Apple iMac (24-inch, 2.8GHz)

Manufacturer: Apple Part number: MB325LL/A

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$1,748.99 - $1,949.00 at 8 online stores

CNET Editor rating:
4.0 stars Excellent
Average user rating: 4.0 stars out of 29 reviews

May 2008

More product information:: Editors' review; User reviews; Specifications; Product series; Manufacturer info

Bottom Line:: A slight bump to the specifications for the same price in addition to a much appreciated option to upgrade the graphics means the 24-inch iMac keeps the Editors' Choice it earned last year when the brushed-aluminum-and-glass design was first introduced.

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CNET editors' review

Apple iMac (24-inch, 2.8GHz)

price range: $1,748.99 - $1,949.00

Reviewed by: Matthew Elliott
Reviewed on: 05/01/2008
Released on: 04/28/2008

The good: A minor specification update results in some significant performance gains; graphics upgrade an option on this 24-inch model; sleek, polished design didn't receive an update, but we won't start clamoring for a new design until the current one is at least 12 months old.

The bad: Free phone support runs out after 90 days.

The bottom line: A slight bump to the specifications for the same price in addition to a much appreciated option to upgrade the graphics means the 24-inch iMac keeps the Editors' Choice it earned last year when the brushed-aluminum-and-glass design was first introduced.

Read full review

A bump to the frontside bus and a smidge more L2 cache can safely be classified as a minor update. But even slightly improved specifications, when they come at a lower price than those they replace, are appreciated. Last September, we tested the highest-end 24-inch model, which carried a baseline price of $2,299 and featured Intel's 2.8GHz Core 2 Extreme X7900 processor. We're happy to report that the new $1,799 iMac sped past the previous model in CNET Labs, though it features roughly the same specs: a 2.8GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of faster 800MHz RAM, a 320GB hard drive, and a midrange ATI Radeon graphics card. What's changed is that this model uses a Penryn-class processor that serves up 6MB of L2 cache to the 4MB the previous Merom-class chip provided, while operating on a faster 1,066MHz frontside bus--up from 800MHz. Given its strong application performance and competitive price, we give the iMac a strong recommendation as a mainstream desktop in addition to being best in class in the all-in-one niche.

The biggest upgrade comes with the top-of-the-line iMac, the $2,199 model that sees the iMac top the 3GHz mark with 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo chip. That model also features a 512MB Nvidia GeForce 8800 GS graphics card. The 3.06GHz chip is a $200 upgrade on the lower-end 24-inch model we reviewed here, while the GeForce card adds $150 to the bill.

Contrary to earlier reports, the 3.06GHz chip is not the Core 2 Duo X9100, which is expected out later this summer when Intel launches its Centrino 2 (aka Montevina) platform. Instead, it's another Apple exclusive from Intel, which operates at the same clockspeed and on the same 1,066MHz bus as the forthcoming X9100 chip but at a higher wattage. The updates the iMac received aren't game changing by any means, but they certainly do enough to maintain the iMac's Editors' Choice award and a strong recommendation among all-in-one PCs and mainstream desktops in general. In fact, we rate it higher than last year's model because the 24-inch iMac finally includes a graphics upgrade.

The design remains unchanged from last September's iMac models, which marked a change from the white Lucite design to the brushed-aluminum-and-glass chassis. For more on the design, please see our full review of the 20-inch iMac that introduced the new design last August.

We were impressed with the 24-inch iMac's showing last year in the labs, and this latest update showed marked improvement on our multitasking test as well as with CineBench. We weren't surprised to see iTunes performance stay the same, since it's largely dependent on CPU clockspeed. What we didn't expect was a 22-percent increase on our multimedia multitasking benchmark compared with that of last year's model, which was already way ahead of Dells' and Gateway's all-in-one PCs. (What the Gateway One has going for it is its expansion options, while the Dell XPS One supplies a Blu-ray drive.) On CineBench 10, a 3D rendering test that taxes the CPU and graphics subsystems, the new iMac outpaced the older 24-inch model by 8 percent, which is about the margin we'd expect between two systems released seven months apart. This iMac's faster frontside bus, faster memory, and larger L2 cache each plays a role in its improved performance over last year's model, as does the new version of Leopard (10.5.2), we suspect. (We've experienced some problems with our Photoshop CS3 script recently, on this and other systems, so unfortunately we have no Photoshop results to report at this time.)

