Apple iMac 15 in. (Z03D00YG4) Mac Desktop

I had the same reaction that 99% of the crowd did when the new iMac was unveiled at the Macworld Expo in January of 2002. They were astonished at the unique design of the computer... Oh, and they ALL wanted to touch it and tinker with it. Without a doubt, Steve Jobs and his creative team at Apple had created yet another gem of a computer and for the first time, brought the speed and reliability of the G4 processor to the consumer market. The iMac was everything they had hoped their, now defunct, G4 Cube would have been. As badly as I wanted one, I couldn't afford one at the time. So I bit my tongue and waited. Recently my old G3 desktop, which after being in my sister's possession and being 6 years old finally bit the dust. So I finally saw the perfect chance to finally buy my sister a DECENT Christmas gift after years of gift certificates to Old Navy and cheap jewelry. (I know... I'm a bad brother) And with a $1099 price tag (I paid $100 less than that, since I have an educator's discount), I really couldn't imagine anything she'd like better than this. So I ordered it and waited patiently for the computer to get here. When it finally did, my bad brother side kicked in and I decided I wanted to try this baby out before she even got a chance to touch it.... I COULDN'T HELP IT! This computer besides being beautifully designed, is a great value and a pleasure to use. The screen is very clear and easy to read, the computer is somewhat fast for basic uses and the CD-RW is pretty fast. However, the true heart of the computer is Apple's newest operating system, Mac OS X v. 10.2 Jaguar. This versatile and rock solid operating system is a far cry from the original OS X that Apple unveiled in late 2001. It retains the pretty interface while improving on reliability and speed. It's fast and does most functions with relative ease. It holds all of my sister's music, a few of her videos, and with the help of a scanner (purchased separately) she's been scanning her pictures and making little collages like nobody's business. I got her a copy of Adobe? Photoshop? Elements and she's in love with this machine. I'm glad I made this purchase. Of course, there are some downsides to this machine anyway. My main gripe about the computer is the paltry RAM that the default configuration has. At only 128 MB of RAM, it's not enough to smoothly run the operating system and a handful of applications at a time. Combine that with only 700 mhz in the processor side and you have yourself a pretty slow machine (by today's standards). I'm not saying that this is a slow machine... In fact, at under $1100 this isn't a bad Mac buy. But in comparison to newer Mac models this is a pretty slow machine. As a graphic designer, I wouldn't consider this machine for a professional environment. But for a personal computer it's a very good buy, especially if you're a Mac lover. Altogether, I think that everyone looking for a new consumer end computer and wants to break away from the monotony of the Windows world, should definitely consider this buy. It's great for the price, and to be quite honest, it's impossible to not love it for its looks alone. I've never said that I love my Windows computer, but I LOVE my Mac.