Apple iMac (27-inch/Core i7) All-in-One PC

Apple's new high-end 27-inch iMacs--released late 2009--are the first all-in-one PCs to use Intel's latest Core i5 and Core i7 processors. We can tell you it was worth the wait.

Here we look at the 27-inch iMac with the built-to-order 2.8GHz Core i7 option, tested using Boot Camp and 64-bit Windows 7. Though pricey, this $2200 system (as of December 8, 2009) turned out to be the fastest all-in-one PC we've tested to date.

Core i7 features a technology Intel calls Turbo Boost. If an application isn’t using every available core, the cores that are idle shut off, and the active cores speed up. According to Apple, this allows the processor to run up to 20 percent faster under heavy workloads; that translates to 3.46GHz in this iMac.

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