The specs on the education iMac model are knocked down significantly from the base consumer model. It ships with the same 17-in. screen, the same basic processor and motherboard configuration -- 1.6-GHz G5, 512KB backside cache and 533-MHz front-side bus -- and the same base amount of RAM, 256MB. But it also includes a significantly lower-powered video card (the Nvidia GeForce4 MX with 32MB of virtual RAM, as opposed to the Nvidia GeForce FX 5200 Ultra with 64MB) and a 40GB hard drive, half the standard 80GB hard drive. Even more noteworthy, it ships with no optical drive.

The price: $1,099, or $100 less than the base model sold to individual educational customers...