At $399.95 for 1TB, we see that we are paying a $329.99 premium for a Thunderbolt equipped external enclosure with two 500GB 7200 RPM drives inside. 190 MB/s is fast, but if you are looking for super fast you are going to have buy more than one. Stacking drives on the Thunderbolt interface will actually increase transfer speeds, instead of becoming sluggish. 4 drives chained together can yield speeds as high as 800MB/s. Speed isn’t the only thing the Thunderbolt port has to offer however. The Thunderbolt tech allows you to have up to six devices chained together through a single port on the computer. The devices can mix and match between monitors and external drives.

The cable will set you back an even $49 from…. you guessed it.

If you bought yourself a nice new quad-core iMac and your looking to max out the RAM, you may notice that Apple charges almost as much as you paid for the machine itself. $1400 to be exact. 4GB sticks of DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) are not cheap, but I can tell you that you can find them for a bit less than the $350 a piece Apple charges.

1. [G.SKILL - F3-8500CL7S-4GBSQ] Running $249.99 a piece, these quality sticks are $150 cheaper then Apple’s stock selection. If you max out your iMac with these it will set you back an even grand, about $400 cheaper than Apple’s 16GB offering.
2. [Mushkin - Enhanced Essentials 996644] You can get a pair of 4GB sticks (8GB) from Mushkin for $489.99. That means if you wanted a full 16GB you could do it for about $980, $420 cheaper than Apple.
3. [RamJet -MBALX4G] At $235.99 a piece, these are the least expensive chips I was able to find. 16GBs can be yours for as little as $970.

Here is what popped up in the Apple-sphere during the month of March.

• Apple announces iPhone 3.0 Software (Beta Now avalaible)
• Google’s Chrome browser gets one step closer your Mac.
• Apple announces HD movies rentals for iTunes.
• Skype announces free VOIP app for iPhone.
• Sub $1K 17″ educational iMac looming.
• MacBook Mini in the works?

Here is whats in the works for April.

• Web Based Photo editor round-up.
• Unique Mac Apps
• Core i7 MacBook Pro?

Evidence of a 17″ iMac has been leaked by the Apple education site.
While only mentioned in the educational section at the moment, a sub $1,000 desktop isn’t a horrible idea for Apple to introduce to the masses. 17″ can leave a little to be desired when watching HD movies and playing games but I don’t believe this one is meant for that. I have a feeling this is going to be directly marketed towards educational facilities.

There is no word on when or if this will hit the official Apple Retail store.

Expect integrated graphics and a not so high-end CPU.

You can find the details over at the Apple education site. Apple.com/education

Mac Mini:

• 5 USB ports
• 1 Firewire 800 port
• 1 Mini DVI port
• 1 Display Port
• NVIDIA 9400GM
• Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.0GHz (Base Model)
• 1GB DDR3 Memory
• 120GB HD

iMac

• 1 20″ Model and 3 24″ Models
• Intel Core 2 Duo’s clocked @ speeds up to 3.06GHz
• 2GB DDR3 RAM standard on 20″ and 4GB Standard on 24″
• Display Port for video out.

Mac Pro:

• 8-Core model reaching 3.6GHz per core
• 16-Core Configurations reaching 4.0GHz per core
• Two Dual-Link DVI ports and one Display Port

All in all some very descent updates. Nice to see the Mac Mini finally getting some love. I’m sure the slowing economy renewed Apple’s interest in it’s lower end model.
While the Mac Pro is still just a dream to me, It’s nice to know they are staying on the ball.

Via MacRumors and OneMoreThing.nl

Which Apple computer truly offers you the most bang for your buck? We will break down and compare the cost and features to determine which one takes the cake. Every week we will go over a different Apple Model.

Today we start with the 20″ iMac. All aspects will be given a rating from 1 – 10. 1 being poor and 10 being excellent in value.

At $1499, It comes in at a very unique price point. It is a price that is attractive to both institution and individuals. Institutions love them because one computer is capable of replacing them all. The iMac is a computer that dad can work on and kid can play on.

The biggest aspect of the computer is the display. A 20″ TFT LCD with a resolution of 1680×1050 is relatively high end. Apple has always used incredibly high quality monitors on all of it’s computers. The new generation of iMac is no different. The display makes this iMac the beautiful thing it is. 9 out of 10

CPU. This computer is powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo clocked @2.66GHz. A price of $164.99 means the CPU isn’t really out of this world. However, 2.66GHz goes further on a mac, and soon, even further. I would expect better from the high end 20″ line though. 7 out of 10

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