We no longer report Quake 4 scores, having moved our 3D gaming benchmarks to more recent games for our desktop reviews. We made an exception in this case, however, and were again surprised to see that this new iMac outpaced the older model by a healthy margin, when both use the same 256MB ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro graphics card. Where the older model posted a meager 33.7 frames per second at 1,024x768, the newer iMac achieved a framerate of 86.3fps at the same resolution. And when we bumped it up to 1,280x1,024, we still got a very playable 76.8fps. Better news for gamers is that the iMac now gives you the option to upgrade to a more powerful GeForce 8800 GS card.

Should you be weighing a 24-inch iMac purchase against a mainstream desktop, a quick look at two midrange Dell offerings reveals that the iMac includes a reasonable $150 premium or so. We say reasonable because of the effort (and money) Apple puts into the iMac's design and the inclusion of the iLife software suite. Similarly configured XPS 420 and XPS 630 systems--each with a 24-inch display--come out just above and below the $1,650 mark. Any all-in-one PC carries the usual caveat, however, that your upgrade options are limited, both in terms of internal expansion room and the capability to upgrade or replace the display.

Apple iTunes encoding test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Apple iMac (24-inch, 2.8GHz, 2008 model)

138

Apple iMac (24-inch, 2.8GHz, 2007 model)

139

Apple iMac (20-inch, 2.4GHz)

161

Dell XPS One

174

HP Pavilion Slimeline s3330f

193

Apple Mac Mini

194

Gateway One

207

Multimedia multitasking test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Apple iMac (24-inch, 2.8GHz, 2008 model)

407

Apple iMac (24-inch, 2.8GHz, 2007 model)

522

Apple iMac (20-inch, 2.4GHz)

597

Apple Mac Mini

721

Gateway One

938

HP Pavilion Slimeline s3330f

957

Dell XPS One

1070

CineBench
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Rendering multiple CPUs

Rendering single CPU

Apple iMac (24-inch, 2.8GHz, 2008 model)

6180

3244

Apple iMac (24-inch, 2.8GHz, 2007 model)

5709

3035

Apple iMac (20-inch, 2.4GHz)

4624

2599

Dell XPS One

4507

2368

HP Pavilion Slimeline s3330f

4316

2247

Apple Mac Mini

4069

2168

Gateway One

3787

1998

System configurations:

Apple iMac (20-inch, 2.4GHz)
Apple OS X; 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7700; 2GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 256MB ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro graphics chip; 320GB 7,200rpm hard drive

Apple iMac (24-inch, 2.8GHz, 2007 model)
Apple OS X 10.4.10; 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme X7900; 2GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 256MB ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro graphics chip; 750GB 7,200rpm hard drive

Apple iMac (24-inch, 2.8GHz, 2008 model)
Apple OS X 10.5.2; 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo; 2GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 256MB ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro graphics chip; 320GB 7,200rpm hard drive

Apple Mac Mini
Apple OS X; 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo; 1GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 64MB (shared) Intel GMA 950 integrated graphics chip; 120GB 5,400rpm Hitachi hard drive

Dell XPS One
Windows Vista Home Premium; 2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E6550; 2GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 256MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2400 graphics chip; 500GB 7,200rpm hard drive

Gateway One
Windows Vista Home Premium; 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7250; 3GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 256MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600 XT graphics chip; 500GB 7,200rpm hard drive

HP Pavilion Slimline S3330f
Windows Vista Home Premium; 2.8GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 5400+; 2GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 256MB (shared) Nvidia GeForce 6150SE integrated graphics chip; 500GB 7,200rpm Samsung hard drive

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User reviews

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Average user rating: 4.0 stars out of 29 reviews
My rating: 0 stars

Showing opinion 1 to 10 out of 29

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8 stars

After Replacing Hard Drive, It's Been Swell

by chumradio on May 1, 2008

Pros: Great viewing experience, Zippy & Fun to Use

Cons: Tech support usually dreadful

Summary: Purchased my custom-built 750 GB iMac in Nov 2007 and had serious problems out of the box. A month later, after several attempts to correct these problems, I was advised ...

