Apple iMac - Core 2 Duo 1.83 GHz - Monitor : LCD 17"

Upgrading from my 4 year old iMac, i was excited upon opening my new Intel one, with one or two surprises and teething problems as im sure most new owners found with the new iMac.

The new iMac itself looks and feels the business, and starting up for the first time showed just how fast they are. As with all Apple products, as an owner you feel a sense of pride with it, unlike some PC's it becomes 'your mac' and not just 'oh that computer over there in the corner'. Even though i have never really used it, i love the remote control that is magnetically attached to the side of the monitor. A bit like an iPod Nano it controls your computer from a distance and allows you to switch between iMovie, iTunes etc.. with a click of a button...great function when you've set up your mac for music/house parties. Although the battery didn't seem to last long. I won't go into Mac OSX tiger (which comes with it) as thats a seperate product, but one thing that is missing from the Intel Mac is support for Classic OS, so be be prepared to lose your old applications.

Applications will in the future run faster on the Intel Mac's but for now, most older existing software has to run via 'Rosetta' the Intel Mac Emulator which actually slows applications down a little so until all software is made for 'Universal format' you probably won't see just how fast the new Intel Mac's work.

The other problem i encountered, was with broadband. At the time, no broadband provider had written USB drivers for the Intel Mac, so my USB speedtouch modem was useless, forcing me to spend £35 on a router and spending ages on forum's trying to get advice on how to get the router installed and working. Things may be easier now though.

My biggest gripe however is with Apple themselves, as 3 days after i bought my iMac they upgraded the same model to a 2GHz processor and doubled the RAM to 1GB (after i had already bougt an upgrade for £40) and then cut the price by over £200!

Other great features that have been very good are built in Bluetooth, Infrared, Airport, Microphone and Webcam. These have been very usefull for transferring files from my phone, using skype to chat and use the webcam...even order a takeaway by talking to my computer.

Overall. i still can't fault them as i have had very little problems with the computer itself and it does everything i need it to do...except let me win at online poker!

If you can get one cheap second hand then all in all, still a great buy...if you can hang on and get a more up to date one, then go for that instead!