Giving Old iMac as a Gift - What Should I do to Secure It?

I have the original 17" iMac. I just bought a new 24" and want to give the 17" to a friend. I'm wondering what I should do to make the 17" secure - other than reformatting and reinstalling.
I have heard that all I have to do is create an account, give it the same privileges as I currently have (administrator) then log into the new account and delete the old administrator account. But I'm thinking all my information will still be on the hard drive.
Any suggestions would be appreciated. Any links to Apple Support Documents would also be appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

waterloo.bob, Welcome to the discussion area!
Have you ever had any personal information on the iMac that you do not want to be public?
If so, you will want to overwrite the drive with zeros and then reinstall from the iMac restore discs. See KB 107437 , Mac OS X: How to zero all data on a disk.

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