Description
Quietly introduced without a press release, the iMac “Core i3” 3.1 21.5-Inch Aluminum (Late 2011/Education Only) — which only was available for sale originally to educational institutions — is powered by a Dual Core 3.1 GHz Intel “Core i3” I3-2100 (Sandy Bridge) processor with a dedicated 256k level 2 cache for each core and a 3 MB shared level 3 cache. In lieu of a system bus, it has a “Direct Media Interface” (DMI) that “connects between the processor and chipset” at 5 GT/s.
By default, it is configured with 2 GB of RAM (1333 MHz PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM), a 250 GB hard drive, a vertically-mounted slot-loading DVD±R DL “SuperDrive”, and AMD Radeon HD 6750M graphics with 256 MB of dedicated GDDR5 memory.
It also has a built-in “FaceTime HD” video camera and built-in stereo speakers underneath the 21.5″ glossy 16:9 LED-backlit TFT Active Matrix LCD (1920×1080 native) display “with IPS technology”.
Connectivity includes four USB 2.0 ports, a Firewire “800” port, built-in 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, Gigabit Ethernet, and an SDXC card slot as well as a single Mini DisplayPort. It does not support internal Bluetooth.
Externally, the “Late 2011” iMac uses the same “edge-to-edge” glass design and “seamless all aluminum enclosure” as the “Mid-2011” models. Internally, however, the education-only “Late 2011” iMac is equipped with a slower processor with half the number of cores, less standard RAM (and lower maximum RAM capacity), less VRAM, a smaller hard drive as well as no support for Thunderbolt or internal Bluetooth. It also shipped with a less capable Apple Mouse.
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