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Summary: Purchased my custom-built 750 GB iMac in Nov 2007 and had serious problems out of the box. A month later, after several attempts to correct these problems, I was advised to get a new hard drive installed. The 750 GB Seagate still fails smart status tests on some utility programs (and passes on others), but has been problem-free since Jan 2008.

The 24 inch screen is a joy to have and makes for a great viewing/user experience.

It's fairly zippy and despite terrible advice I've received from Apple tech support throughout this experience, I still recommend the iMac and Apple products in general.

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4 out of 4 users found this user opinion helpful.
9 stars

I give you a bias rating

by zendiz on May 1, 2008

Pros: A very nice Mac system!

Cons: Clooney would say "Mac, what else"

Summary: The Mac got a cool 8.5/10. I say damn, is That All ?!

I went to check out the top 9 to PC's running VISTA??? C'mon, You

...

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Summary: The Mac got a cool 8.5/10. I say damn, is That All ?!

I went to check out the top 9 to PC's running VISTA??? C'mon, You must be kidding me.

If there were a category of running a pc without headaches, Mac would be numero 1.

I've been a pc user since I was 1988, so I've seen its evolution in both hard & software.

XP was finally one of the best and stable operating systems one could work with.

Untill I fell in love with OS X 2 years ago.

What a relief, what a breeze. Why use anything else anymore.

It's like a super engine and the body to go with it.

An ALL-in-ONE pc to dream of. Versatile, stable, just 1 wire (power, if you take wireless keyb/mouse). Brilliant display, blazing fast interaction, what's not to love?

Right, adding 3 or 4 Video Cards to even run that game more smoothly or that 2nd Raid Card that could even crash my vista faster then before.
A. Good luck getting everything installed. B. Good luck getting everything running without compromise.

Do yourselves a favour, for all your non gaming stuff buy a mac. R-heally ! Buy a mac mini for all I care. It's worth it.or Buy This iMac, you can even game on it

With latest new iMacs just out Apple is making up to the gaming community still, it did forget to have those screws at the back so you could open it to fondle with the insides.

My question to you, when you drive a Ferrari, are you going to transform it into a prop car of the Fast and the Furious? Or would you admire it's beauty coming straight out of a production line?

Anyway, Gamers, I do understand that when you're not gaming on your vista's you really need to strip down something. Like your pc for instance. We feel yah

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2 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
10 stars

The perfect Mac computer

by disneybob on May 23, 2008

Pros: Beautiful, large screen, excellent performance

Cons: Expensive (though a great value)

Summary: This iMac replaced my 5.25 year-old 17" GHz "lamp" iMac (which still works as well as the day I bought it). The screen is amazing - sharp, colorful, and ...

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Summary: This iMac replaced my 5.25 year-old 17" GHz "lamp" iMac (which still works as well as the day I bought it). The screen is amazing - sharp, colorful, and huge. Front Row, Apple's application for running programs using the included remote, allows you to take full advantage of the screen from a distance, displaying photo slide shows, listening to music, or watching movies. OS X Leopard is very stable, intuitive, and feature rich. I upgraded to 4GB RAM, and am consistently amazed at how fast applications run on this Mac. A definite winner.

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1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
10 stars

Perfect!!!

by MacBook man on May 2, 2008

Pros: Sexy, slim, and works great

Cons: not very upgradeable

Summary: THIS THING ROCKS! Its so cool, hot, and works great. The only slight problem is you cant upgrade anything except memory. But you wont have to, its so high end

Summary: THIS THING ROCKS! Its so cool, hot, and works great. The only slight problem is you cant upgrade anything except memory. But you wont have to, its so high end

1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
10 stars

I am in love with my IMac!

by Mandre24 on October 10, 2008

Pros: - Built in Webcam.
- Large, 24inch display.
- No bulky computer, everything slimly built into the Moniter.
- Great Features such as Itunes, Iphoto, Garage Band etc.

Cons: - When moving from Windows, many controls are hard to figure out, like deleting pictures. It surely takes time to get used to it.

Summary: This IMac has everything I have ever wanted in a desktop. A built in webcam, a skinny keyboard, a cute easy to use Imouse, and many USB ports in the ...

