Want the new iMac? SA Prices Announced

OK, so Apple released its new version of the iMac yesterday, finally heading to quad core processors accross the range and much better graphics cards as well. Thunderbolt was the major reason people might have hessitated to get the iMac, but now its finally part of the deal. The 27 inch model even gets two Thunderbolt ports.
In terms of physical design it is unchanged, with the same great all-screen design. The 21 inch keeps the same 1920 x 1080 IPS LED display, and the 27 inch keeps the same huge 2560 x 1440 pixels display. Under the hood all the iMacs get quad core Core i5 or Core i7 processors, and much faster AMD Radeon HD 6750M GPU with 512MB of GDDR5 memory, with high end models getting AMD Radeon HD 6970M with 1GB of GDDR5 memory. Brisk.

Apple is also pushing its Magic Trackpad, which makes sense with its upcoming Mac OS X Lion release, which will gain a lot of iOS like finger swiping functionality. So what do the South African prices look like?

iMac 21.5-inch: 2.5GHz NEW

R12499
2.5GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5
1920 x 1080 resolution
4GB (two 2GB) memory
500GB hard drive
AMD Radeon HD 6750M with 512MB

iMac 21.5-inch: 2.7GHz NEW

R15498
2.7GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5
1920 x 1080 resolution
4GB (two 2GB) memory
1TB hard drive
AMD Radeon HD 6770M with 512MB
 

iMac 27-inch: 2.7GHz NEW

R16999
2.7GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5
2560 x 1440 resolution
4GB (two 2GB) memory
1TB hard drive
AMD Radeon HD 6770M with 512MB
 

iMac 27-inch: 3.1GHz NEW

R19999
3.1GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5
2560 x 1440 resolution
4GB (two 2GB) memory
1TB hard drive
AMD Radeon HD 6970M with 1GB
 
Overall the prices look OK, especially the “low-end” version. Prices have dropped somewhat from the previous version (around R500 per machine), and Digicape is also selling the previous versions at a discount as well. So if you can live without the Quad Core goodness, it might be a good deal… you will have to be quick though.
One thing I should point out though is that these new iMacs can handle two internal storage drives, so they can handle SSD + HDD storage, which can give immense speed increases. More and more professional users of Macs tend to use iMac instead of Mac Pro, so this is a welcome change. Seeing as hard drives upgrades are not that easy with the iMac, it might make sense to look at the SSD specific order which iStore can arrange for you. It will cost you though, and delivery can take around 6 weeks. But if you need the ultimate iMac, it might be worth it…