Apple iMac Core 2 Duo (24-inch, 2.16GHz) review

Apple iMac Core 2 Duo (24-inch, 2.16GHz) Review

Reviewed by: Rich Brown

Reviewed on: 21 September 2006

The large screen, the updated GPUs, and the expanded online configuration options are the major added features of the 24-inch iMac. Of the new models, it's also the only one to include a FireWire 800 port, which Apple hopes will make it appealing to professional designers who need fast access to external hard drive data. Apple has also expanded the audio output to support both analogue and digital connections.

As with past iMacs and Mac Minis, the 24-inch model comes with the latest version of OS X, Front Row and the accompanying remote for navigating your digital media, and the iLife '06 software suite for organising and manipulating your digital photos. Before making a purchase, you might consider that Leopard, Apple's next version of its operating system, will come out in the spring of 2007, but we don't find that pending release a deal breaker.

Adobe Photoshop CS2 image-processing test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Adobe Photoshop CS2 image-processing test

Dell XPS 410

170 

Velocity Micro ProMagix E2010

256 

Sony Vaio VGC-LS1

273 

Apple iMac Core 2 Duo 24-inch

368 

Apple iMac Core 2 Duo 17-inch

805 

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

Apple iTunes encoding test

Apple iMac Core 2 Duo 24-inch

140 

Apple iMac Core 2 Duo 17-inch

165 

Dell XPS 410

165 

Velocity Micro ProMagix E2010

190 

Sony Vaio VGC-LS1

252 

CineBench 9.5 (in seconds)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Rendering single CPU

Rendering multiple CPUs

Apple iMac Core 2 Duo 17-inch

571 

303 

Velocity Micro ProMagix E2010

657 

351 

Apple iMac Core 2 Duo 24-inch

676 

358 

Dell XPS 410

745 

400 

3D gaming performance (in fps)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Quake 4 1,024x768, 4xAA 8xAF

Dell XPS 410

111.1 

Apple iMac Core 2 Duo 24-inch

66.5 

Velocity Micro ProMagix E2010

62.4 

System configurations:
Apple iMac Core 2 Duo (17-inch)
OS X 10.4.7; 1.83GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5600; 512MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; integrated 64MB Intel GMA 950 graphics chip; 160GB Western Digital 7,200rpm Serial ATA hard drive

Apple iMac Core 2 Duo (24-inch)
OS X 10.4.7.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7400; 1GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 128MB (dedicated) Nvidia GeForce 7300 GT graphics chip; 250GB 7,200rpm Serial ATA hard drive;

Dell XPS 410
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 SP2; 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E6600; 2,048MB DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz; 256MB Nvidia GeForce 7900 GS; (2) Western Digital 300GB 10,000rpm Serial ATA hard drive; Nvidia Nforce RAID class controller (RAID 1)

Sony Vaio VGC-LS1
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 SP2; 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo T2400; 2GB DDR2-SDRAM 533MHz; integrated 128MB (shared) Intel 945GM graphics chip; 250GB Western Digital 7,200rpm Serial ATA hard drive

Velocity Micro ProMagix E2010
Windows XP Professional SP2; 2.13GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E6400; 1,024MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 256MB Nvidia GeForce 7600 GS; 320GB Western Digital 7,200prm Serial ATA hard drive