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Summary: This IMac has everything I have ever wanted in a desktop. A built in webcam, a skinny keyboard, a cute easy to use Imouse, and many USB ports in the back of the moniter. The only problem i have ever had was learning to use Mac from living with Windows for around 10 years. After a few weeks you will get the habg of it, and never go back to Windows again :).

Updated on Oct 10, 2008
Hang of it* ( spelling error, sorry! ): )

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7 stars

Nice machine, but the fan noise bugs me.

by bobburton53 on September 23, 2008

Pros: Great display, OSX a big improvement over Windows XP, requires very little fiddling to keep it happy, apps run fast, kids really like it.

Cons: Purchased in June, now near the end of September, and the fan noise has gotten much more noticeable. Used to be almost silent.

Summary: If you're sensitive to low frequency hums and whirring noises, this may not be the machine for you. (I have tinnitus.) Putting all the works on the desktop behind ...

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Summary: If you're sensitive to low frequency hums and whirring noises, this may not be the machine for you. (I have tinnitus.) Putting all the works on the desktop behind the display means all the noise sources are much closer to your ears. If you always have iTunes going (like my kids), this probably won't be an issue for you. The local "genius" says they'll replace the fans for about $140, but they won't replace them under warranty unless they fail.

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10 stars

FANTASTIC COMPUTER!!!

by NASAHUB on September 18, 2008

Pros: It is fast, has a bright screen, slick design and a big improvement over my old iMac.

Cons: If there is a con, I haven't experienced it, yet. It's a bit pricey but I'm cheap. I do not you get what you pay for and I get a lot for what I paid for this iMac!

Summary: If you are willing to spend the money, it is well worth the investment.

Summary: If you are willing to spend the money, it is well worth the investment.
9 stars

Just switch from PC to Mac for life

by ddbradshaw99 on September 16, 2008

Pros: Overall design. Stable. Secure. IMO, easier to use.

Cons: Upgradeability

Summary: I've wanted to give the macintosh world a try for awhile now, but never really had the incentive to make the jump. After my latest PC fried, I took ...

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Summary: I've wanted to give the macintosh world a try for awhile now, but never really had the incentive to make the jump. After my latest PC fried, I took the plunge. I must say, I will never buy another PC again.

1) I find Macs more intuitive and easier to use than PCs
2) Everything is plug and play. No more hassling with drivers, finally.
3) Don't have that over hanging cloud of spyware/viruses to worry about.
4) I don't have to give up windows. I've tried boot camp and vmware and like them both.
5) Speed is a non-issue. Seems just as fast as a high-end windows machine.
6) Dramatically fewer freezes/fatal errors

The bottom line, since I can run Windows along with OSX, why would I ever limit myself to just a single OS again? I've been in the windows camp my whole, life, but I just switched sides!

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9 stars

BEST DESIGN

by milea on August 28, 2008

Pros: + Great screen for movies (not for graphic works)
+ Fantastic design
+ OS X
+ Great performance for price

Cons: - Rear plastic
- Low level graphic card (Radeon 2600)
- Laptop processor in desktop computer

Summary: Best designed computer on the market.

Summary: Best designed computer on the market.
5 stars

40 pounds of crap in a 20 pound box.

by thomcarl on August 27, 2008

Pros: Fast, good looking, has just about all the features you need in home desk top.

Cons: I've had my iMac since Sept. 10, 2007 and to date its had the logic board and hard drive replaced under warranty, its currently at the Apple service center in my area getting a new super drive. Apple really needs to fix their quality control.

Summary: Quality control on my iMac sucks. I intended to sell it as soon as I get it out of the shop.

Summary: Quality control on my iMac sucks. I intended to sell it as soon as I get it out of the shop.

Showing opinion 1 to 10 out of 29

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Specifications

Manufacturer: Apple
Part number: MB325LL/A
Description: The all-new, all-in-one iMac packs a complete, high-performance computer into a beautifully thin design. It includes built-in wireless, Mac OS X, and the iLife '08. So within minutes of opening the box, you'll be doing everything from sharing photos to creating movies and building websites.

General
Type Personal computer
Product Form Factor All-in-one
Built-in Devices Stereo speakers, Antenna, Infrared receiver, Camera
Width 22.4 in
Depth 8.1 in

Apple iMac (24-inch, 2.8GHz)

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