The rumors were true and Apple did update their iMac lineup yesterday. No changes on the design front but there were some pretty significant changes under the hood.
The biggest improvements are really in the processor and graphics cards, the lowest end 20″ iMac now comes standard with a 2.4GHz Penryn CPU and an ATI RAdeon HD 2400 XT GPU with 128MB of memory. On the high end Apple now offers the 24″ iMac with a 3.06GHz Penryn processor and a Nvidia Geforce 8800GS GPU with 512MB of memory.
When Apple first announced the new iMacs many believed that the 3.6GHz Core 2 Duo in the high end model was actually a Montevina processor (Intels next generation Core 2 processors) however it is only an overclocked current generation Penryn chip.
These new iMacs should already be in Apple retail stores. Previous generation iMacs can be found refurbished from the Apple online store for $250-$700 off their full price which means if you don’t need the latest and greatest you can get a super fast iMac that is nearly as fast as these new ones for a fraction of the cost.
MacMall is already offering $50-$100 mail in rebates on these new machines, so if you need the latest and greatest, ordering through MacMall is a pretty good option as well.