LL/A iMac G5 Desktop Computer - Apple has once again redesigned the desktop computer. Taking the all-in-one iMac design to the next level, they've built a high-tech computer system inside a 17" widescreen LCD monitor! Without the bulky computer tower, you now have a sleeker and more modern looking desktop. The iMac G5 packs every piece of computing technology inside, but most notably it features a new 1.6 GHz PowerPC G5 processor, and OS X Panther operating system. Allowing you to be creative, get organized, and have fun with the latest applications for the Mac. NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra with 64MB of DDR SDRAM and 8x AGP support 80GB 7200RPM Serial ATA HDD Slot-loading (on the side of the monitor) CD-RW/DVD-ROM Combo Drive Drive Speeds - up to 24x CD-R, 16x CD-RW, 24x CD-ROM, & 8x DVD-ROM 17 widescreen LCD with a native resolution of 1440 x 900 56k v.92 Fax Modem Built-in Stereo Speakers and Microphone Ports - 10/100 Ethernet, 2 FireWire 400, 3 USB 2.0, 2 USB 1.1 (on keyboard), VGA Out, Headphone/Optical Digital Audio Out, Audio Line In, & S-Video & Composite Video Out (with optional adapter) AirPort ready with Built-in Antenna (requires optional card & base station) Unit Weight - 18.5 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

58 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Attention to detail, September 22, 2004

By 

Joel Schopp (Austin, TXStates) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Apple iMac G5 Desktop with 17" M9248LL/A (1.60 GHz PowerPC G5, 256 MB RAM, 80 GB Hard Drive, Combo Drive) (Personal Computers)

It is the attention to detail that I love about Macs. From the packaging to the software integration to the rounded end on the power cord that makes the back of the computer more seamless. It just all fits together perfectly and beautifuly.

I should also mention their tech support is the best in the industry. They really train their people so they know what they are doing. Not that you'll need tech support, but it's nice just in case.
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Some suprises:
The downfiring speakers do sound very nice. How they get that performance from those little things I'll never know.

The power button is in the back. It's a good placement for it once you know where it is, but is not obvious at first.

Fast user switching is not enabled by default. If you have more than one person who uses the computer in your home please turn it on. It is great, much better than in Windows XP.

It is the sharpest, brightest 17inch LCD I have ever seen. It blows all other 17 inch displays away.
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Let me add some practical advice on options.

First, the 1.6Ghz is not noticably slower than the 1.8Ghz, so don't spend the extra money for the "faster" model.

Second, do get more RAM. 256MB is not enough. You can buy it from Apple or install some yourself. Installing it yourself is cheaper and very easy (the instructions that come with it are pretty good by the way). It uses standard PC3200 memory.

Third. The wireless (bluetooth) mouse and keyboard are worth every extra penny. They are beautiful and responsive. They even come with Energizer batteries.

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Using One Now- FANTASTIC!, September 17, 2004

By 

Prof David T Wright (Vancouver, BC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Apple iMac G5 Desktop with 17" M9248LL/A (1.60 GHz PowerPC G5, 256 MB RAM, 80 GB Hard Drive, Combo Drive) (Personal Computers)

As an engineer, consultant, businessman, and educator- pramatism (bang per buck) absolutely rules.

No question- having suffered dozens of daily crashes with the latest PCs and Microsoft software, hundreds of OS updates, crippled unreliable Dell and IBM laptops (yet working in aerospace, space and formula one)- I am so P**sed off with the quality (lack thereof) in IT (17 years worth!)....Count the hours wasted and dollars spent on software...

To the new Apple- within 5 minutes it was connected to the Internet, talking with all the printers, scanners, faxes, gamespads, videocams without any hitch whatsoever (REAL WOW). OK so OSX looks scary- 30 minutes to get used to without even looking at the straightfoward manual. Appleworks free office suite reads all my papers and articles without a glitch even though they were written (and crashed) in MS Office. Some software updates- quick with a disk optimiser automatically (no fragmented disks..).

Speedwise an iMac G5 1.6/ 512MB RAM/160 GB HD/17 screen boots up and feels about 3 x faster than a Dell Inspiron Laptop/Pentium 4 1.6/512MB RAM/30GB HD/16VRAM/15 Screen. Never mind the cool factor or that an equivalent Dell costs more.. I even have to move my head from side to side as the screen is so big!

