Apple's 24in iMac the Perfect HDTV PC?

Apple's new 24in iMac is the first consumer Mac, and the first all-in-one computer of any kind as far I can tell, to sport a display with a resolution of 1900 x 1200 pixels. The significance of this? Well, it means that it can display 1080i or 1080p HD without having to down sample it to fit on the screen. The 20in iMac had a native resolution of 1680 x 1050 pixels.

The new iMac, launched on 6 September, has a 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 1GB of 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM, a 250GB SATA hard drive, NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT graphics chip with 128MB of GDDR3 Ram and an 8x double-layer SuperDrive. Build to order options for the new iMac include a 2.33GHz Core 2 Duo, up to 3GB RAM, a 500 Sata hard drive and An NVIDIA 7600 GT with 256MB GDDR3 Ram.

Hook that up to an HDTV TV tuner such as Elgato's EyeTV Hybrid or Miglia's TV Mini HD and you have a phenomenal set-up for watching and recording HDTV. If you want to add an extra hard drive for storing all those HD recordings, you can hook it up using the 24in iMac's FireWire 800 port, maximising the data throughput.

The iMac also has a mini-DVI out port which can be used for desktop mirroring or spanning. So you could hook up an external display and use that for working, emailing and surfing the web while you use the iMac's gorgeous 24in display for watching HDTV.

The iMac also has an optical audio out port so you can connect it to your home theater and get the full surround sound effect.

At $1999, the 24in iMac isn't cheap, but if you've been looking for the ideal computer for an office home theater set-up, this could well be it.