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Apple eMac With SuperDrive

The First Choice for Mac Shoppers on a Budget

Review By Joel Santo Domingo, PC Magazine

June 2, 2004? Students, general home users and those who don't want to shell out more than $1,000 retail for a full-function desktop (or use a Windows PC) will flock to the new Apple eMac.

The current 1.25-GHz eMac is a vast improvement over the model we reviewed just 6 months ago. The $999 eMac finally comes with a DVD burner (SuperDrive), and the hard drive, system memory, and CPU are at usable levels.

We'd still like to see 512MB of system memory, but 256MB is fine for basic use such as word processing, e-mail, and spreadsheets. And the 80GB hard drive is a welcome upgrade from the 60GB unit in the last version.

The newest eMac, like other new Macintosh computers, comes with Mac OS X Panther v.10.3, which is an improvement over older versions of Mac OS X. The fast user-switching feature lets multiple users connect without having to log out or reboot the system (although we suggest a memory upgrade to 512MB for best concurrent-user performance). The spinning cube animation when users switch is exactly the sort of discreet ostentation we expect from Apple.

Also installed are QuickTime 6 and the excellent iLife suite, which includes Apple's iPhoto (digital photo album), iMovie (digital video editing), iDVD (DVD burning), iTunes (music playback and music downloads), and GarageBand (music editing and recording).

Multimedia-Friendly Mac

The eMac works well as a base station for your iPod. With its 80GB drive, the eMac can hold plenty of MP3 or AAC-encoded music files ? a good thing, considering how popular iTunes has become. Of course, the SuperDrive can also burn MP3 and AAC files to audio CD, so you can take your tunes with you.

With iPhoto, the eMac is a great digital shoebox for keeping your photos organized in one place. The 80GB drive is of sufficient capacity for this purpose, given that the compressed digital photos from most consumer cameras are about 1-2MB each. Though we would like to see a digital card reader in consumer-oriented PCs, iPhoto's ability to interface with many major digital cameras directly is a plus.

The performance of the 1.25-GHz G4-equipped eMac is adequate for general day-to-day operations (word processing, e-mail, Web surfing, for example). And with its Radeon 9200 graphics card, it's capable of playing basic to intermediate 3D games and 2D educational games.

While it won't find itself in any Hollywood special-effects studios, the new eMac is certainly multimedia-friendly. And with an equally friendly price, we imagine schools and budget-conscious buyers will snatch up these attractive boxes.

Product at a Glance

Pros: DVD burning for under $1,000 in a Mac. Space-saving all-in-one unit. Two FireWire ports for simultaneous DV camera and iPod hookups.
Cons: Limited expansion. Modest RAM. SuperDrive can burn DVD-R, but not DVD+R/RW or even DVD-RW.
Bottom Line: While there is a less expensive eMac with a combo drive, we think the SuperDrive-equipped eMac is the first Mac you should look at in the value space.

Editor Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Sub-ratings: Music: 68 Photo: 63 Video: 38 Gaming: 33

Company: Apple Computer, Inc., www.apple.com
Price: $999 direct
Spec Data: 1.25-GHz G4 processor; 256MB DDR333 SDRAM; 80GB hard drive; ATI Radeon 9200 graphics card; 8X DVD-R/CD-RW Superdrive; three USB 2.0, two FireWire ports; Apple integrated sound card; built-in stereo speakers; Mac OS X Panther v.10.3

Posted by thinkum at June 2, 2004 02:33 PM