Moans- more power would be great (e.g. better graphics card options, dual processor option) but in reality the iMac is such such a marvel of industrial design in the true sense, doesn/t crash all day, and works very effectively at a great price. BTW I did a factory 1 slot 512MB option so that could 3rd party upgrade another 512 more cost effectively- but am told that the 2 slots do not need to match in size.

Overall- a real winner- My *New* Dell laptop has become a paperweight holding a cable!

UPDATE (a few days later)- everyone who has seen and used the new iMac wants one; I *want to* use the computer (fun!) rather than dread it (Windows); think that office productivity - languishing despite vast IT investments- may rebound if coporations were brave enough to invest in one of these for all staffers... (not one crash in 40 hours use- a record!!!). BTW may start to put in some industrial strength engineering modelling apps soon (with a second new Mac- a Dual PowerMac 3GHz when it comes)...

UPDATE 2- another 512MBRAM (to 1GB pair); big hardware boost for graphics:
Numbers: CINEBENCH 2003-rendering 1 cpu- 170; graphics C4D shading 204; OpenGL SW-L 529; OpenGL HW-l 928; Speedup 4.59
XBENCH Results 146.68

Hard not to smile with this computer- no crashes, virtualPC for Win apps, no viruses- soon m$ free ...

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why use a review for an excuse to bash Apple?, September 12, 2004

By 

D. B. Parker (RENO, NV USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Apple iMac G5 Desktop with 17" M9248LL/A (1.60 GHz PowerPC G5, 256 MB RAM, 80 GB Hard Drive, Combo Drive) (Personal Computers)

Isn't it amazing that people will take the time to bash a product they know nothing about and they haven't even tried? Makes you wonder where the motivation comes from. It's interesting to note that "Bob" has posted only 3 reviews, each one identical and posted for each model of the new iMac G5. I guess I'll do the same. Normally, I'd rather not take the time to write this, but as a totally satisfied iMac user, I feel I better get my two cents in so any potential users don't get the wrong idea. I must admit that I haven't tried the new iMac yet (they haven't even started shipping yet!), but it looks like a worthy successor to the previous model. Frankly, I'm tempted to switch to the new iMac G5 but I'm going to stick with my 2-year-old iMac G4 for a year or two more. That machine has performed flawlessly and it shows no sign of slowing down. One huge plus for the new machine is how user accessible the innards are. It looks like most users will be able to replace many malfunctioning components themselves. One thing I would miss is the articulated arm of of the older machine. That really does come in handy sometimes.

Several points made in Bob's "review" need rebuttal, however. First of all, his argument about the all-in-one computer makes no sense at all. Face it, the WHOLE computer is worthless if something breaks. Does he find some comfort in having a blank monitor if he has to ship the computer? He also says the virus-free claim is silly. Well, it just happens to be true. I still haven't heard of any OS X virus being found. Sorry Bob, but if you want a safe and secure computing environment, without spyware and viruses, switch to Apple. I keep hearing the virus woes PC users seem to be plagued with and I wonder why someone would put up with that. I don't get it, but if they don't mind, so be it. As for Mac software being scarce...well, just go to an Apple store or the Apple website and check. Frankly, I've had to buy very little software because Macs come with most of the software an average home user will use built in, and the software just plain works GREAT. Making movies, managing your photo and music collection, recording your hit composition, it's all there and plenty more. No, the new iMac G5 isn't for the hardcore gamer, and it's not meant for that market, but the casual gamer will be very happy. I don't play computer games so it's a mute point with me. As for expandability, the Apple website says that the user can replace the following on this computer: AirPort Extreme Card, Memory, Hard drive, Optical drive, Power supply, LCD display, Modem card, Mid-plane assembly (contains the main logic board, the G5 processor, fans, NVIDIA graphics processor, and so forth). Who knows what third-party manufacturers are going to come up with? Bob is correct about one thing: Macs do crash, even in OS X. My iMac goes down about once ever two months, and it's pretty much on all the time.

As for price, I've read many people who have taken the time to compare the iMac with a comparatively equipped Dell and, believe it or not, the Apple actually comes out ahead. Those 20" flat panels don't come cheap! And Macs are well known for their quality. Comparing one to a Wal-Mart special is silly.