Apple iMac Early 2011 all in one preview

The most famous All in One Computer in the world must be the Apple iMac. It’s one of the sleekest looking and fastest performing desktops with an integrated monitor and now it’s got updated with quad core CPUs all over the range and the ultra fast Thunderbolt connector. So let’s see what the Early 2011 iMac has to offer Apple fanboys all over the world.

The iMac is Apple’s second product line to feature the Intel Sandy Bridge architecture, after the MacBook Pros and unlike those all models in the lineup are powered by the quad core models. That’s right: four logic cores in each of the Early 2011 iMacs.

But before we jump to the novelties let’s take a look at the following gorgeous screenshots of the amazing looking iMacs. Design wise there’s no visible change from the previous generation, but as you can see that’s not a bad thing. Personally I consider the iMacs the best looking desktops on market today, period.

iMac Early 2011 photo gallery:

Now that you begin and understand that Apple has opted for an internal makeover let’s skip the design that remained unchanged and see that changes you should expect from the previous gen iMac lineup.

The changes

Now all 4 iMac models (two 21.5 inch and two 27 inches) start with quad-core i5 CPUs from Sandy Bridge desktop lineup from Intel. Two of those models can be upgraded with Core i7 CPUs that should bring a small performance boost, but by far the best option is to opt in for the 256 GB SSD drive, but that will set you up 500 bucks. That’s the most important speed upgrade you can make on the news 2011 iMacs.

The graphic cards have also been upgraded to the Radeon 6750, 6770 and 6970 respectively with GDDR5 memory from 512 all the way up to 2GB. That’s impressive for an iMac. Other changes worth noting are the Thunderbolt ports first introduced with the 2011 MacBook Pros which brings faster connectivity (but not too many peripherals support the new standard yet) and support for up to two 30 inch external display in a tri-monitor configuration. The screen real estate will be huge, but also costly and I’m sure you won’t be able to follow what’s happening on all three screens without turning your head.

Same looks, but speedier

For chat fans Apple has pus the new Facetime HD camera on top of the screen so you do get crystal clear videos of your friends. If I’m not mistaken, the two speakers of the iMac have been upgraded from 10 Watts to 17 Watts so you do get a bump in audio volume and hopefully sound quality.

And here are the complete specs from Apple’s website:

Final words

Are the iMacs worth an investment? First of all, putting money in gadgets shouldn’t be considered an investment as you’ll always lose money when it time to resell them, that’s for sure. Second, it all comes down on how much you want to pay for style and if you can handle Mac OS X, a completely different operating system from Windows 7. Personally I say go for an iMac if you can afford one. If you’re on a budget or need something more customizable system then you can look elsewhere, but there’s no better all in one than an iMac, that’s for sure.