Apple Introduces New Quad-Core iMacs With Thunderbolt

The online Apple Store (s aapl) went down Tuesday morning, and when it came back, new iMacs came with it. As rumored, the latest revision to Apple’s all-in-one desktop computer brings second generation quad-core Sandy Bridge (s intc) processors, and the new Thunderbolt I/O port, along with a number of other enhancements.

The new iMac now offers the Intel Sandy Bridge series of Core i processors, which first made their way to Apple products in the MacBook Pro upgrades introduced in February. They offer better power efficiency, along with improved CPU performance and much better integrated graphics performance than the previous generation.

All iMacs are now quad-core, with 4 GB of RAM standard on each base configuration and built-in FaceTime HD cameras. Here are the detailed specs for each base configuration:

21.5-inch, 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5, 4 GB RAM, 500 GB 7200 RPM HD, AMD Radeon HD 6750M (s amd)
21.5-inch, 2.7 GHz Intel Core i5, 4 GB RAM, 1 TB 7200 RPM HD, AMD Radeon HD 6770M
27-inch, 2.7 GHz Intel Core i5, 4 GB RAM, 1 TB 7200 RPM HD, AMD Radeon HD 6770M
27-inch, 3.1 GHz Intel Core i5, 4 GB RAM, 1 TB 7200 RPM HD, AMD Radeon HD 6970M

The new iMacs also all boast Thunderbolt ports (which I mentioned Monday I think might be the biggest draw for these machines), including two on all 27-inch models, and an SDXC card slot, in addition to one FireWire 800 port, four USB ports, a slot-loading dual-layer SuperDrive, audio in/out ports and an Ethernet connector. Various upgrade options to the specs mentioned above are also available, including a bump up to a Core i7 processor for the top of the line 27-inch iMac.

All the new iMacs are currently available in Apple’s online store, with shipping times within 24 hours. Who’s planning on taking the plunge?