Dear Future Gamer,

I wonder if anyone out there in FG land thinks that Apple may have missed the boat slightly with the iMac. It's certainly the conclusion I've come to. Buy an iMac with 32Mb RAM and a 266MHz processor (which is faster than a conventional PC 266 processor I know, but not by much) or buy a PIII 450 or 500MHz with 128Mb RAM, for around the same price and with more space inside for an upgrade!

I think the best thing about my PC's tower case is the amount of space inside it. I can easily 'get my hands dirty' slapping new bits and bobs in, something I've been led to believe is very difficult with iMacs. And for all those people who say 'but I don't want to know what goes on inside it, as long as it works' I'd say:
a) The more you use it, the more you'll want to know (that's certainly happened to me).
b) Don't you think you should have an idea about what's going on inside your machine? Or do you call out the AA when your car gets a flat tyre?

Please don't get me wrong here, I'm not slagging off Apple but I can't help but think that the iMac doesn't really cut the mustard anymore (which is a bit poor considering the short period of time which it has been available for).

I hope this doesn't elicit too much hate mail from the Mac community, but hey...

Ben. C

FG: I think you've missed the point of the iMac. As far as I'm aware, the marketing for the machine focuses on the fact that it's an extremely easy-to-use, yet still powerful computer, designed not only to do the jobs a computer's expected to do but also to get people connected to the Internet quickly and easily. I've always, rightly or wrongly, considered the machine to be a kind of 'my first computer' but not for kids - if you get my drift. Any iMac owners want to defend the machine, or put me straight?