The year: 1998. To accommodate CD burners, Zip drives, floppy disk drives, extra hard drives, and roaring fans to cool new processors whose speed was only exceeded by their ability to generate heat, computers had evolved into monolithic plastic beige “towers”. Let’s face it – they were, to put it nicely, eyesores. The only thing keeping them anywhere in sight of the user was the need to put CDs into the drives. Monitors were bulky as well, needing all that space behind the screen to house the cathode ray tube (CRT). Basically, having a personal computer meant having a dedicated “computer desk” and half a room to hold it.

Then came Apple’s iMac. It was an all-in-one design, with the computer innards wrapped around the CRT. It had a small desktop footprint, no noisy fans, was a breeze to get up and running on the Internet, and was available in different colors and pattern designs. You actually wanted it displayed on your desk.

In 2002, with the emergence of flat-panel displays, the iMac evolved into a “desk lamp” design – a semi-spherical base holding the guts of the computer, with a “floating” LCD display that could rotate and change angles easily.

This week, Apple introduced the revolutionary next incarnation of the iMac. Dubbed the “iMac G5”, it is powered by IBM’s powerful 64-bit G5 processor, at 1.6 GHz or 1.8 GHz. It can be configured with a 17-inch or 20-inch LCD display, DVD/CD burner drive, and up to a 160GB hard drive. It has built-in stereo speakers, and available wireless connections to the internet, your keyboard, mouse, and cell phone.

OK. So what’s so revolutionary? Sounds like many other computer feature sets, right? Except, in the case of the iMac G5, there’s no computer.

What? No computer? Well, not in the traditional sense. With the iMac G5, the display IS the computer. Everything, other than the keyboard and mouse – even the power supply - is carefully wedged inside the about-two-inch-thick display enclosure. Instead of just the display floating in the air over your desk, the whole computer floats, suspended on an aluminum foot.

The closest system in the Windows PC world is the Gateway Profile line, which looks very 1999 compared to the new iMac G5. Plus, the high-end iMac G5, with a bigger display, is priced $100 less than the high-end Profile.

Speaking of price, the entry-level iMac G5 (1.6 GHz, 17-inch display, 80GB hard drive, CD burner/DVD player), weighs in at $1299. A 17-inch model with a 1.8 GHz processor and DVD/CD burning “SuperDrive” lists for $1499. The top-of-the-line 20-inch model with 1.8 GHz processor and SuperDrive tops out at $1899 – a full $300 cheaper than the previous high-end iMac.

Is there a “down side”? Really, really serious gamers would probably opt (whine) for a “farther-up-the-video-RAM” food chain graphics processor. However, the sole offering of the nVidia G-Force FX 5200 Ultra with 64MB of video memory should be more than adequate for all but the most demanding games. Plus, it’ll be sufficient to handle the advanced graphics capabilities coming in Mac OS 10.4 “Tiger”, coming in the first half of next year.

The same goes for the G5 processor. This is not a “consumer” computer powered by some stripped-down, cheapo Celeron. As the Mac OS becomes more-and-more 64-bit savvy, you won’t find yourself left behind.

Expect very high demand for these machines. If you’re interested in putting an iMac G5 under the tree this holiday season, I’d order today. The good news is, it’ll be easy to get down the chimney.

© 2004 Peter F. Zimowski