Apple updates its iMac line • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#41

Post by altcognito » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 1:12 PM UTC

ceejayoz wrote: post #23

fiblye wrote: post #13

Bought my iMac 7 years ago with 8GB as the default memory option and a 1TB fusion drive. And here we are, nearly a decade later. Still 8 GB in the newest models. Still 1 TB fusion drives. GPUs haven't even seemed to take a jump over last year's models.

Plenty of folks use an iMac as the primary family machine - email, homework, some Netflix, kids' basic games. 8 GB is entirely sufficient for that. Hell, four probably is. If you're doing Photoshop plus a half dozen VMs, you buy it with more RAM.

Given the improvement in technology, you would expect a decreased price in that case.

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#42

Post by zachruss92 » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 1:12 PM UTC

My 2017 MacBook pro is definitely my last Apple laptop because it's just too expensive and unreliable (for reasons well discussed on HN). I have definitely considered getting a Mac Mini, but the new iMacs are definitely interesting. One thing I'd be concerned about is cooling. I know the iMac Pros are not ideal from a cooling perspective - I can't imagine an 8 core processor @ 5GHz plus a Radeon Pro GPU runs cool. I'll wait for the user-upgradable Mac Pro before I make a decision.

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#43

Post by nathanaldensr » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 1:13 PM UTC

tambourine_man wrote: post #24

Still selling brand new machines with 5400 rpm HDs. In 2019. It undermines the brand. Any Mac a customer buys should have good enough performance. 5400 spinning disk hasn’t been fast enough for a decade.

I have an ancient Dell Precision M6600 with a Core i7... and an ancient 5400 RPM hard drive. The machine is unusable. It's worse than nearly any other machine with an SSD--even one with a much weaker processor.

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#44

Post by SteveNuts » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 1:13 PM UTC

bluedino wrote: post #36

tambourine_man wrote: post #24

Still selling brand new machines with 5400 rpm HDs. In 2019. It undermines the brand. Any Mac a customer buys should have good enough performance. 5400 spinning disk hasn’t been fast enough for a decade.

With current SSD prices being at rock bottom, can a 128GB SSD cost more than a 5400RPM 2.5" drive?

It'll cost the same but your 5400RPM drive will have about 30x more storage.

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#45

Post by hocuspocus » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 1:13 PM UTC

dmitriid wrote: post #4

The price for upgrading remains as ridiculous as ever (especially if you're not in the US). RAM: 8 GB -> 16 GB is 2200 SEK (239 USD) 8 GB -> 32 GB is 6600 SEK (717 USD) You can get 32GB as low as 1689 SEK (183 USD) on Newegg.

I would never buy an iMac but from what I hear, storage options and their pricing are even more frustrating than RAM (which you can upgrade yourself on the iMac 5K). While a neat trick when it first came out, I don't think fusion drive makes sense in 2019, so you're left with very expensive NVMe SSDs, when a 500GB or 1TB SATA SSD would be plenty enough to most people, for a fraction of the cost.

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#46

Post by mmastrac » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 1:13 PM UTC

bluedino wrote: post #3

The CPU increases are welcome, but I was hoping for the rumored 6K displays. No space grey, no T2 chip, no Touchbar. Somehow they still sell the 1080 21" model for $1099.

Apologies, I'm confused - isn't this a pure iMac change? Are there MBP refreshes announced somewhere else?

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#47

Post by ceejayoz » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 1:14 PM UTC

altcognito wrote: post #41

ceejayoz wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plenty of folks use an iMac as the primary family machine - email, homework, some Netflix, kids' basic games. 8 GB is entirely sufficient for that. Hell, four probably is. If you're doing Photoshop plus a half dozen VMs, you buy it with more RAM.

Given the improvement in technology, you would expect a decreased price in that case.

Not if the cost savings went into other stuff, like the 4k/5k displays.

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#48

Post by CoolGuySteve » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 1:14 PM UTC

fiblye wrote: post #13

Bought my iMac 7 years ago with 8GB as the default memory option and a 1TB fusion drive. And here we are, nearly a decade later. Still 8 GB in the newest models. Still 1 TB fusion drives. GPUs haven't even seemed to take a jump over last year's models.

It’s very likely that the high DRAM prices from 2017 to now have been due to market collusion, similar to what happened in 2010.

Like your example shows, they’ve basically set the entire industry back years for a modest profit. It’s heinous.

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#49

Post by vbezhenar » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 1:14 PM UTC

coldtea wrote: post #31

vbezhenar wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those price have nothing in common with logic. 16 -> 32: +$400, 32 -> 64: +$400. They just put random prices based on marketing research, not on component cost.

Companies don't price products based on component costs.

With healthy competition product price is reduced almost to component cost. Not the case with Apple, sadly.

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#50

Post by lasagnaphil » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 1:14 PM UTC

jandrese wrote: post #14

The Vega 48 GPU seems disappointing for a machine that expensive.

Agree, I would want at least a Vega 64 for that amount of money (Or even a Radeon VII!). But then Apple has to think about cooling inside the small chassis, so they might not have a choice. (They managed to fix a Vega 64X in the iMac Pro, but the Pro lineup has different thermal management than the normal one)